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A question for those who ceramic coat their cars…

DaveA

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A question for those who ceramic coat their cars…

I have a ceramic coating on my car and I am having an issue with bird droppings and fly platter etching into the surface…

Anybody else notice this with theirs…?

It seems worst on the plastic panels and does not seem to affect the metal panels. I assume it’s something to do with thermal expansion and how the heat interacts with the deposits…

I appreciate that ceramic coatings are not immune to such things, and the idea is it is the coating taking the battering not the paint lacquer… But, even so, it seems to em to be occurring a little too readily…

In the past, when I was waxing, I would just polish out the etching and re-wax, but with the coating, you cannot really do that without damaging the ceramic coating… The solution is to machine polish out and then re-coat with the ceramic…
 

moonstone

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I've had my last few done professionally. Always been Carpro Cquartz and I've remarked on how bird droppings tend to dry up and come off much more easily than when I used to just wax my cars. I've never had any issues with etching.

On one of my previous cars. I was talking to the detailer about how I seemed to have made a lot of swirls on the bonnet and he told me that it would be rare for that to be the paint and was most likely the coating layer that had been damaged. He recommended a product called Carpro Essence+ to repair it and it worked. This is not to be confused with their standard Essence product which is a more abrasive polish. Essence+ is designed to fix marks left in the coating itself.

Don't know if this might solve your own particular etching problem but might be worth a go: https://www.slimsdetailing.co.uk/collections/carpro/products/carpro-essence-plus-polish

You havent mentioned with ceramic coating is one yours but thinking theyre all SiO2 based so should be a problem with Essence+ interacting with it unless it's your coating is quite different.
 

DaveA

Boy Racer
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It's definitely the coating that is being damaged, not the underlying paint...

The coating on mine is Gtechniq Crystal Serum Light with Gtechniq EXOv4 Ultra Durable Hydrophobic Coating over… Professionally applied..

I'll pop a message over to CarPro and see if there is any reason not to use their product on the Gtechniq ones... Thanks for the heads up...

Having said that, I think the etching is enough to need an abrasive correction... the solution I am being offered would be to polish the affected parts and redcoat... I am just trying to understand why this is happening as I don't want things to be going this way every year..!!
 

moonstone

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It's definitely the coating that is being damaged, not the underlying paint...

The coating on mine is Gtechniq Crystal Serum Light with Gtechniq EXOv4 Ultra Durable Hydrophobic Coating over… Professionally applied..

I'll pop a message over to CarPro and see if there is any reason not to use their product on the Gtechniq ones... Thanks for the heads up...

Having said that, I think the etching is enough to need an abrasive correction... the solution I am being offered would be to polish the affected parts and redcoat... I am just trying to understand why this is happening as I don't want things to be going this way every year..!!

I use a fair number of GTechniq products and pretty much everything I have from them is excellent so it would seem strange that this isn't standing up. Having said that, that coating isn't a professional-only grade coating so if I'm clutching at reasons for it not being as durable, that could be a factor but who knows?

If you're contacting Carpro, might be an idea to drop GTechniq a line and see if they offer a similar type of product designed to work with their own range, just to cover both bases.
 

Senna11

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I applied crystal serum light and not had any issues with bird droppings affecting the coating.
 

Senna11

Racing Driver
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I've had my last few done professionally. Always been Carpro Cquartz and I've remarked on how bird droppings tend to dry up and come off much more easily than when I used to just wax my cars. I've never had any issues with etching.

On one of my previous cars. I was talking to the detailer about how I seemed to have made a lot of swirls on the bonnet and he told me that it would be rare for that to be the paint and was most likely the coating layer that had been damaged. He recommended a product called Carpro Essence+ to repair it and it worked. This is not to be confused with their standard Essence product which is a more abrasive polish. Essence+ is designed to fix marks left in the coating itself.

Don't know if this might solve your own particular etching problem but might be worth a go: https://www.slimsdetailing.co.uk/collections/carpro/products/carpro-essence-plus-polish

You havent mentioned with ceramic coating is one yours but thinking theyre all SiO2 based so should be a problem with Essence+ interacting with it unless it's your coating is quite different.
So you can use this to correct marks but do not need to recoat?
 

DaveA

Boy Racer
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BMW M135i xDrive
I use a fair number of GTechniq products and pretty much everything I have from them is excellent so it would seem strange that this isn't standing up. Having said that, that coating isn't a professional-only grade coating so if I'm clutching at reasons for it not being as durable, that could be a factor but who knows?

If you're contacting Carpro, might be an idea to drop GTechniq a line and see if they offer a similar type of product designed to work with their own range, just to cover both bases.

Aye, I was thinking just that... In fact, I am in a dialog with Gtechniq and, to be fair to them, they are covering this no-quibble under the warranty, and will have their locally accredited detailer do the work for them, so I am not complaining... I am more curious as to what to actually expect, than anything...

I've just been out to look at the car now and I am struggling to see the marks that I saw just the other day, but the light is now in a different direction... It seems to be something that shows up only under extremely harsh lighting conditions in a certain direction, where you see absolutely everything "imperfect"... So I think that whatever is happening is literally in the very, very top nano metres of the surface...

I don't think the coatings are immune to being marked by acid etching from bird droppings and insects etc, and I am certain the manufacturers would not make such claims... it's just these may show up differently with different paint colours/finishes and lighting... For instance, I cannot say that my white Golf did not have the same sorts of markings, but I never noticed them...
 

moonstone

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Aye, I was thinking just that... In fact, I am in a dialog with Gtechniq and, to be fair to them, they are covering this no-quibble under the warranty, and will have their locally accredited detailer do the work for them, so I am not complaining... I am more curious as to what to actually expect, than anything...

I've just been out to look at the car now and I am struggling to see the marks that I saw just the other day, but the light is now in a different direction... It seems to be something that shows up only under extremely harsh lighting conditions in a certain direction, where you see absolutely everything "imperfect"... So I think that whatever is happening is literally in the very, very top nano metres of the surface...

I don't think the coatings are immune to being marked by acid etching from bird droppings and insects etc, and I am certain the manufacturers would not make such claims... it's just these may show up differently with different paint colours/finishes and lighting... For instance, I cannot say that my white Golf did not have the same sorts of markings, but I never noticed them...

That is excellent service from GTechniq!
 

DaveA

Boy Racer
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That is excellent service from GTechniq!

I have been very impressed with my dealings with them throughout... At the end of the day, I am speculating as to why I am seeing what I am seeing, but I cannot complain at all about the way they are handling things and have honoured the warranty...

I guess the proof in the pudding will come if, once rectified, the "new" finish is equally afflicted... Having said that, I do not get the impression that they will walk away from that...
 

moonstone

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I have been very impressed with my dealings with them throughout... At the end of the day, I am speculating as to why I am seeing what I am seeing, but I cannot complain at all about the way they are handling things and have honoured the warranty...

I guess the proof in the pudding will come if, once rectified, the "new" finish is equally afflicted... Having said that, I do not get the impression that they will walk away from that...

It stands to reason that if the problem happens a second time, that they'll seek to explore what other mitigating factors are causing it, but at least their giving the benefit of the doubt this time round and just getting on with it, instead of making you jump through a bunch of hoops first. A few main dealers could take a leaf out of their customer service book!
 

DaveA

Boy Racer
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BMW M135i xDrive
It stands to reason that if the problem happens a second time, that they'll seek to explore what other mitigating factors are causing it, but at least their giving the benefit of the doubt this time round and just getting on with it, instead of making you jump through a bunch of hoops first. A few main dealers could take a leaf out of their customer service book!

Interestingly, they have even proposed re-finishing and re-coating the areas where I am noticing the problem with their "ultra" coating, rather than the "light" I had done, and that's really quite impressive when you think about it... I mean, yes, I went about raising the issues in a good way, so as not to create a confrontation.. But, even so, their response has been really very good indeed...

I do agree that there are many businesses that could learn from this experience on how to actually provide some customer service...

Anyway, it's booked in now for the end of the month...
 
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