Re-Coating my 2011 MKX with 2nd coat of CQuartz

[richy]

The job I had lined up for this weekend cancelled a few days ago so it finally gave me the chance I've been waiting for to work on my Lincoln. I've had a scratch that I filled in months ago and haven't had time to sand and polish. I also wanted to put another layer of CQ on it too. Boy, was that a struggle...more on that later.

Here's the filthy condition it was in:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And here's the filled in scratch:

 

 

 

 

Now every job requires the proper tools. This cannot be emphasized enough!! Here's my favourite tool for detailing:

 

 

 

Wheels/Wells/Tires:

 

The wheels were cleaned with Zep Citrus and a wash mitt in a bucket of 901 soap using a few different brushes. I was going to seal the wheels again too, so I had to make sure they were perfectly clean. The tires were pretty good as I had sprayed them with DP gel about a week ago and had even been driven through rain (obvious from the pics above). They were cleaned with OPC as I am out of Zep Purple right now. The wells were cleaned with Zep Citrus. The lower trim was also done at this first stage too with ZC and a long handled brush.

 

Wash/Decontamination:

 

After the wheels and lower trim was done, it was time to do the washing stage. Now I have played with all sorts of things on top of the CQ like ReLoad, Permanon, DG AW, FK425. I sure wanted to make sure I was down to bare CQ, so I gave it a very strong mix of DG 901/Dawn foaming followed up by a wash of the same mixture. Usually I end it there, but with the car still wet, I took a wet grout sponge and put some IX gel on it and went around the whole car again. That was power washed off. Interestingly enough, there was no purple on the ground following this. I honestly thought there would have been after 20 months of ownership. It was then brought inside and clayed with Elastofoam.

At this point, I was sure I was down to bare CQ. I had asked Avi about topping another layer on the Lincoln a few months ago, and he asked me to shoot a video of how it is holding up prior to re-coating it. Since I had just shot the one with the Lexus after a year with OG, I thought that was only fair. I know it's had a lot of stuff covering it, but I think the sheeting is still very impressive after that much time.

 

Here's the video:

 

YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. _detailpage&v=vvPPkQeWQwo

 

 

 

First order of business was going to be the scratch repair. I used one of my 3" Megs 3000 grit sanding discs on my GG 3" DA. I shot some ONR on the disc prior to use and had at it. I was surprised at how fast it knocked it down. I did not allow it to interact for very long (5-10 seconds) and it took 3 passes to make it completely disappear. I had lots of paint to work with and it did not remove very much doing the repair. Here are some shots of the sanding process:

 

 

 

 

 

 

That area was very quickly repaired with my Dyna and a black wool TB pad and M105 followed by M205 and my Megs DA and a white B/S pad. That area was wiped down with ERASER.

 

Now, it was time to re-apply CQ. I went down to my basement and retrieved a brand new bottle I had since last year. I opened it and it had hardened up. Useless. A $50 investment down the bloody drain. I expected it to last longer than that in a climate controlled, unopened state. Not a happy camper.

Luckily, I had a 2nd unopened bottle. Thankfully it had not hardened. However, using it was not fun. It was about 25°C or about 80°F in my garage at the time. (I had not bothered with the A/C as I didn't think I was going to be all that long on it). It went on as I remember (it's been a year since I've used CQ) and it looked like it did before. I applied it to the paint and wheels.

Then I went to remove it. The instructions said 10 minutes in that temperature. It had been about 30 minutes. I always remember CQ did better with longer dry time than shorter. I went to remove it and it was just gummy. I was having a very difficult time removing it. I was having to press WAY too hard to remove. I said F it and went to bed.

The next day it had been on there for about 12 hours. At this point it was marginally easier to remove, but not like before, and not by much. I kept changing mf's to make sure I was not going to scratch by having to use a lot of pressure. Once again, not a happy camper. Not pleased with CQ. At all.

 

After allowing it to have cured for more than 24 hours, I applied Permanon to the surface. BTW, for the glass, I was saving it for last, but abandoned CQ and used OG on the glass. Permanon was also applied to the wheels and blown off and wiped for good measure after.

 

The tires and wells were sprayed with my air gun and DP gel. The trim was once again treated to UTTG.

 

The chrome tips were done with Collinite metal wax on the inside and were cleaned with M205 and a mf and then sealed with OG on the outside.

 

The interior (no shots taken as I did it tonight) was vacuumed. The seats were cleaned where necessary with my AG interior pad and OPC. They were then treated to UIGP. That was followed up with a sample of a leather sealant sent to me by a fellow L2D member. He had also sent me some carpet/fabric sealant that I used on the carpeting too. It was allowed to dry with my overhead fan on.

[richy]

Here are the outside shots of the outside of the car:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Remember the scratch???

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for looking. Comments welcomed.

[JOEHIO]

Hey Richy,

Really looking good, and I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one that cleans the inside of the exhaust tips. I've gone totally anal, I waxed the exhaust pipes and muffler, my wife came out to the garage, saw me laying under the car, and thought that I had a heart attack or something. Scared the shit out of her, but the pipes and muffler are nice and clean.

You really did one hell of a job on your "X". Has it been treating you okay?, mine has been fine, and mpg's on the highway with cruise on (last weekend) gave me 25+ mpg's at 65 mph. Can't do much better than that. Must be because the thing is so slippery that it just glides through the air !

Joe

P.S. Nice reflection in the car, looks like you are going to ______________________ !

Edited August 4, 2012 by JOEHIO

[fishx65]

Richy, Is there a good reason to use CQ instead of Zaino Z2 or Duragloss 601/105? I seem to get about 4 to 6 months out of the Z2 which is plenty of time to make it through the winters here.

[richy]

Hey Richy,

Really looking good, and I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one that cleans the inside of the exhaust tips. I've gone totally anal, I waxed the exhaust pipes and muffler, my wife came out to the garage, saw me laying under the car, and thought that I had a heart attack or something. Scared the shit out of her, but the pipes and muffler are nice and clean.

You really did one hell of a job on your "X". Has it been treating you okay?, mine has been fine, and mpg's on the highway with cruise on (last weekend) gave me 25+ mpg's at 65 mph. Can't do much better than that. Must be because the thing is so slippery that it just glides through the air !

Joe

P.S. Nice reflection in the car, looks like you are going to ______________________ !

Thanks Joe! That's funny about my pose...you would definitely think that taking that position in the woods!! LOL.

My wife is so used to my extremism, she doesn't hardly bat an eye anymore. Plus I do that kind of stuff to hers as well so she appreciates the effort.

My mileage calculates in Canadian. I drive 99% city and average 12.0 L/100 km pretty much year 'round. I used to get slightly better mileage with my Infiniti, but I ran Amsoil synthetic in that. I got 3 free oil changes from my dealer and I've now used them all so I'll be changing it over to synthetic soon. Hopefully that'll squeeze out a little more!

 

Richy, Is there a good reason to use CQ instead of Zaino Z2 or Duragloss 601/105? I seem to get about 4 to 6 months out of the Z2 which is plenty of time to make it through the winters here.

Absolutely! You're talking to a guy who has tried the whole Zaino line. Several of their products are quite similar to Duragloss....so much so that there's always rumours on the forums that DG makes Zaino. I don't think so, but no question that they are similar.

I am also a HUGE DG fan! Their products are easy to use and very reasonably priced too.

Take a look at my webpage describing the differences between wax, sealant and the nano coatings or glass coatings like Opti Coat (or the pro version I use Opti Guard) and CQuartz. CQ is easier to use initially, this was the only time I ever had difficulties with it and I'm not sure whether it was the age of the product or the fact that it was a 2nd coat so long after. It went on super easy the first time.

Here's the page link that also shows the descriptions for each:

 

http://www.flawlessreflectionsautodetailing.com/nano-coatings.html

 

There is frankly a world of difference between DG and Zaino and the coatings. I have not done a job for anyone this year without doing a coating...they are that good! The OC is the best but harder to apply. They are permanent and add a measurable amount to the paint, which the others do not do and are not capable of doing. Hope that helps. The descriptions of each will make it clear for you.

[mv-clear]

Looks great, Any opinion on System X? Applied to to my 2011 Edge a few weeks ago, Very easy on/off however not sure on a comparison between CQ and OG/OC. I just cleaned and coated no correction, so it was just a couple of hours of time.

 

M.

[richy]

Looks great, Any opinion on System X? Applied to to my 2011 Edge a few weeks ago, Very easy on/off however not sure on a comparison between CQ and OG/OC. I just cleaned and coated no correction, so it was just a couple of hours of time.

 

M.

 

It's a great product too. I've used it twice: on my father's truck and on my brother in law's H3. So far, so good with each one. I did full write ups on both those jobs if you wanted to see them.

[mv-clear]

cool.. will check it out when I get a chance.