# 22PLE VX1 Pro Signature Glass Coat



## DesertDog (May 15, 2011)

As a comparison with the high-end concours carnuba waxes from ********** Wax that I've recently tested on the GT500, I've just tried one of the new silica dioxide based nano sealant products - 22PLE VX1 Pro Signature Glass Coat.










The test car was Mrs DD's MY2010 Volvo XC60 T6 in Passion Red with 49,000Km on the odo. The paintwork is in very good condition but to give a fair comparison against the wax, I decided to give it a full correction first.

-	Snow foam followed by hand wash with Fairly Liquid to remove the current LSP
-	De-tarred using mineral white spirit
-	Decontaminated using Iron X
-	Clayed using a Meg's aggressive clay. The clay was virtually clean after use.
-	Polished using a Flex 3401 VRG dual action polisher in conjunction with Meg's 205 on a CG green hexlogic pad.
-	Wiped down with a diluted IPA solution to remove any polish residue

I'd bought the 50ml size, hoping to get 2 applications on what is quite a large car.

The product comes well packaged and presented, although for something that costs £125 I would have expected at least an applicator and a couple of MF's thrown in.

VX1 Pro Signature Glass Coat is the top end sealant from 22PLE and is marketed as providing up to 18 months protection. I was particularly interested in it's scratch resistance (I use Weathershield covers from Covercraft on both cars) and it's UV resistance.

With the paintwork corrected and prepared, I began the application using a cotton wool make-up pad with a few drops of the liquid.










Ease of application:
Very easy to apply using the small pad over an area of around 60cm x 60cm at a time. You do need to have good light conditions since it is quite difficult to check your coverage and small, overlapping strokes should be used.

Cure time
The recommendation is to buff off the still wet product after 3-5 minutes before it starts to crystallize. However, it was 24deg here today and with higher temperatures accelerating the curing process I was buffing off almost immediately.

Ease of buffing
I used a basic throw-away MF cloth to do a first pass and remove most of the residue (there wasn't much), followed by a second pass with a plush MF very lightly sprayed with a dilute IPA. There was no streaking or smearing of the product at all.

Reflectivity / glassiness
Stunning! I've never seen a solid red colour show this intensity of glassiness and the mirror effect is amazing (5/5)

Richness / depth
As with most high reflectivity synthetic products, richness, wetness and gloss levels are reduced and VX1 Pro is exactly the same (3/5). Don't expect to be able to dip your hand into the paint after using this product.

Slickness / wetness
As above. Minimal slickness due to the extreme glassiness (3/5)

Flake Pop
Not applicable

Beading
Not yet confirmed.

Durability
Not yet confirmed.

Anti-static properties
Not yet confirmed.

Conclusion
After coating all external areas of the car (apart from the glass and wheels) with a single coat of the product, I'd used over 2/3 of the bottle and unlikely to get a second coat out of what's left. I was certainly not over-liberal with the application and the 2-3 coats per bottle as suggested by the marketing blurb seems to be very optimistic!

Considering that this single layer worked out at around £85, I am expecting a lot of very good results in terms of durability and scratch resistance!

Do I like the way it looks? I'm a wax lover due to the intense depth, gloss and wetness that a high quality wax imparts to solid colours, especially reds and blacks. VX1 Pro brings very little to the table in this respect on this colour of paint, but I can see some huge potential for bringing out Flake Pop on pearlescent and metallic paint types.


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## -Raven- (Aug 26, 2010)

That looks great DesertDog! It will be interesting to see if you do actually get any scratch resistance with the coating mate, I've found even Opti-Coat will swirl up. It should be nice and easy to keep clean now though!


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## Jdm boy (May 13, 2011)

Excellent write up/review  please keep us updated 

car looks great as well


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## majcas84 (Aug 24, 2012)

Great results. Thanks for an excellent write-up.

I'm really interested in this product as my next LSP, so I'll be keeping a keen eye on any updates.

I note the comments on slickness and wondered if you could define what this is? I imagine slickness to be how smooth the paint feels after application. Am I on the right track?


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## TopSport+ (Jul 22, 2012)

:thumb:looks perfect


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## Tomukas (Oct 21, 2008)

In your opinion which wax gives best look and wetness ?


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## sydtoosic (Oct 20, 2012)

she looks good. i have 2 coats on my car and the beading properties are amazing, the gloss is ridiculous, my car is obsidian so the gloss is x1000


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## DesertDog (May 15, 2011)

Tomukas said:


> In your opinion which wax gives best look and wetness ?


The look of a paint finish is very subjective - some people prefer the classic look of depth, richness and a wet look while others prefer a high gloss.

On a solid paint, my preference is for the classic look. If it's an amazingly reflective and glassy shine, this product could be the one for you.


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## DesertDog (May 15, 2011)

majcas84 said:


> I note the comments on slickness and wondered if you could define what this is? I imagine slickness to be how smooth the paint feels after application. Am I on the right track?


Just to clarify (and I've updated the thread), slickness IMO is another term for "wetness"

I don't doubt that the VX1 does produce a slick/wet finish, but due to the massive reflectivity it's not easy to see and to quantify.


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## Wax-IT.be (Feb 3, 2011)

22ple's curing time is not really influenced by the heat, baking it in using UV-lamps has no advantages. The curing is due to the moisture in the air. 

Of course, if it's that hot out there, there will always be some sort of different behavior.


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