The year is 2016, If you’re still waxing your car like they did back in the 50’s you’ve fallen behind the times. You might as well be talking on your car phone while you’re headed down to Blockbuster to pick out a copy of your favorite VHS to rent for the weekend. Car wax is dead. CQuarts is the most respected name in ceramic paint protection. CQuarts offers 2 levels of the ceramic nano coating; Classic, and Finest. Both coatings offer paint protection for over 2 years. With proper care and maintenance, the protection will last even longer. CQuarts Classic is the standard level protection, CQuarts Finest is harder, glossier, and more durable.
What is it?
The best way to describe the CQuartz Nano coating would be a clear coat on steroids. It adds 2-3µm of thickness to the paint and increases the hardness 2 levels on the Mohs scale (Think back to High School Science class). The end result is a protective shell like covering that increases gloss, enhances color depth, repels contaminants, and resists scratching, pitting, water spots and other damages. As you can see from our Instagram video below, the coating is Hydrophobic, water barely touches it as it rolls off. To the touch, C-Quartz treated paint feels hard and smooth like the gorilla glass on your cell phone, there’s no texture whatsoever.
Installation
You can buy ceramic paint protection kits, but don’t attempt to do the install yourself, you could end up with a serious mess on your hands. CQuartz finest should be installed by a certified installer, ours was installed by Chris Turner, Owner of A Buff and Beyond Automotive Solutions. Chris is one of only about 100 certified installers of the CQuarts Finest paint protection. The installation process actually takes about a week to complete. The first step is to thoroughly wash the car down and remove any surface dirt, dust and debris from the paint. Next Chris will polish every body panel to remove swirls, superficial scratches, hard water stains, and other superficial contaminants. After the first round of polishing, Chris will inspect the entire vehicle to make sure that all imperfections have been addressed. Once inspected, your car will get a second round of polish. At this point, the paint is shining even better than the day it rolled out of the factory. Once the second polish and inspection are complete, application of the nano coating begins. Your car will get 2 to 3 coats of the protective coating. Directly after the coating is applied is a very critical time, It takes 48 hrs for the coating to fully cure, during this time it cannot be exposed to water. Depending on ambient temperatures, it may require heating lamps to aid curing. Once cured, you should wait about a week before the first wash.
Maintenance
Special maintenance and care is not required with CQuartz paint protection, but chances are, if you went far enough to have it installed, you most likely care enough to go the extra mile and keep it looking it’s best as long as possible. Protect your build, do it right and go all the way. General rules for washing any vehicle, protected or not, Never wash your car in direct sunlight, drying water droplets will create water stains that are impossible to remove in un protected paint. Use the 2 bucket method and grit guards to prevent putting dirt back on the vehicle creating fine scratches. Use long smooth strokes when applying soap suds, do not use excessive hand pressure. Use “Reset” soap from CarPro when you wash. Clean your paint quarterly with Iron-X and Reload to make your protection last.
How well does it work
So far, we’ve had CQuartz finest installed for about 4 weeks, there is a noticable difference in how the paint looks, The grey has taken on a highly polished metallic gloss, and it repells dirt and road grime like a dream. We’ll be continuously evaluating this product, make sure you follow on Instagram and Facebook to see updates. Check out the photos and captions below:
