Graphine coating, "shadows"

[_JB]

I'm completely new to ceramic coating and have some questions. I applied Adam's Graphene Ceramic Coating and everything appeared to be going great. After I coated the car and took a closer look I noticed at certain angles, when the pearl paint turned into a darker shade, I could see almost every vertical pass I made with the suede applicator. After searching on here I took some Adam's Polish and gently rubbed it on the paint and it appeared to get rid of these streaks.

 

My questions are:

1. Is it normal for ceramic coatings passes to appear in certain light/angles?

2. Was it because I let the coating dry too long? I only had 60-90 seconds before the iridescent/rainbow effect was gone.

3. While applying the coating I did cross hatching motions and overlapped 1/4-1/2" each time. Was this not enough overlapping?

4. While cross hatching I would add more coating to the applicator pad. Is this the correct procedure?

5. Any other ideas how to prevent this from happening again? 

 

Attached are a few pictures with the UV light. The camera had a difficult time but hopefully this can help assess what I did wrong. 

[Dan@Adams]

13 hours ago, _JB said:

I'm completely new to ceramic coating and have some questions. I applied Adam's Graphene Ceramic Coating and everything appeared to be going great. After I coated the car and took a closer look I noticed at certain angles, when the pearl paint turned into a darker shade, I could see almost every vertical pass I made with the suede applicator. After searching on here I took some Adam's Polish and gently rubbed it on the paint and it appeared to get rid of these streaks.

 

My questions are:

1. Is it normal for ceramic coatings passes to appear in certain light/angles?

2. Was it because I let the coating dry too long? I only had 60-90 seconds before the iridescent/rainbow effect was gone.

3. While applying the coating I did cross hatching motions and overlapped 1/4-1/2" each time. Was this not enough overlapping?

4. While cross hatching I would add more coating to the applicator pad. Is this the correct procedure?

5. Any other ideas how to prevent this from happening again? 

 

Attached are a few pictures with the UV light. The camera had a difficult time but hopefully this can help assess what I did wrong. 

Hi JB, and welcome to the forum! I'll try to address all of your questions the best I can.

1. This can occur with our Graphene Ceramic Coating and UV Ceramic Paint Coating on darker colored vehicles from my experience; however I did have some of them on a red metallic Chevy SS I did a while back too (UV Paint Coating, not Graphene Ceramic Coating). The UV LED Light will make this much more visible shortly after application, but the lines usually show up if the coating was not wiped away thoroughly enough - usually they will show up in an overcast or cloudy sky and it will look perfect in the sunlight. Usually a few drops of white Polish or Brilliant Glaze will remove the shadows without too much struggle if you catch them within the first 12 hours or so after application. After 12 hours they might require more effort and/or machine polishing to correct.

2. Not necessarily. If the rainbow effect was dissipating after 60-90 seconds and the coating felt slightly tacky or had a small amount of tension when wiping with the towel, that is sufficient time to let it dry. Sometimes it takes 2-3 minutes in my garage, sometimes 60-90 seconds - it depends on temperature and humidity levels.

 

3. That is just about perfect with the overlapping to ensure even coverage. I do wipe the applicator in a nice slow movement with a slight bit of pressure since some of the coating absorbs into the applicator.
 

4. The lines to me seem more prevalent when I seem to apply the coating a little too thin in areas, so yes I do add a few more drops of coating to the applicator; however, the process that I do that seems to work best for me is as follows:

• I will put several drops of coating onto the applicator, then do an outline around the perimeter of a panel, without lifting the applicator from the surface. Oxygen makes the coating flash, so each time you lift and place the applicator down onto the surface, it will be heavier there (and this is where I will usually find high spots later). 
• Once I have the outline done, I will do horizontal back and forth across the panel, again without lifting the applicator from the surface. The perimeter edge of the coating serves as a "pool" to pick up extra coating into the applicator to make the horizontal lines nice and even, overlapping each line as you said.
• Once the horizontal passes are done, then I will add more drops of coating into the applicator and then do vertical passes on the panel in the same manner, without lifting the applicator from the surface as I move it up and down.
• If you split a door or hood into two sections to reach, I will do one section and then immediately do the other section before wiping off the first section. If I don't do this, I can then see a visible vertical overlap line where two sections met, once I wipe away both sections. So this can then show up as a faint high-spot line that I will have to take care of later.

5. To prevent it from happening again, I feel also comes into how the coating is wiped away. Once the rainbow begins to fade, I take a clean Suede Towel folded into fourths, and I lightly wipe/smear the coating all in same direction - either left/right or up/down. This towel will remove about 50% of the coating with this light wipe. Then I'll let the coating tack up again for another 30 seconds or so, and then take my Single Soft/Borderless Gray/Edgeless Utility Towel to remove the remainder of the coating. I wipe multiple passes and multiple directions with this second towel, to make sure all residue is removed and I have far less high-spots afterward using that process.

Also keep in mind that the UV LED Light shows EVERYTHING, and you don't want to chase having absolutely perfect coverage with the UV glow tracer. The UV glow will dissipate and look more even after a few hours. What I usually do is apply the coating, remove it, and then use the UV light afterward to do a spot inspection to see if I missed anywhere, otherwise you can spend double the amount of time trying to use the light while applying the coating.

Sorry for the lengthy post, but hopefully that helps out! Please let us know if you have any other questions

[_JB]

First and foremost, thank you Dan for taking the time to respond to my questions! I've been super busy but I read your comment Wednesday night and I appreciate the quick and detailed response! 

 

After reading your suggestions I used the remaining Graphene Ceramic Coating on a bright metallic green-yellow vehicle (known as Green With Envy or Mojito) and I am VERY glad I had the UV light! I couldn't tell where I was putting the coating. I had to work in a dimly lit garage and use the UV light the entire time. But I did as you suggested: break panels into smaller sections, do a perimeter, then lay down the coating. I added more coating to the applicator when I changed directions (horizontal vs vertical). As soon as I was done crosshatching I immediately started gently wiping the coating because it dried very quickly. Overall there are a few high spots but they are VERY difficult to find unless specifically looking at them, this green hides imperfections very well (even scratches).

 

So today I tried the first car again. I used a machine and recompound and polish to remove the old coating. But I did the same processes I did on the green vehicle and ddaannnnggggg did it come out good! I wish I would have broken up the doors into 1/3s as there are a few high spots but I can live with it. Again the Graphene Ceramic Coating cures almost immediately but I'm very happy with the overall results! 

 

Attached is a picture from today. You can see how evenly the coating appears on the quarter panel (I wasn't using the UV light while applying). For reference the door has zero ceramic coating on it. Next weekend is a white vehicle with heavy swirl marks, it will be fun and interesting to see how good everything comes out!

[falcaineer]

If the high spots are vsible under normal light vs. UV, they're relatively easy to fix. Let us know!