Did I get a bad batch of Adam's Graphene Coating?

[redreevos]

Did a full paint correction on my Jaguar XJ(black). Actually applied 3 stages of polish, as I was excited to lock it in for 7 years. Car looked beautiful. Waited until 2am, so the garage was a good temperature. I live in Las Vegas. Temperature was 86 degrees Fahrenheit, and humidity was 25 percent. Did a full wipe down of the paint with the prep bottle that came with the kit. I had approximately 10 lights pointed at the car for application. I applied the graphene coating with the suede "sponge," waited 40 seconds, wiped with the provided chamois, and then wiped with the provided white towel. The car looked pretty good under the lights. I was afraid I might be missing something, so I buffed and buffed each section before moving on.

 

At about 6am the sun came out. I pulled the car out, and there were high spots everywhere. I watched the Adam's video on how to fix high spots. I tried buffing with the towel.. I tried adding more coating and immediately wiping off. Nothing was working. Grabbed another premium towel to see if I could get it off with the coating. No luck. Out came the orbital again. So frustrated. I polished the drivers side again. Exhausted.. as it is about 9am at this point. 

 

Once I polished off the high spots, I took out the graphene coating again. Took out a new applicator, and applied the coating. This time I wiped it off immediately. Even with a brand new towel, I was getting high spots. I tried a 6" x 6" section and immediately wiped off. Still splotchy with high spots.  I give up. I have never had this miserable of an experience with any car product before.

 

Only thing I can think of, is that I got a bad batch.

 

So frustrated that I used so many good towels, stayed up all night, tried everything I could think of, and my car looks worse than before. I was excited to do 2 cars with this product and lock in the finish, but I don't even think this bottle will finish this car with all the re-dos.

 

If anyone can think of what to do, I am all ears.

 

Edit:

Just browsed the recent reviews. A review from September 7th seemed to be a person having a similar problem as me. I wish I realized after one panel.

 

might be great but didnt work for me

Matt on Sep 07, 2021

After doing a full detail to prep for this. I put it on 1 panel. Was waiting for it to flash (waiting for the rainbow to go away which said it would take a few minutes) After 10 minutes the rainbow was still there. Tried to wipe it away and it wouldnt move. I polished it off and tried again same thing even a few seconds after i applied it. Not sure if it was user error or the product was wonky but I had to end up bailing on the process and just went with a spray on wipe off version that has a much shorter life time.

Edited September 18, 2021 by redreevos

[The Guz]

I typically use a towel with a GSM rating of 300-350 when leveling coatings.  I don't use those suede type towels or super plush towels.  Try this and it should help with leveling.  Cycle your wipe off towels every few panels.  

 

Flash times are going to be dependent on temperature and humidity so you will have to figure out that out.  

Edited September 18, 2021 by The Guz

[Mantis]

This is exactly why I suggest a professional to do a actual coating. They have been trained in the art and they can fix high spots with ease.

Doing it yourself I suggest using the Spray level coatings. I find no issues with them and you get about a year out of them. Toppers really help keeping them going over time. It's what I do and I have no issues.

 

 Sorry your having these issues man, it's not as easy as a professional makes it look. 

[redreevos]

1 hour ago, The Guz said:

I typically use a towel with a GSM rating of 300-350 when leveling coatings.  I don't use those suede type towels or super plush towels.  Try this and it should help with leveling.  Cycle your wipe off towels every few panels.  

 

Flash times are going to be dependent on temperature and humidity so you will have to figure out that out.  

Yeah. Tried a towel in that rating, as well as several others. I tried different flash times as well. At first I tried 1min 30 sec. Then 2 min and 2:30. Both worse. So tried 1 min. Better.. But then settled on 40 seconds during install in the garage. In that lighting, all looked good. Its when I pulled the car outside in the daylight that all the issues could be seen. 

 

Then I tried all the different towels. Tried less time. Even immediate, was flashing right away. I think they messed up the solvent completely in this batch. 

[redreevos]

1 minute ago, Mantis said:

This is exactly why I suggest a professional to do a actual coating. They have been trained in the art and they can fix high spots with ease.

Doing it yourself I suggest using the Spray level coatings. I find no issues with them and you get about a year out of them. Toppers really help keeping them going over time. It's what I do and I have no issues.

 

 Sorry your having these issues man, it's not as easy as a professional makes it look. 

I hear what you are saying Mantis. 

 

But, I have been the person to detail all the cars in our family for the last 30 years. Not a pro, but I spend a lot of time researching and applying different products. I have never had an experience like this. I had the car absolutely pristine, bought their kit, followed all directions. 

 

Then used up a bunch of my premium towels, that are now trash. I just don't understand how the Adam's video for correction says you can just rub it off with a towel to level even after 1 hour. At 2 hours you can just apply some extra graphene coating and wipe it off. I couldn't get a fresh wipe in a 6"x 6" area to come off immediately with the towels... Applying more coating on top was also useless. Basically, what they said would take 4 hours in that video to need polishing was happening on my car, that had been sitting in the garage for days and cool to the touch, was happening in less than 5 seconds.

[Rich]

Black Equinox and a Vette, and since I have zero experience in going as far as a full Graphene coating and didn't want to screw it up, I went with the Spray Graphene Coating and been very pleased. Holds up real well, a lot better than I expected.  And I figure about the time it needs done again, something else new will pop up that's even better than a 3 year or 7 year graphene coating, and I won't be "stuck".  

[Chris@Adams]

I always wipe - level first with the Suede Micro Fiber towel then I wipe with a Utility Micro Fiber followed by a Single Soft Micro Fiber.

Doing this seems to cut way down on high spots. Make sure you pay attention to all panel gaps. If you do miss a area and have a high spot use a small amount  Ceramic Spray to go over the high spots. Hope this helps.

[Mantis]

13 hours ago, redreevos said:

I hear what you are saying Mantis. 

 

But, I have been the person to detail all the cars in our family for the last 30 years. Not a pro, but I spend a lot of time researching and applying different products. I have never had an experience like this. I had the car absolutely pristine, bought their kit, followed all directions. 

 

Then used up a bunch of my premium towels, that are now trash. I just don't understand how the Adam's video for correction says you can just rub it off with a towel to level even after 1 hour. At 2 hours you can just apply some extra graphene coating and wipe it off. I couldn't get a fresh wipe in a 6"x 6" area to come off immediately with the towels... Applying more coating on top was also useless. Basically, what they said would take 4 hours in that video to need polishing was happening on my car, that had been sitting in the garage for days and cool to the touch, was happening in less than 5 seconds.

 I was a Professional Detailer back in my College days. Prior to being a professional , I come from a family of car lovers. I already knew how to clean and hand wax a car properly. I leaned how to use a Wheel when I was a Lot guy prior to becoming a Detailer , so when I started , I already could run a Rotary Buffer.

 This was back in the late 80's early 90's. After I got hired as a Detailer, I was quickly moved up the chain and made manager then local manager which I was responsible to open new shops and hire a staff. We where in house sub contractors for dealerships.

 I had plenty of factory training from 3m , Maguires , C-Bud , Ardex and from a Body shop. I detailed freshly painted cars and wet sanded them from the body shop etc. We did new and used cars of all kinds.

 

 Anyway even with all those years of experience , I have never been properly trained on these coatings. They are a different level of difficulty as they are basically a form of glass coating. They have issues across the board from what I learned when they came out years ago and people are still having issues with them today.

 Professionals however who properly learn how to do them right , don't seem to have hardly any issues but run into the high spots as you did.

 

 So lets think about your issues. 1 your not a professional and have to been trained in the art of detailing as of todays standards. I don't agree with watching videos and then go applying that knowledge and think you can do it as good as the person in the video. I think practical experience and guidance in person on test panels is the way to avoid the issues you have having.

2 I think your paint prep also might be the issue. The Polish you used , some kind of 3 step you talked about also might be the issue. You may not have prepped properly and the coating is having issues bonding.

3 you might have used to much product. Front he video's it looks simple but even me with all my decades of experience detailing cars as a professional and a hobbyist many times apply to much product. From what I learned about these coating Ceramic and now Graphene , you need to manage your amount of product OR you will have issues.

 

 I honestly think you should stop fooling around with the coating and go get it fixed by a professional. I know you spent money on it and unless Adam's was willing to fly someone out to your house to fix it, I think this is the best way to get a proper coating on your car or cars.

 

 I know I said it already but I don't mess around with these coatings. I have messed around with most of the spray coatings on the market and even from many different brands have seen some smearing and messy results. One brand that is super popular right now I think sucks. I however have not had any issues with Adam's spray coating , detail sprays , toppers etc yet. My newest spray is the Graphene Detail spray. I want to move onto the Graphene spray coating to replace my current spray coating when it wears out. I use CS3 the last version before the Graphene and it's totally fantastic as a topper, waterless wash and touch up used like a detail spray. I love that product as it's my favorite Adams product. The Graphene detail spray is moving up that ladder quickly , it's stupid good and no smears at all.

 

 Don't take any of this offensively. As I said I have professional experience from the 90's and I don't mess with this coating. I'm afraid of them as my cars are way to important to experiment on them with something that is more permeant then wax sealant or spray ceramic coatings . I can remove them with a strip wash and polish, coating are way more durable.

 

 I hope you figure this out and get it to work on your own as I feel your gonna keep poking the bear. I probably would to if I had that much time invested But maybe actually reach out to Adams Tech support and maybe they can help you further if you haven't already.

 

Good man.

 

[Tim]

I didn’t find the graphene coating too difficult to work with. Not the new advanced coating, I haven’t tried that as I ordered a car for my wife in March and ordered the coating from Adam’s before the advanced came out.

 

I finally got the car and coated it the second week of August. It was upper 80s - lower 90s when it did it and in the Cleveland area in August, humidity was in the 80% range. (Yes, the conditions were just as miserable as it seems.)

 

I have daylight LED lights in my garage, so maybe that helped me see what to do better with the application. I used the suede towels to remove. I had only one high spot which I haven’t bothered to fix as it is on the B pillar and covered when the doors are closed.

I previously used the first Adam’s coating and the sprays (pre graphene) and the sprays are easier to use.

[RayS]

When my daughter got her Black Jaguar I never even considered using the full coating on it myself, but I did think about taking it to a professional that I know.  In the end, it spent three days in my garage and received the Ceramic Spray Coating.  I have plenty of 5k LED's and with the heat and humidity in South Carolina, it was early mornings and evenings to get it done.  Black is the most difficult color there is to get right - at least in my opinion - and even with using the spray coating, I ended up with a few high spots that were easily rectified.  

 

I also have a couple of test panels that I spend time with for any and every product that I'm considering putting on a vehicle.  I figure if I can't get the test panels to come out to a satisfactory level, then the product is not something that I'm going to put on a vehicle myself.  So far, I have yet to find a Adam's product that I could not get a satisfactory outcome. Some required more practice than other and experimenting at different temperatures and humidity levels has also helped me understand quantity and timing for the products. 

 

For the record, I do not use only Adam's products, but as they continue to expand their line, I am buying much less elsewhere because what they release works and works well with three other products.  This is one of the areas that I really appreciate about Adam's, they test their products for compatibility with their products.  I have no doubt the using Adam's Compound, Polish, Trim Prep, Surface Prep before putting any of Adam's toppers has been tested many times over.  The same goes for the maintenance products and their borderless grey towels are some of the best of I've ever found.

 

This isn't to say that I've never messed up a vehicle in my 35+ years of detailing, but I do everything I can to limit the chance of it happening.  I have also figured out where my skills fit in and where I'm better off having a trained professional doing something.  Some day I might be ready to do a full coating on a black vehicle, but that time has not arrived yet.

[Mantis]

I'm with yeah on that. Black is extremely hard to take care of. It's hard just to wax and get that right let alone a full ceramic coating. 

 I'm an x detailer and I won't mess with the coatings. I wasn't trained on it as they didn't exist when I detailed.

 

 I stick to Spray coatings and toppers and I get along just fine with our 3 vehicles. 2 sit outside and one is a garage queen. The 2 that sit outside do very well with the spray coatings and toppers. I don't see the need to risk it.

[The Guz]

On 9/18/2021 at 3:37 PM, Mantis said:

This is exactly why I suggest a professional to do a actual coating. They have been trained in the art and they can fix high spots with ease.

Doing it yourself I suggest using the Spray level coatings. I find no issues with them and you get about a year out of them. Toppers really help keeping them going over time. It's what I do and I have no issues.

 

 Sorry your having these issues man, it's not as easy as a professional makes it look. 

 

Professionals don't always get it right either.  I agree that a spray coating is much easier but a coating is not that hard to use.  I have been using coatings for about 15 years and the coatings of today are much easier to use.  What happens is newcomers to coatings go heavy on their application and this makes it difficult to wipe off the carrier solvents and push them around rather then getting them all off the surface.  

 

The understanding of the flash times is important.  Especially with the affects of temperature and humidity.  I for one would not be applying a coating in 86 degree weather regardless of the humidity.  Been there, done that and the experience always leads to trouble.  This is where professionals have the edge due to a controlled temperature environment.  

 

Lets not forget the amount of towels needed to get the job done.  Some thing two towels will be enough and this is not true.  Towels become loaded with product and will eventually not pick up anything.  

 

The other thing is lighting.  It is key to inspect and not with bright lighting.  Diffused lighting works best for seeing high spots.  Which leads me to people freaking themselves out about high spots that they end up not enjoying the process and leads them to have more high spots than anything.  I used to bein the same situation when I first started playing with coatings and since then it is the least of my worries because they are an easy fix.  

 

I have seen your posts and just because your experience was not good does not mean others will have the same experience. Don't take this personally just stating what I have noticed.  

 

I find the graphene ceramic coating to be so easy to use compared to other coatings I have used.  Like all coatings prep is key.    

 

20 hours ago, RayS said:

Black is the most difficult color there is to get right - at least in my opinion - and even with using the spray coating, I ended up with a few high spots that were easily rectified.  

 

Try coating white or silver paint.  By far harder than applying to black.  

[07stanggt]

Interesting to hear all the problems coating a car. PREP WORK, its all in the prep work and taking time to do it ! To much coating on the applicator will leave a high spot on the last stroke of your applicator, I go over it 3 times, once across, once up and down, one more time across again, smooths out all of the coating. Do small areas, slow down, no way to have high spots if you check your work before moving on to the next spot (2x2 at the most )-not panel-small areas at a time ! Use the UV light to see where you stopped, or missed. I find it very easy to use if you take your time. Bring your car to me and I'll do it for you !! LOL 

 

[Marcpitch30]

I relate with so many of the comments here. I coated my first vehicle a couple of weeks ago, with Advanced Graphene. At 80 degrees and 80% humidity it seemed to flash in less than 30 seconds. I was not ready for that quick of flashing, even though I knew temperature and humidity affected it. 

[SeeBeaux]

Hey OP. 

 

Having the same issue on two black cars and came across your now old post.

 

Wondering if you ever went to a different product with more success?

 

No matter what I do, I get streaks or high spots. It's like they're not even high spots but maybe it's  even the UV agent and how it looks on black paint? I've tried multiple times now and I gotta say, I don't think it's possible to get this coating right on a black car. At least not the hood. 

 

I'm gonna give up and look to other coatings. Maybe try something without the UV in it. That said, I think that the UV part does fade over time. I had a streaky appearance (visible only in cloudy daylight) on one car and it's been a few months and I think it's dissipated or disappeared completely.

[SeeBeaux]

On 9/21/2021 at 4:50 AM, 07stanggt said:

Interesting to hear all the problems coating a car. PREP WORK, its all in the prep work and taking time to do it ! To much coating on the applicator will leave a high spot on the last stroke of your applicator, I go over it 3 times, once across, once up and down, one more time across again, smooths out all of the coating. Do small areas, slow down, no way to have high spots if you check your work before moving on to the next spot (2x2 at the most )-not panel-small areas at a time ! Use the UV light to see where you stopped, or missed. I find it very easy to use if you take your time. Bring your car to me and I'll do it for you !! LOL 

 

Curious to know if your experience is also with a black car or with a different colour.

Edited October 2, 2023 by SeeBeaux

[falcaineer]

1 hour ago, SeeBeaux said:

Hey OP. 

 

Having the same issue on two black cars and came across your now old post.

 

Wondering if you ever went to a different product with more success?

 

No matter what I do, I get streaks or high spots. It's like they're not even high spots but maybe it's  even the UV agent and how it looks on black paint? I've tried multiple times now and I gotta say, I don't think it's possible to get this coating right on a black car. At least not the hood. 

 

I'm gonna give up and look to other coatings. Maybe try something without the UV in it. That said, I think that the UV part does fade over time. I had a streaky appearance (visible only in cloudy daylight) on one car and it's been a few months and I think it's dissipated or disappeared completely.

 

Which version are you using, and what are the environmental conditions? Hot and humid, or cooler? It's likely you're leaving it on too long prior to removal causing those high spots and streaks. Don't give up yet, it can be done!