SiO2 Ceramic Spray Sealant test on Acura TSX

[acuRAS82]

Update 11/23/2020 (3 months):

Lots of rain and weather changes happening. Below pic was taken after a day of heavy rain. The Cosmic and OC still look decent after a rain but they did slow done noticeably in the sheeting department after the last wash.

The back trunk products are still looking good. Sorry I forgot to snap a pic but still wanted to update.

 

[acuRAS82]

3 month (second update):

On 11/23 I decided to wash the car later, after the above update. Below pics are after washing with Reset and rinsing on ‘flat’ setting:

HOOD
Reference:

Rinse:

Again:

Top of the hood sheeting fairly slowly. Middle and bottom still sheeting decent but beads are less attractive. Seems like Cosmic might be performing a hair better than OC on this day (to my eyes).

1) Cosmic
2) Overcoat



TRUNK
Reference:

Rinse:

Again:

Trunk still beading and sheeting great. I give Griots 3-1 the edge (Cancoat doesn’t count), it may be benefitting from it’s adjacent pal Cancoat pushing water momentum it’s way but it either way it sheets a second faster and looks the cleanest after each spray. IGL and Drexler look equal.

I’ll try to remember to test these trunk sections individually next update.

1) Griots 3-1
T-2) IGL
T-2) Drexler

 

[acuRAS82]

Update 12/5/2020 (3.5 months):

After the below hose test after a wash, I decided to end the hood Cosmic/Overcoat Test. They are sheeting very slow and although they seem to still be present, I wanted to get new protection on there before things become frigid.

Hood:

I give the slight durability edge to Cosmic. There is water on the right side of these pictures, mid-hood that sheets the slowest on the Overcoat side.


The trunk products are still in good shape (minus DPC which I removed for Cancoat winter protection) and that test will continue. Here was the latest including sections:

Trunk:

IGL Premier:

Drexler:

Griots

Seems like Griots might be in a slight lead. Overall, they are all impressive and sheeting most water off within seconds.

 

[Coatings=crack]

Update 12/5/2020 (3.5 months):

After the below hose test after a wash, I decided to end the hood Cosmic/Overcoat Test. They are sheeting very slow and although they seem to still be present, I wanted to get new protection on there before things become frigid.

Hood:

I give the slight durability edge to Cosmic. There is water on the right side of these pictures, mid-hood that sheets the slowest on the Overcoat side.


The trunk products are still in good shape (minus DPC which I removed for Cancoat winter protection) and that test will continue. Here was the latest including sections:

Trunk:

IGL Premier:

Drexler:

Griots

Seems like Griots might be in a slight lead. Overall, they are all impressive and sheeting most water off within seconds.

I definitely think if value is included.... the Griots is best I’ve used. It’s hanging with premier... gotta say something.


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[acuRAS82]

Final Update 1/14/2020 (4.75 months):

Washed with Reset. The 3 remaining products on the trunk are ~85% degraded if I had to guess a number. That’s enough for me to move on from the test, especially given winter conditions that could abuse my poorly-protected paint.

Reference pic

Pics from post-wash

Flat spray setting on the hose:

Shower setting on hose, which causes water to lie on top and makes degraded protection show it’s worst water behavior:

Middle-right of the trunk is newer Cancoat and doesn’t count in this test.

If I’m picking the final water behavior at this time, after 4.75 months of summer/fall/early winter, I’m going with the following:

1) Griots 3-1 - sheeted the fastest with both spray settings. Probably 2-3 seconds faster than #2 below. Still looks decent beading after rain.

2) Drexler- sheeted the second fastest with both spray settings. Probably 1-2 seconds faster than #3 below. Still looks decent beading after rain.

3) IGL Premier- sheeted the slowest with both spray settings. Not much slower than the others, but 2 to 5 seconds and therefore noticeable. Still looks decent beading after rain.


Overall I’m impressed that these lasted close to 5 months on the trunk lid. They took the brunt of late summer heat, some mild fall weather and then some decent snows and saltines in the winter so far. Being the trunk, it probably takes the least salt spray of any horizontal surfaces... but given this paint doesn’t always hold LSPs very well, these three certainly performed well. I would have no problem recommending any of the three for an easy way to protect your car well for 3-4 months or longer in my SW PA climate.

Griots holding up the best at it’s price of $20 ($15 on sale for most of us) says a lot about the quality of this product over time. A very good value.

Thanks for reading!

 

[atbalfour]

Hi Acura - overall thoughts on IGL Premier?

Looking for something with similar performance to Cosmic and Overcoat with a bit more longevity (I don`t ask for much do I!?)

I`m also interested to hear how it compares in terms of slickness and real world resistance to salt... I`ve always thought that Overcoat and Cosmic fare very very poorly here.

Any advice is appreciated... I know Premier is well regarded on these forums - what has stopped me buying it to date is the doubt about whether it`s initial performance can match the likes of Cosmic and Overcoat, while I suspect it`ll be more durable.

We can pick up 500ml of it here in the UK for £32.00 which isn`t bad at all.

Thanks

 

[acuRAS82]

Hi Acura - overall thoughts on IGL Premier?

Looking for something with similar performance to Cosmic and Overcoat with a bit more longevity (I don`t ask for much do I!?)

I`m also interested to hear how it compares in terms of slickness and real world resistance to salt... I`ve always thought that Overcoat and Cosmic fare very very poorly here.

Any advice is appreciated... I know Premier is well regarded on these forums - what has stopped me buying it to date is the doubt about whether it`s initial performance can match the likes of Cosmic and Overcoat, while I suspect it`ll be more durable.

We can pick up 500ml of it here in the UK for £32.00 which isn`t bad at all.

Thanks

I like Premier a lot. Overcoat and the PAs might be my favorites, but Premier isn’t far behind. Initial performance is awesome. Then the drop off after a few months but then it still hangs in there longer than PA and OC from my experience. So initial greatness, longer longevity. For 32 euros I would happily go for it!

The only thing I’ll add is that after a year (or 6 months of being opened), the product in the bottle will lose longevity. Member glfnaz brought this to my attention and I used it well after the 6 month mark and into the 1 year mark last fall and through this winter. Initial beading was still very good. Looks were still lovely. But rather than lose high performance after 2.5 months, it was losing it after 3-6 weeks. So at that point I just started using it every 3-4 weeks until the bottle was gone. It’s not a big deal since it’s the easiest stuff to apply... but it’s still a drop off and the bottle should be used on all your family’s cars or however you want to make it be used up within a year. I personally think there won’t be much drop off after 6 months of sealed tightly and zip locked airtight.

I have two other unopened bottles that are approaching the 1 year mark that won’t be used soon. They are double-zip-locked and I’ll respond once I use them and check out longevity. But in my experience things can last much longer than advertised if stored well unopened. Once you use and let the air in is when nature does it’s thing out of your control.

Thread below has more info on initial performance for me and the shelf life issue.

https://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/product-reviews/127989-igl-premier-mini-review-thoughts.html

 

[atbalfour]

Thanks very much for the comprehensive information.. sorry I didn`t get a chance to reply earlier on. I think I might take a chance on Premier.. I`ve a few bits and pieces coming up that I could use it for, plus there are family cars in addition to my own so I`m sure my liberal application style will have the 500ml gone in record time and I won`t have to worry about the dodgy shelf life

 

[acuRAS82]

Thanks very much for the comprehensive information.. sorry I didn`t get a chance to reply earlier on. I think I might take a chance on Premier.. I`ve a few bits and pieces coming up that I could use it for, plus there are family cars in addition to my own so I`m sure my liberal application style will have the 500ml gone in record time and I won`t have to worry about the dodgy shelf life

No worries on response time... and I don’t think I explicitly stated it but at least one or two of my panel tests with Premier were after the 6 month mark (prior to 1 year though) and longevity seemed pretty on par with what I expected. So even if you’re a little after 6 months opened I wouldn’t start pouring it in on your lawn mower just yet. Just keep it in good storage and it should be good a few extra months.

 

[glfnaz]

After 6 months I was tossing it out. That bothered me. If you do a lot of cars in 6 moths, it`s a great product. I only do a few family cars. 22 PLE VS1 Final Coat is worth a try. Poor man`s KK OK

 

[William_Wallace]

Hi Acura - overall thoughts on IGL Premier?

Looking for something with similar performance to Cosmic and Overcoat with a bit more longevity (I don`t ask for much do I!?)

I`m also interested to hear how it compares in terms of slickness and real world resistance to salt... I`ve always thought that Overcoat and Cosmic fare very very poorly here.

Any advice is appreciated... I know Premier is well regarded on these forums - what has stopped me buying it to date is the doubt about whether it`s initial performance can match the likes of Cosmic and Overcoat, while I suspect it`ll be more durable.

We can pick up 500ml of it here in the UK for £32.00 which isn`t bad at all.

Thanks

I avoided IGL because of its high price $66 in US. I got it on sale about 10 months ago just about finished the bottle I won’t go with out it I find it has excellent durability and it keeps it hydrophobic characteristics longer than any other product in the topper category.

 

[atbalfour]

I avoided IGL because of its high price $66 in US. I got it on sale about 10 months ago just about finished the bottle I won’t go with out it I find it has excellent durability and it keeps it hydrophobic characteristics longer than any other product in the topper category.

Thank you! In terms of hydrophobics how close is it to Overcoat or PA?

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[acuRAS82]

After 6 months I was tossing it out. That bothered me. If you do a lot of cars in 6 moths, it`s a great product. I only do a few family cars. 22 PLE VS1 Final Coat is worth a try. Poor man`s KK OK

Any experience of loss of performance with VS1 after a long duration on the shelf?

 

[glfnaz]

No. The bottle I am currently using is 2.5 years old. I did 1/2 the car in KK OC and the other side with 22PLE VSI FC. At 8 weeks the 2 sides were beading exactly the same and I saw no difference. I took pics, but I don`t know how to load them here. If you want copies of the pics contact me through: brad greer 77 at gmail . com (remove all of the spaces and change `at` to @).

 

[Coatings=crack]

No. The bottle I am currently using is 2.5 years old. I did 1/2 the car in KK OC and the other side with 22PLE VSI FC. At 8 weeks the 2 sides were beading exactly the same and I saw no difference. I took pics, but I don`t know how to load them here. If you want copies of the pics contact me through: brad greer 77 at gmail . com (remove all of the spaces and change `at` to @).

Download Tapatalk app to your phone and access AG and Autopia forums through app. You can load pics from phone directly to the theead.


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[atbalfour]

Hi folks, must admit I am really enjoying using Premier, though it is early days.

- Application is very easy, more forgiving than Overcoat which can streak, but not quite as mindlessly easy as Cosmic.
- Hydrophobicity is as good as anything I`ve used, probably a notch ahead of fresh Overcoat and Cosmic. The slide angle is crazy... water disappears off my bonnet (hood) at under 15mph, where Cosmic would be closer to 30mph. Surprised with the number of beading fanatics on here, that more aren`t going wild for the stuff based on that alone!
- Doesn`t feel super slick, nor does it feel grabby. I`d say it`s similar to Overcoat in terms of `feel`.
- Gives a really pleasing sharp gloss and noticeable jetting effect on a silver test panel.
- I am 2 pH neutral washes in so very early days in terms of durability.

Thanks for the recommendation folks.. if it continues to perform at this level, I will be suitably impressed and can avoid being fleeced by KK and PA to achieve top results from that product category . It has got me thinking though.. I had also been testing another excellent and fun to use water-based siloxane topper called SiRamik SC Mist. Unlike Premier i`d say is a 7/10 for beading, but is a 9/10 for slickness, where the scores are reversed for Premier.. I am no chemist but with such similar compositions I am going to have a stab at mixing them to see if I can eek a little more beading out of SC Mist without compromising the extremely slick feel. I suspect there will be a trade off, but I won`t know if I don`t try... Genuinely do think that there is a direct trade off between many of these attributes we look for...

I have a month and a half more of testing on my car before I get around to it`s big detail and application of CarPro SiC... very excited about this one, from the reviews I`ve read it ticks nearly all the boxes for me... which is rare for a single layer (I`ll do 2 though) ceramic.

 

[noorth]

Anyone try Fireball`s new Pirouette yet?

 

[Coatings=crack]

Hi folks, must admit I am really enjoying using Premier, though it is early days.

- Application is very easy, more forgiving than Overcoat which can streak, but not quite as mindlessly easy as Cosmic.
- Hydrophobicity is as good as anything I`ve used, probably a notch ahead of fresh Overcoat and Cosmic. The slide angle is crazy... water disappears off my bonnet (hood) at under 15mph, where Cosmic would be closer to 30mph. Surprised with the number of beading fanatics on here, that more aren`t going wild for the stuff based on that alone!
- Doesn`t feel super slick, nor does it feel grabby. I`d say it`s similar to Overcoat in terms of `feel`.
- Gives a really pleasing sharp gloss and noticeable jetting effect on a silver test panel.
- I am 2 pH neutral washes in so very early days in terms of durability.

Thanks for the recommendation folks.. if it continues to perform at this level, I will be suitably impressed and can avoid being fleeced by KK and PA to achieve top results from that product category . It has got me thinking though.. I had also been testing another excellent and fun to use water-based siloxane topper called SiRamik SC Mist. Unlike Premier i`d say is a 7/10 for beading, but is a 9/10 for slickness, where the scores are reversed for Premier.. I am no chemist but with such similar compositions I am going to have a stab at mixing them to see if I can eek a little more beading out of SC Mist without compromising the extremely slick feel. I suspect there will be a trade off, but I won`t know if I don`t try... Genuinely do think that there is a direct trade off between many of these attributes we look for...

I have a month and a half more of testing on my car before I get around to it`s big detail and application of CarPro SiC... very excited about this one, from the reviews I`ve read it ticks nearly all the boxes for me... which is rare for a single layer (I`ll do 2 though) ceramic.

Only knock on Premier is shelf life. Although it mat last longer.... 12mo unopened and 6mo IICR....


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[William_Wallace]

@acura & coatings = crack & Galfz I must of missed your previous comments I did not know about the shelf life that is a big stinker. Thanks for the info.

 

[atbalfour]

Thankfully the 100ml bottle I have was fresh. I believe they provide those to authorised installers as part of their coating kits.. I`ll probably try to keep sourcing it the smaller bottle as the stuff is really impressive so far.

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