Vendor Tesla Model 3 | DIY Ceramic Coating

[sperkin]

Any idea will my polisher work?

It will work. Just too big to get to some spots but if the car is new you shouldn't have to worry about those small places since it should be free of scratches. This polisher uses terry cloth and I'm not sure if you can attach a form pad to it.

I have a Torq 10FX and it's one of the best thing I bought for the car. You should look into that along with compound and polish. Just using M205 may not take out all the scratches.

 

[km100]

I’ll be getting PPF on my car and forgoing the coating from the detailer. What’s the best method of cleaning up the PPF later on down the road to prep it for coating? I’ll probably just start out with the front bumper and hood.

Same here. I just got PPF and want to do ceramic coating myself. Paying 1K for just coating not having to do any paint correction seemed silly. Thanks in advance for helping.

 

[JoganJani]

Just do clay, polish over the PPF and all paint and then do IPA wipe down before you slap ceramic.

I did this;

1. wash with dawn to get all wax off what was applied by Tesla detailer
2. Mothers detail spray + clay
3. Wash and dry
4. M205 with Porter Cable 7424 Orbital polisher with Sonus Orange pad needed light cutting to get micro marring
5. Did homemade IPA wipe down (IPA 40% and Water 60%)
6. Then did CarPro Cquartz UK 3.0 two coats
7. After a week did Reload spray and wipe

Came out pretty good

 

[paulvinh]

I just finished coating my car this past weekend. Below are the steps and materials that I used. I got everything off Amazon. Basically, it'll cost you less than $200.00 and about 8 hours.

Steps and materials:

1. Hand wash (30 minutes)
-- car Wash (Mothers 05632 California Gold Car Wash - 32 oz.) 11.72
-- car wash mitts (Premium Car Wash Mitt - 2-Pack) 13.95
-- Towels (Zwipes Microfiber Cleaning Cloths (24-Pack)) 11.99

2. Use Claybar (1 hour)
-- ClayBar (Mothers 07240 California Gold Clay Bar System) 14.16

3. Polish Car (2-4 hours)
-- Polisher (Meguiar's M205 Mirror Glaze Ultra Finishing Polish - 8 oz.) 12.16
-- Buffer (Goplus Random Orbital Sander Variable Speed Polisher Electrical Dual-Action Polisher Grinder Buffer (5 inch)) 62.99
-- Buffer pads (Chemical Guys BUFX_102_HEX5 Hex-Logic Medium-Heavy Cutting Pad, Orange (5.5 Inch)) 7.99
-- Use flashligh to check for swirls

4. Clean car/paint surface (30 minutes)
-- Eraser Intense Oil & Polish Cleanser 16 oz. 14.99

5. Apply Carpro CQuartz (2 hours)
-- Carpro CQuartz UK 30 with Reload (CarPro CQuartz UK 30 ml Kit w/ Reload Model: CP-10CQK30K Car/Vehicle Accessories/Parts) 59.98

6. Apply Carpro Reload (30 minutes)

Good luck!

Bought everything listed here. How is everything holding up? Did you PPF?

 

[Dan_LA]

Bought everything listed here. How is everything holding up? Did you PPF?

Just selling the car, no i didn't do PPF, so far it seemed to work well. Didn't see much swirls on my deep blue metallic.. will be doing again now but just saw they don't sell the Ceramic bottle for end users.. only the Ceramic Lite, not sure what's the difference... but that's the only option and I will be using it to apply again now on my new Model 3

 

[Dan_LA]

Just selling the car, no i didn't do PPF, so far it seemed to work well. Didn't see much swirls on my deep blue metallic.. will be doing again now but just saw they don't sell the Ceramic bottle for end users.. only the Ceramic Lite, not sure what's the difference... but that's the only option and I will be using it to apply again now on my new Model 3

sorry that wasn't my post... odd... I did Feynlab nano coating.. not the one describer up there..

 

[dmd2005]

Put 3 coats of CQuartz UK 3.0 on top of my fresh XPEL PPF this past weekend in about 4 hours. Drove in the rain this week and all the water beads off nicely. I didn’t have to clay or decontaminate the car saving a full day of work, so I was able to plastidip and dechrome the mirrors and trim the same weekend.

 

[minsup23]

Put 3 coats of CQuartz UK 3.0 on top of my fresh XPEL PPF this past weekend in about 4 hours. Drove in the rain this week and all the water beads off nicely. I didn’t have to clay or decontaminate the car saving a full day of work, so I was able to plastidip and dechrome the mirrors and trim the same weekend.

I don't know much about detailing but I believe you do not do clay baring over PPF.

Chrome delete looks so good!

 

[paulvinh]

Put 3 coats of CQuartz UK 3.0 on top of my fresh XPEL PPF this past weekend in about 4 hours. Drove in the rain this week and all the water beads off nicely. I didn’t have to clay or decontaminate the car saving a full day of work, so I was able to plastidip and dechrome the mirrors and trim the same weekend.

Looks awesome! I am doing this diy next week.

How long did you wait inbetween coats? How long did you wait to wipe off? Did you just used any mf towel to remove/ wipe the cquartz after putting it on?

3 coats from the 50ml bottle?

Thanks

 

[paulvinh]

CarPro Cquartz UK 2.0_50 Milliliter Kit w/ Reload

Bought for $79. Willing to let go for $45.

 

[dmd2005]

Looks awesome! I am doing this diy next week.

How long did you wait inbetween coats? How long did you wait to wipe off? Did you just used any mf towel to remove/ wipe the cquartz after putting it on?

3 coats from the 50ml bottle?

Thanks

It took me about 1 hour to apply each coat and by the time I finished the first coat, I just continued with the 2nd coat applying to the car in the same order I started with. I waited about 20-30 seconds before wiping off the CQuartz.

Temps were above freezing at about 10 degrees C or 50 F, so the product wasn’t flashing quickly and hazing. I would wipe the applicator north-south and then east-west for even distribution of the product in a 2x2 feet area, wait a bit and then wipe off. The kit comes with a MF cloth and I just used that one cloth throughout since the CQuartz didn’t harden and become glassy on the MF.

You will know if you need to use another MF cloth when the product hardens and your cloth becomes stiff. I did use 3 of the applicator pads on the eraser...one for each coat.

Yes, I applied 3 coats with the 50ml bottle and you need very little CQuartz to make it go a long ways. I wasn’t feeling well with a cold so I had enough after a few hours and didn’t put on the reload. I’ll do a maintenance wash in the spring and apply the reload then.

It took me way longer to mask the car for plastidipping than applying the CQuartz.

And minsup23, yes I understand that you don’t claybar on top of PPF. I was stating that there was no need to clean my car since it was just freshly PPF’d, I could just quickly wipe off any dust and apply the CQuartz. XPEL PPF has self healing properties with heat from sunlight or applying hot water or a heatgun/hairdryer to the film.

 

[WaitingForY]

how good is the cQuartz over a product like Gtechniq crystal serum light?

 

[dmd2005]

The Gtechniq crystal serum light is a professional only application and it is a harder coating and if you screw up needs to be wet sanded off. Carpros CQuartz UK is a consumer product unlike the CQuartz Pro or CQuartz Finest which is only available to certified detailers. The professional products are suppose to last years vs maybe lasting 6 months to a year for consumer products. The gloss on the CQuartz UK is definitely less than my wife’s Model X with CQuartz Finest when freshly applied.

These consumer coatings don’t last as long as the GTechniq or CQuartz Pro/Finest coatings. I’m hoping the hydrophobic properties and shine last me through the winter and I’ll use Reload after a maintenance wash in spring. It rains like crazy on the wet coast and lots of brine and salted roads where I live, so I’ll be lucky to have my coating last 3-4 months.

 

[daver6640]

I was the first one to repond to this thread and I don’t think I ever posted my pics lol. There are so many threads and I did post there but this thread is what inspired me to take the DIY approach.

Gyeon Mohs Syncro $179
Griot's Garage Random Orbital Kit, 6' from Pep Boys
Meguire's M205 Polish
Mothers Clay Bar System from Amazon
Gyeon Prep

I had PPF installed on the front portion of the car. I did not do a paint correction on the front portion due to the PPF. I did do a paint correction on the other portions of the car. This made the process super easy. The Syncro comes with a small bottle “skin” which does not come with the cheaper Gyeon Mohs kit. This makes the ceramic coating super slick.

Huge benefit is that washing the car is easy. Water just beads off. I thought the process as worth it.

 

[paulvinh]

I was the first one to repond to this thread and I don’t think I ever posted my pics lol. There are so many threads and I did post there but this thread is what inspired me to take the DIY approach.

Gyeon Mohs Syncro $179
Griot's Garage Random Orbital Kit, 6' from Pep Boys
Meguire's M205 Polish
Mothers Clay Bar System from Amazon
Gyeon Prep

I had PPF installed on the front portion of the car. I did not do a paint correction on the front portion due to the PPF. I did do a paint correction on the other portions of the car. This made the process super easy. The Syncro comes with a small bottle “skin” which does not come with the cheaper Gyeon Mohs kit. This makes the ceramic coating super slick.

Huge benefit is that washing the car is easy. Water just beads off. I thought the process as worth it.


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Did you coat your windows, windsheile, rear glass too?

 

[paulvinh]

Would I be able to break down the steps in two days? Claybar then wait 12 hours in garage to start the ceramic coat.

Day 1:
Wash
Claybar

Parked in garage

Day 2:
Paint correct / polish
Prep
Cquartz Layer 1
Cquartz Layer 2

 

[Kirby64]

Would I be able to break down the steps in two days? Claybar then wait 12 hours in garage to start the ceramic coat.

Day 1:
Wash
Claybar

Parked in garage

Day 2:
Paint correct / polish
Prep
Cquartz Layer 1
Cquartz Layer 2

Nothing stopping you from doing this over multiple days, you just have to remember to look over the car once again quickly if you leave it sitting for 12hr... I'd assume you'll still end up with a bit of garage dust for leaving it sitting for 12hrs unless your garage is super clean.

 

[daver6640]

Did you coat your windows, windsheile, rear glass too?

No not that. Just the paint. Hence the super easy job. I am lucky the roof is glass lol.

 

[paulvinh]

Nothing stopping you from doing this over multiple days, you just have to remember to look over the car once again quickly if you leave it sitting for 12hr... I'd assume you'll still end up with a bit of garage dust for leaving it sitting for 12hrs unless your garage is super clean.

Yeah that’s what I am thinking. Do not want to risk claybarring work and getting garage dust to do it all over again. I guess I’ll have to do it all in one day!

 

[dmd2005]

You can do it on multiple days. Just get some compressed air and blow off any dust from sitting over night. Just park in your garage and you will be fine applying the coating the next day.

Washing, decontaminating, and polishing properly will take a full day. It’s best if you save some elbow grease for the next day.

Pick up a nice polisher like a Flex, Porter Cable or Milwaukee with a quality set of pads.

I have a cordless Milwaukee since I like the freedom of not running a cord over my shoulder. A nice polisher and pads will save alot of time.