BudgetPlan1
Active member
Unfortunately it`s that time of year here in NE Ohio...clean up the fun stuff and put it away until next Spring.
Washed her C7 and the Cayman one last time, then into the garage, hook up the battery tenders and take a break from it all for a few months.
Looking back on keeping her car clean, maintained and looking good this Summer, I`ve really come to quite enjoy the benefits of PPF. This was our first PPF`d car so it`s taken me 2 seasons (albeit only 6500 miles) to become comfortable with its abilities to keep the car protected from not only rock chips and other impact-related incidents but also from the onslaught of my daily use; bird bombs, road grime, environmental contamination, mosquito-fogger trucks, clouds of sodium bicarb, wet leaves, tree sap mist...it did very well with it all, never failing to clean up with minimal effort. It was always kinda ‘wait and see’ as I felt the film might be more porous and prone to staining than a coating (even buried under a PPF-specific coating and maintenance products) but this proved to be an unfounded concern.
I drove this car more than usual this year, a chance to subject it some `rougher` stuff than it normally sees as wife`s Summer daily driver. She has a 5 minute, local-roads-only commute to work whereas my journey to work involves 4 freeways, multiple construction zones, lotsa traffic and far more gruel than local roads can offer; one of my daily commutes likely equals about 2 weeks of hers. I knew I had `mentally arrived` with PPF when it became the preferred vehicle for some longer day trips specifically because it had the protection of PPF going for it.
Since it turned out to be a Polish Angel-centric Summer, her car was primarily maintained with Polish Angel High Gloss Spritz after washing and that was about it the majority of the time. There was a brief foray into PA Black Wulfenite early in the season but for the most part, the HG Spritz did a great job. A burgeoning addiction to PA Glasscoat Shampoo began towards the end of the Summer and will likely continue next season. To me, it leaves a bit of that `Polish Angel` look and luster post-wash, to the point that I would skip the HG Spritz application after some washes. Cleaning up the Cayman, the setting sun had a nice effect on the post-Glasscoat Shampoo final rinse; I’m sure the neighbors have a somewhat puzzled look if they watch me ‘simulate’ rain by spraying the hose (w/ the nozzle set on ‘Rain’) straight up in the air so it falls nicely on the car…and myself and anything in the near vicinity for that matter.
The one unsettling thing about the Glasscoat Shampoo is that I just can`t put my finger on the scent; it`s pleasant, somehow familiar but I just cant place it. Functionally irrelevant but still that minor aspect taunts me each time I use it.
I also started using PA Bellaclean for the interior dash on the Corvette; some other leather-friendly stuff I have tried always left the dash a bit splotchy in certain lighting, notably the somewhat expansive area on the passenger side above the glovebox. Worked well on the seats too where I usually use Sonax Leather Foam.
Gyeon Tire kept the did great on the Vette with minimal effort (applied maybe 3 times this Summer) and PA SuperSport kept the coated chrome Z51 wheels sparkling.
A few new things, a few old favorites but all-in-all, a nice, easy Season keeping her black Vette looking nice and the Cayman was fun and easy to deal with w/ the base coatings from 2019 (Miyabi + Zipang) and the PA High Gloss Paste Wax + Spritz. The metallic gray paint coupled with the body style (no really large flat back end to accumulate residual dirt) made this a real maintenance pleasure this year; even after daily driving in rain some weeks, it never really ‘demanded’ a wash like a black car w/ a big flat butt (I’m looking at you, C7 Corvette)
The overall advantages of PPF and my comfort with its abilities and characteristics gained through the experiences with her car make it a no-brainer for use on the Cayman. I put about 9k miles on the Cayman this Summer and to a somewhat OCD-ish person like me, the usage took a bit of a toll on it. Barring any unforeseen calamities, it’s heading out this Winter to get the front half resprayed and full PPF application. For the way we use our cars, it really makes a difference and in some ways, easier to maintain than a coated car that may tempt you to throw a lot of stuff at it, be it for fun or function.
A few of the chips inflicted on the Cayman during regular use this Summer:
Perhaps next year we`ll give the color-charged Cosmic a go in conjunction w the Glasscoat Shampoo on the PPF`d cars; sounds simple enough for an inherently lazy guy like me.
For the next few months, access to the snowblower supersedes access to the Corvette:
Have 4 new vans at work coming in soon, gotta pick some new coatings to try. Wanna give the new Quartz SiC a go and also wanna use ISM 2.0 on one because it’s one of those PITA coatings to apply; used on my daily driver and it went reasonably well until I started to think I was ‘smarter than the instructions’ when doing the hood…oops! Hopefully the Cquartz SiC is compatible with Essence as I’d like to use that again too, it was enjoyable.
Washed her C7 and the Cayman one last time, then into the garage, hook up the battery tenders and take a break from it all for a few months.
Looking back on keeping her car clean, maintained and looking good this Summer, I`ve really come to quite enjoy the benefits of PPF. This was our first PPF`d car so it`s taken me 2 seasons (albeit only 6500 miles) to become comfortable with its abilities to keep the car protected from not only rock chips and other impact-related incidents but also from the onslaught of my daily use; bird bombs, road grime, environmental contamination, mosquito-fogger trucks, clouds of sodium bicarb, wet leaves, tree sap mist...it did very well with it all, never failing to clean up with minimal effort. It was always kinda ‘wait and see’ as I felt the film might be more porous and prone to staining than a coating (even buried under a PPF-specific coating and maintenance products) but this proved to be an unfounded concern.
I drove this car more than usual this year, a chance to subject it some `rougher` stuff than it normally sees as wife`s Summer daily driver. She has a 5 minute, local-roads-only commute to work whereas my journey to work involves 4 freeways, multiple construction zones, lotsa traffic and far more gruel than local roads can offer; one of my daily commutes likely equals about 2 weeks of hers. I knew I had `mentally arrived` with PPF when it became the preferred vehicle for some longer day trips specifically because it had the protection of PPF going for it.
Since it turned out to be a Polish Angel-centric Summer, her car was primarily maintained with Polish Angel High Gloss Spritz after washing and that was about it the majority of the time. There was a brief foray into PA Black Wulfenite early in the season but for the most part, the HG Spritz did a great job. A burgeoning addiction to PA Glasscoat Shampoo began towards the end of the Summer and will likely continue next season. To me, it leaves a bit of that `Polish Angel` look and luster post-wash, to the point that I would skip the HG Spritz application after some washes. Cleaning up the Cayman, the setting sun had a nice effect on the post-Glasscoat Shampoo final rinse; I’m sure the neighbors have a somewhat puzzled look if they watch me ‘simulate’ rain by spraying the hose (w/ the nozzle set on ‘Rain’) straight up in the air so it falls nicely on the car…and myself and anything in the near vicinity for that matter.
The one unsettling thing about the Glasscoat Shampoo is that I just can`t put my finger on the scent; it`s pleasant, somehow familiar but I just cant place it. Functionally irrelevant but still that minor aspect taunts me each time I use it.
I also started using PA Bellaclean for the interior dash on the Corvette; some other leather-friendly stuff I have tried always left the dash a bit splotchy in certain lighting, notably the somewhat expansive area on the passenger side above the glovebox. Worked well on the seats too where I usually use Sonax Leather Foam.
Gyeon Tire kept the did great on the Vette with minimal effort (applied maybe 3 times this Summer) and PA SuperSport kept the coated chrome Z51 wheels sparkling.
A few new things, a few old favorites but all-in-all, a nice, easy Season keeping her black Vette looking nice and the Cayman was fun and easy to deal with w/ the base coatings from 2019 (Miyabi + Zipang) and the PA High Gloss Paste Wax + Spritz. The metallic gray paint coupled with the body style (no really large flat back end to accumulate residual dirt) made this a real maintenance pleasure this year; even after daily driving in rain some weeks, it never really ‘demanded’ a wash like a black car w/ a big flat butt (I’m looking at you, C7 Corvette)
The overall advantages of PPF and my comfort with its abilities and characteristics gained through the experiences with her car make it a no-brainer for use on the Cayman. I put about 9k miles on the Cayman this Summer and to a somewhat OCD-ish person like me, the usage took a bit of a toll on it. Barring any unforeseen calamities, it’s heading out this Winter to get the front half resprayed and full PPF application. For the way we use our cars, it really makes a difference and in some ways, easier to maintain than a coated car that may tempt you to throw a lot of stuff at it, be it for fun or function.
A few of the chips inflicted on the Cayman during regular use this Summer:
Perhaps next year we`ll give the color-charged Cosmic a go in conjunction w the Glasscoat Shampoo on the PPF`d cars; sounds simple enough for an inherently lazy guy like me.
For the next few months, access to the snowblower supersedes access to the Corvette:
Have 4 new vans at work coming in soon, gotta pick some new coatings to try. Wanna give the new Quartz SiC a go and also wanna use ISM 2.0 on one because it’s one of those PITA coatings to apply; used on my daily driver and it went reasonably well until I started to think I was ‘smarter than the instructions’ when doing the hood…oops! Hopefully the Cquartz SiC is compatible with Essence as I’d like to use that again too, it was enjoyable.
I probably won`t see any clean, shiny paint in my World for a few months aside from in the garage. No water flying off of hoods in the rain, no sun reflecting off of clean paint 
