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Finally put ceramic on the car. Some lessons learned.

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Car looks great and I commend you! I don't have near the energy you do, so I had professionals do it for me: PPF wrap + CQuartz Finest Reserve ceramic coating. The ceramic guy had my car for 4 days, but it looked awesome when he finished! I'm planning to use RELOAD every few months to keep it up.
 
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I used the same product on my white M3 and, like you said, it's almost impossible to see the product flashing/curing once it's on the white paint. I think I may have wiped it off too fast, due to this, because my coverage has never seemed that great.
That's how I felt too but on the video I linked that compares the 3 products, it sounds like we applied it as it should have been done. 3.0 requires basically no cure time.
 
OP, your car looks great!

Last time I used Cquartz UK on a black car.. just say I had some trouble with the lighting and I missed a few spots on the hood. Next day in the sun, it looks smear marks all over it. Now applying it to a white car, I'm sure it will even more difficult to see. But if you don't see it, maybe you don't need to worry about it. The protection is still there :)
 
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You're all talking like the UK is some kind of frozen wasteland in need of shiny cars :) As a Brit now living in Texas, but with a decent amount of experience of west coast weather, there's not a massive difference in summer temperatures. Obviously this week has been a bit extreme, and I appreciate California swapping weather with Texas for the week (it's been lovely!), but generally in the summer the UK is wetter, and less sunny, but still in the 80's. Just dress in layers. And pack a brolly. You never know.
 
You're all talking like the UK is some kind of frozen wasteland in need of shiny cars :) As a Brit now living in Texas, but with a decent amount of experience of west coast weather, there's not a massive difference in summer temperatures. Obviously this week has been a bit extreme, and I appreciate California swapping weather with Texas for the week (it's been lovely!), but generally in the summer the UK is wetter, and less sunny, but still in the 80's. Just dress in layers. And pack a brolly. You never know.

:D appreciate the perspective
 
I finally DIY ceramic coated my car since the weather was nice. It sure is slick and shiny now. The large bottle of CarPro CQuartz (50ml) did 2 coats on the car and a car on the wheels.

I have PPF on the front and did not need to polish that area but it still took forever :p

I would have used a more aggressive polish because at night with fluorescent lights I can still see some micro swirls, but you can't see them in the daylight. I was aware this might be an issue but decided to just double polish and go for it anyways. This is my daily driver not a show car, but a more aggressive polish would have done a bit better. I used this polish:
https://www.amazon.com/Meguiars-Mir...swirl+remover&qid=1560188393&s=gateway&sr=8-3

I would have gone for this one next time (It was sold out at wallmart which is the local place that carries these:
https://www.amazon.com/Meguiars-Mir...guires+polish&qid=1560188499&s=gateway&sr=8-1

My Process was:

1) Iron-X (applied to slighly dirty car (washed it one week ago, youtube tips say this helps it to stick and not run).
2) Foam cannon and wash, and rinse and dry.
3) Claybar
4) I did an ONR detail spray mixture wipe down instead of another wash.
5) used a random orbital to polish the car. (most time consuming part)
6) foam, wash, dry.
7) Carpro Eraser Wipe down.
8) One coat of ceramic, I hope I did this right. I would work a small area but it was hard to see it flashing on white paint. So I was sure to wipe it off before it dried.
9) Next morning I put on another coat of ceramic, and also applied the left overs to the wheels.
10) Next morning I put on the bottle of reloaded.

View attachment 417774
Great method. The only part I would skip is the washing after the polish. Use isopropyl alcohol and water mix or just the eraser pro and your good. All your looking for is to remove polish residue and by washing a drying you could be re introducing swirls that you just removed. Everything else is just as I would have done and way more than most people I see on this forum doing. I have read so many posts where people buy a coating on without proper prep. What a waste.
 
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5) used a random orbital to polish the car. (most time consuming part)
View attachment 417774

Hey, man! Nice job on the car. It looks beautiful.

I've had a hell of a time polishing my blue Model 3. There are some swirl marks in the hood, and I've been trying to get them out, but every time I attempt it, it looks no different afterwards. My buffer (Griot's Garage 6" Random Orbital - Griot's Garage) is up to speed 5 and I'm using Meguiars G18016 Safe Rubbing Compound 16 Oz. as my compound.
I'm starting to think that I need to try a different compound, as this stuff is less expensive than the other products people seem to be using.

Did you have any particular difficulty in getting swirls out?
I don't want to mess up the paint, so higher speeds and rougher compounds make me nervous.
 
Did you have any particular difficulty in getting swirls out?
I don't want to mess up the paint, so higher speeds and rougher compounds make me nervous.

For swirls on my Red Tesla, I use Griot's Correcting Cream with their Orange pad. 4 cross hatch patterns seems to get a majority of it out. I always start with the less abrasive (Griot's Perfecting Cream and yellow pad) in a small test corner and if that doesn't do anything, I go to the next level. There have been a few occasions where I had to use a microfiber pad with Griot's Fast Correcting Cream. What kind of pad are you using? I would say you might have get something a little more abrasive. I like using Griot's BOSS system because it tells/matches you with the right pad and compound.