coatings and sealants... so many options... looking for guidance

You're basically describing almost any quality car wax. I like Turtle Platinum liquid, it does pretty much everything you ask for and is a snap to apply. No polishing and it LASTS. Add a second coat and its bullet proof. Don't ever-think this, there's too many snake oil sellers out there telling you that you need this or that. All you need is a quality car polish.

 

Collinite 845. Going on 10 months on my Subaru and still beads up nice.

 

No car wax on the market can last 6 months. You'd need a polymer sealant or equivalent.

 

Being more expensive doesn't make it any better.
The Turtle Platinum liquid is formulated with flouropolymer resins. It lasts about a year for me. Vehicle garaged and washed about once a month. Like I said, if you want more protection you can apply double coats. Its amazingly easy to apply, no rubbing at all. Suit yourself, but it doesn't take expensive products or special effort to get what you're asking for.

 

Its a blend of polymers and Brazilian carnuba.

 

I used Duragloss sealants followed by Collinite 845. Great combination, very durable and highly affordable.

 

Check out Liquid Glass
Check Amazon for reviews. I got about 4-6 months coverage last winter then shine tapered off but protection remained.

 

I bought some Zaino brothers about a month ago and clay bar'd, put on a coat of z5, then z6, followed by z2, z6, and finally a coat of z8. Having a black prius helps but, the shine is outstanding. With Zaino, you will be wiping your car a number of times if you are starting with clay bar and putting on multiple coats however, the results are worth it in my opinion. The beading action is fantastic, the depth of shine has no limit, and the black actually looks darker and richer.
I would highly recommend it but note that there is one down side of Zaino. You will be washing and wiping your car dry more than you ever have before as a clean zaino'd car looks awesome.

 

I'm not familiar with it. LG makes very long life claims but does require reapplications as any of them will. LG Shield seems interesting but I'd wait for lots of others to try it on their cars before I do...I don't believe ANY product will last more than 6 months when exposed to weather. Besides after that long I usually have enough tar and stuff clinging to my paint that I need to give the finish a seasonal clay bar+ work over anyway.

 

Hi 2clicker,
I always being user of KLASSE products over 10 yrs, and only found out about Opti-Coat 2.0 about two yrs ago.
you can read my comments on this thread, Should I buy $50 Zymol car wax? | PriusChat

 

I posted this in a stickied thread over in the Gen II forum, where it would probably never be seen by Gen III owners. This details my experience with the new paint coatings compared to premium sealants and thought it might be useful to Gen III owners. Hope this type of reposting isn't frowned upon.

I'm not very active here any longer, but I just checked this thread and noticed that there hasn't been any mention of the new paint coatings that have become available within the last three or so years. I did a quick search for "opti-coat" and "Gtechniq" in this same forum for the Gen III Prius and there were a couple threads, but that was all.

Paint coatings for automotive paint application were introduced about three or four years ago. The first time I heard of them was when there were rumors of a new product from Optimum undergoing testing that would make paint sealants obsolete (Optimum happens to make a very good paint sealant, Opti-Seal). The early versions were somewhat tricky to apply, and didn't produce consistent results, but in the last three years, I'd say they've been perfected, and I now no longer apply sealants to my own cars. Previously, I had settled on a combination of Zaino Z-2/Z-5, with Optimum Opti-Seal to top it off between applications. Now two of my cars (including my Prius) have Gtechniq EXOv2 on them, and the third has 22PLE Pro on it.

The coatings are like sealant on steroids. You can expect about 4x the life of even the best sealants - two years is expected under normal conditions, and Optimum Opti-Guard (available only to pros) can essentially be considered permanent. The EXOv2 on my wife's Lexus is six months old, a point where Zaino would barely be showing any evidence of its presence. In contrast, the EXOv2 is still exhibiting hydrophobic properties (beading), gloss, and slickness I've never seen from a new application of any sealant I've used (and I've used many: products from Optimum, Zaino, Four Star, Klasse, Blackfire, Wolfgangs, Meguiar's and others I can't recall). It's amazing how the water beads (measured as the angle between the surface and the edge of the water droplet) and just slides right off. There are many videos on YouTube showing this property of paint coatings. Water slides off the paint so easily that there is almost nothing to dry after washing and rinsing your car (using the nozzle-less "sheeting" technique to rinse). It makes it really easy to dry your car by just draping your waffle-weave microfiber towel on the car, and drawing it lightly across the surface. This was true of drying a car that had a fresh coat of sealant on it, but the coatings take it to a whole new level. There is literally 10x less water on the car after rinsing compared to the same car if it had sealant on the paint, using the same rinsing technique. My drying towel doesn't even look like it's been used after I'm done.

The big drawback to the coatings for most is their price (well, that and the required prep work, but for me that is the same regardless of what's going on top). A single application uses about $35 worth of product, while the same car wouldn't even use $1 worth of Opti-Seal or Zaino per coat. IMHO they are well worth it though; with a sealant I'd be looking at a light decontamination and possible light paint correction before reapplying sealant now, while I've probably got a year or more to go before I need to consider that for the paint coating, all the while enjoying protection and appearance that far exceeds anything I ever got out of a sealant. I've also found that "topping" the coating with anything - instant detail spray or spray sealant - reduces their performance and worsens the appearance, so I don't put anything on the paint after I wash and dry. I keep the instant detail spray around to get off the occasional bug or fingerprint, but I've got an almost full bottle of Gtechniq C2 sealant that I will probably never use, at least not on my own cars.

If you can properly prepare your paint for a sealant - this means decontamination with clay or similar product (they have sponges and towels that do the same thing now), followed by machine polishing (I am partial to Menzerna polishes and have used them for ten years, although I have some Meguiar's M105 Ultra-Cut Compound for fast defect removal), you can apply a coating. While you may be able to apply a sealant or wax to a less than perfect finish, the coatings demand a near perfect surface. You're basically locking in the appearance for the next two years, so you want it to be as good as it can be.

Paint coatings are mentioned a lot in some of the forums I frequent, such as the Lexus and Tesla forums. I imagine this is because owners of those cars don't mind spending $500 or more (usually a lot more) to get their paint corrected and have a coating applied.

Here are a few coatings that have good reputations:

CarPro CQuartz Finest (only available to pros, non-pros can get regular CQuartz - I would love to get my hands on some CQuartz Finest)
Optimum Opti-Guard (only available to pros, non-pros can get Opti-Coat 2.0)
Gtechniq C1 and EXOv2 (EXOv2 is especially easy to apply, in any temperature, but not as long lasting as other coatings)
22PLE VX1 Pro

There is general agreement that Optimum Opti-Coat and Opti-Guard are the longest lasting, but that others have better hydrophobic properties, better gloss, and more slickness. Gtechniq EXOv2 is very forgiving in its application, so its a good choice for someone new to paint coatings. With other products you need to be careful to follow the directions exactly, and insure they are applied within the mfgrs recommended temperature (and sometimes humidity) range.

 

I Opti-Coated the Prius a while ago and it's by far the best vehicle paint product I've ever seen or used. I highly recommend it. ...after a thorough clay-barring of course.

 

Great write-up. Thank you for the inside info

 

Just to toss it out:

I've been using Meguiar's NXT Generation Tech Wax 2.0. Spring and Fall. It's about $25 a bottle (Can) on sale, $30 not on sale. Goes on-and-off easy, seems pretty durable. Smells nice.