# Carpro CQuartz Lite - Entry level coating



## GeeWhizRS (Nov 1, 2019)

I wanted to dip my toe into ceramic coatings but was a little hesitant (in case I made a mess of it) so went for CarPro Lite and just wanted to share the experience. Plus it allowed me to muck about with a video as I was bored today cause rain stopped play. I'd recently polished the car and it has basically not moved since so I though now was as good a time as any to put a coating on it. The actual application was a breeze and went on fast.
With hindsight, I'm kinda wondering if this sort of 6 month coating should even be given anywhere near the sort of respect with regard to pre-polishing that a regular 3 year coating should. I mean, with a 3 year product, the state of your paintwork is (for want of a better phrase) locked under the coating for that time, so if you have swirls before, you have swirls throughout the coating life. So I'm kind of seeing this 6 month coating as not much more than a decent detailer or wax and as such, when the next application is due, I don't think I'll be thinking 'I must polish the car before I apply it'. Time will tell how it lasts... but that leads me onto a question that I will pose in a separate thread. 
Hope you enjoy the video; it's the wash, rinse, dry, a bit of polishing, application and topper. Oh, and as it rained today, some beading! Basically about 2 hours condensed into 4 mins.


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## Alan W (May 11, 2006)

Great video Gee and I told you a ceramic was nothing to be scared of - you made it look like child’s play. :thumb:

With regard to polishing before applying a lite coating well that’s up to you. If your car has even the slightest marring, from washing or whatever, I say remove it or you might regret seeing it for the next 6 months! :lol:

So why did you polish the bonnet and front bumper then, eh? 

Alan W


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## nikosstef (Apr 20, 2020)

Maintain your car and you will be surprised from this "detailer". I had it applied on BMW 5-Series 6 months ago and it's behavier is like a day one. I can see durability extend to 1 year easily, maybe more. The only maintenance I did is one wash per week and I used Gyeon WetCoat only once. No detailers and no toppers.


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## GeeWhizRS (Nov 1, 2019)

Alan W said:


> So why did you polish the bonnet and front bumper then, eh?


Cause it might last longer than 6 months! 😂
I'm sure the neighbours were rolling their eyes at me putting the camera on top of the car in the rain earlier. My missus walked off shaking her head. They just don't understand. 😲


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## Alan W (May 11, 2006)

GeeWhizRS said:


> I'm sure the neighbours were rolling their eyes at me putting the camera on top of the car in the rain earlier. My missus walked off shaking her head. They just don't understand. 😲


I saw some passers by in the video stop and stare as well. 

OCD, not us! :lol:

Alan W


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## v_r_s (Nov 4, 2018)

Looks great!!

More.importantly my OCD and detailing eye instantly seen your perfect size shadded area.. did you buy the house specifically or the car specifically to fit it 😂.. in all seriousness tho deffo jealous I get zero shade on my drive


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## GeeWhizRS (Nov 1, 2019)

Haha, no we bought the house more for the rear garden pointing the right way for sun; the bonus is that the front is shaded for when the sun is shining. Mine being black must dry twice as fast as the wife's orange car, it really does soak up the heat.


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## atbalfour (Aug 11, 2019)

Nice video. I haven't ventured into traditional ceramics due to fiddly application and my lack of garage but you made this look easy.

I'd agree with your opening post, 6 months is not a lot of reward for the effort put in, especially if you're polishing and prepping religiously beforehand - which I've always been told lead to better durability. You'd get that from some cheaper sealants, Cancoat in a 15 minute application or even some durable waxes.


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## roscopervis (Aug 22, 2006)

I think you'll find in normal conditions that this will last much longer than 6 months. I even think 12 months might be a little conservative. It has quite a high Si02 conent, much more than the competing products like Cancoat and TAC Systems Moonlight so I think it will last a good bit longer than those.


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## nicks16v (Jan 7, 2009)

Great vid, I am also in the same boat and umming and ahhing about jumping in. One question I have asked myself is that alot of them need to be maintained by toppers. So can I ask what would the ceramic bring with a topper over just the topper itself ? Sorry if its a stupid question.


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## GeeWhizRS (Nov 1, 2019)

Thanks Nick. My understanding (I do stand to be corrected here), and the reason I went for this product, is that the ceramic coating allows for a little more of a hardwearing surface. So it should be a bit less likely to have washing induced marring. If I've got this wrong, then I too have no idea what the point is. 😂


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## Sparkycasual (Feb 4, 2006)

Great video thank-you.
Apologies if I digress too much but I have now got cquartz lite on 3 cars and am extremely please in each case.
2 cars are maintained with Carpro Elixir after each wash which gives a beautifully slick surface, and maintains or even improves the very good water behaviour.
My own car, which is a daily driver doing around 12K per year has had it on since early September of last year, so around 8 months. I did think the performance was dropping off and set about a decon in February to apply something different. However, the decon (thorough wash, de-tar & iron remover) improved the water behaviour and looks to day 1 standard. I now maintain it with Kamikaze overcoat after reading the recommendations on here and that gives immense water behaviour.
I can't explain why, but both Kamikaze Overcoat and Carpro Elixir perform much better over the Cquartz lite than they do on bare paint, which is why I will continue to use the Cquartz lite as a base. For me it gives a great compromise between longevity, whilst still allowing me to do something different after 6 months or so if I wished. Something that I would be reluctant to do with a 2-3 year coating.
Regarding the "toppers". Waxmode covered this in a great video he did recently on Meguiars ceramic detailer, and how he also sees better performance on top of a coating rather than the topper as a standalone.


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## atbalfour (Aug 11, 2019)

GeeWhizRS said:


> Thanks Nick. My understanding (I do stand to be corrected here), and the reason I went for this product, is that the ceramic coating allows for a little more of a hardwearing surface. So it should be a bit less likely to have washing induced marring. If I've got this wrong, then I too have no idea what the point is.


This ^. You're effectively adding a very small amount of depth which is supposed to be harder than the underlying clearcoat - particularly on some cars, and any wash enduced marring is to the coating, not the clearcoat. Scratches are scratches though.

That's what I was sold and why I went for the coating, plus I've found my car (particularly the piano black pillars) to resist marring much better. Yes I use safe methods but the car is nearly a year on and paintwork is in pretty much the same condition.

Toppers are very easily eroded by heavy chemical contamination/tar on roads, and similarly by the chemicals used to decontaminate. Coatings will withstand this over a long period of time unlike the majority of other LSPs. There are hybrids, turtle wax, wowos crystal sealant seem remarkably resistant too but unlikely to be for as long as a good coating.


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## atbalfour (Aug 11, 2019)

Sparkycasual said:


> Great video thank-you.
> 
> Apologies if I digress too much but I have now got cquartz lite on 3 cars and am extremely please in each case.
> 
> ...


Totally agree 

My ceramic coating toppers are just OK on their own. You can definitely see the bumped up water behaviour lasting for longer when applied over a ceramic product.

Products like BSD on the other hand I've found wear off much easier than they do standalone. I'd imagine it's all down to compatibility and bonding.


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## Sparkycasual (Feb 4, 2006)

Thanks Atbalfour.
Further to your other threads and recommendations, I have purchased PA Cosmic Spritz to try that as a topper over Cquartz lite, and have now also purchased the PA Primer Spritz to enable me to try it as a standalone, all be it "Primed".
Unfortunately, all of our cars are white, so I see little difference in looks between products and instead concentrate on ease of application, longevity and above all water beading, which I have become somewhat obsessed with!


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## nicks16v (Jan 7, 2009)

I understand a bit better now, thanks. What are people using as toppers for this to give the best slickness ? I read Cosmic Spritz and Kamikaze Overcoat. I assume that it is easier to apply and more forgiving than CQuartz UK for an amateur?


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## atbalfour (Aug 11, 2019)

Sparkycasual said:


> Thanks Atbalfour.
> Further to your other threads and recommendations, I have purchased PA Cosmic Spritz to try that as a topper over Cquartz lite, and have now also purchased the PA Primer Spritz to enable me to try it as a standalone, all be it "Primed".
> Unfortunately, all of our cars are white, so I see little difference in looks between products and instead concentrate on ease of application, longevity and above all water beading, which I have become somewhat obsessed with!


My apologies to your wallet... I hope you enjoy them as much as I do. Certainly in a league of their own when it comes to that fun factor as I saw another forum member put it.



> What are people using as toppers for this to give the best slickness ? I read Cosmic Spritz and Kamikaze Overcoat. I assume that it is easier to apply and more forgiving than CQuartz UK for an amateur?


I have to be honest they seem pretty slick to me but it isn't one of the attributes I look for personally, prefer not to touch my paint if I can at all avoid it. Others will be able to jump in with super slick products, know Beadmaker is one often referred to but it's by no means as 'complete' as the other products.


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## GeeWhizRS (Nov 1, 2019)

If you're looking for slickness and haven't tried Bouncers Done & Dusted SI I would recommend you give that a go. It's a touch behind something like BSD for beading but for gloss and slickness it'll take some beating I reckon. If you want tighter beads, add BSD first, then top off with D&D; that's a great combo. I haven't tried that many sealants but these work well together. These detailers/sealants are cheap as chips per application.


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## roscopervis (Aug 22, 2006)

One question, or point really - what is the baseline performance of the CQuartz Lite and how does it look when cured?


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## GeeWhizRS (Nov 1, 2019)

Can you explain what you mean by 'baseline performance'?


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## The Guz (Jan 27, 2019)

Cquartz Lite is a great product. It’s true claim is longer than 6+ months. It’s actually 1.5 year. A little insider info on it. 

One thing to keep in mind is that there are factors to consider when it comes to durability. Either way enjoy it.


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## roscopervis (Aug 22, 2006)

GeeWhizRS said:


> Can you explain what you mean by 'baseline performance'?


How the product performs by itself and how it looks, once cured, after a fresh application.


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## GeeWhizRS (Nov 1, 2019)

The instructions recommend adding a topper after an hour. So, it looks shiny after you buff it off, but I don’t think that’s the point. It appears to be a durable coating which they want you to top off.


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## roscopervis (Aug 22, 2006)

I understood that they recommend the use of Reload after an hour if the car is to get wet in the first 48 hours. I didn't think they specify that a topper should be or must be used, same with CQUK 3.0; it's a one stage coating with the chemical resistance and hydrophobic package all in one.


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## atbalfour (Aug 11, 2019)

roscopervis said:


> I understood that they recommend the use of Reload after an hour if the car is to get wet in the first 48 hours. I didn't think they specify that a topper should be or must be used, same with CQUK 3.0; it's a one stage coating with the chemical resistance and hydrophobic package all in one.


I was reading earlier and they suggest Reload to protect against water spots in the first 48 hours. They also say it isn't essential


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## GeeWhizRS (Nov 1, 2019)

Yep. As rain was forecast, it got topped.


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## roscopervis (Aug 22, 2006)

GeeWhizRS said:


> Yep. As rain was forecast, it got topped.


Fair enough. My 'concern' is that as you have the product(s) on the car over time, how will you know what is CQuartz Lite behaviour and what is D&D Si behaviour in terms of self cleaning, water behaviour, slickness and gloss etc?

I know D&D Si is a great product, and I don't know the answer to this, but would the use of it as the topper have affected the coating, given that it had not cured and D&D Si is not part of the same company and chemical line?


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## GeeWhizRS (Nov 1, 2019)

roscopervis said:


> Fair enough. My 'concern' is that as you have the product(s) on the car over time, how will you know what is CQuartz Lite behaviour and what is D&D Si behaviour in terms of self cleaning, water behaviour, slickness and gloss etc?


I refer you to the other thread I started regarding this. I have no interest in the hydrophobic properties or slickness of this ceramic coating. I can attaint those attributes easily with toppers. What I cannot achieve with toppers is a degree of marring resistance that should come with a ceramic coating. That was my aim in applying this.


roscopervis said:


> I know D&D Si is a great product, and I don't know the answer to this, but would the use of it as the topper have affected the coating, given that it had not cured and D&D Si is not part of the same company and chemical line?


I refuse to believe the ceramic coating will know the difference with what topper is applied; these will all be similar products, but I suppose time will tell. I will continue to apply my toppers and wash my car as normal. The only way I can tell if the coating is doing it's job is if I don't see swirls appearing over the coming months.
Pic from this evening off the CCTV camera.


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## sm81 (May 14, 2011)

Have anyone yet ordered it with in new glass bottles?


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## cptzippy (Apr 4, 2012)

My Lite was still going strong at 18 months when I put Can Coat over it a couple of weeks ago. garaged and not driven every day but I’m not sure what environment would only last six months.

ETA: I also didn’t use toppers intentionally because I wanted to see what the durability would be like. Have some Elixir I will use as a drying aid on the other car I just out UK 3.0 on.


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## sm81 (May 14, 2011)

cptzippy said:


> My Lite was still going strong at 18 months when I put Can Coat over it a couple of weeks ago. garaged and not driven every day but I’m not sure what environment would only last six months.


How many miles you drove?


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## cptzippy (Apr 4, 2012)

sm81 said:


> How many miles you drove?


Not many. We’re retired so though it’s our main ride it doesn’t get driven every day. Don’t know how many in the last months but we bought it new as a 2014 and it has a shade under 45,000 miles.


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## sm81 (May 14, 2011)

cptzippy said:


> Not many. We’re retired so though it’s our main ride it doesn’t get driven every day. Don’t know how many in the last months but we bought it new as a 2014 and it has a shade under 45,000 miles.


I mean during that 18 months time period?


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## cptzippy (Apr 4, 2012)

sm81 said:


> I mean during that 18 months time period?


I don’t know for sure. Maybe 2,000 miles but that’s a WAG. Low miles and kept in a climate controlled garage is the best case scenario for any LSP.


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## The Guz (Jan 27, 2019)

sm81 said:


> Have anyone yet ordered it with in new glass bottles?


CarPro went back to the plastic bottles due to the glass bottles being damaged during shipping.


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