Ceramic Coating My Paint

[FuzzyWuzHe]

Since my new to me Tri has Xpel clear stuff on the rear fenders, gap between rear fenders and body, as well as, the side covers, do I coat that too? Sorry if I missed someone talking about that already.

[ultrafxr]

Since my new to me Tri has Xpel clear stuff on the rear fenders, gap between rear fenders and body, as well as, the side covers, do I coat that too? Sorry if I missed someone talking about that already.

Yes you can. I specifically asked this of Nick with Mckee's 37 and he said it was OK.

[FuzzyWuzHe]

Yes you can. I specifically asked this of Nick with Mckee's 37 and he said it was OK.

Kewl ... I was trying to figure out how to avoid it ... LOL.

[DK Custom Products]

It rained all morning, then this afternoon it was cloudy, with the sun peeking out now and then. I got the Sporty out and took a few photo's...

All photo's below are untouched...straight out of the camera, only cropped them.



...will get more next sunny day I'm riding.

Also got the TG out and took a few photo's-



Grabbed a few stills out of a video while pouring water on it-





Amazing how water reacts to the ceramic coating.



It just flows right off, the little bit that remains is all beaded up.



This photo shows why this Wicked Red paint seems to look red sometimes and orangish other time. In this photo you have red, pink and almost a yellow...light is hitting different areas of the paint differently.



I am very happy with how this ceramic coating has worked out. Not nearly as much dust/dirt settles on it, and bugs rarely stick, and when they do, they come off very easily.

Oh, and someone asked how spilled gas affects the coating. About a week ago I spilled some on the Softail, actually quite a bit from a malfunctioning pump. Within a couple of minutes I had rinsed the area with water. I cannot tell, visually or by touch, any difference where the gas sat/rolled down the paint. What. if any, effect it will have long term, I don't know.

Kevin

[FuzzyWuzHe]

I went to start on my Ceramic on Fat Bottom Girl ... couldn't get it to spray ... it had crystalized ... ordered another kit.

[ultrafxr]

I went to start on my Ceramic on Fat Bottom Girl ... couldn't get it to spray ... it had crystalized ... ordered another kit.

Nick told me the shelf life after opening was about six weeks. Had mine maybe four or five but I've kept it sealed up tight. Just did the wife's car a week ago and it looks great - well as great as a '97 Infiniti I-30 with 190k can look, lol.

[DK Custom Products]

I went to start on my Ceramic on Fat Bottom Girl ... couldn't get it to spray ... it had crystalized ... ordered another kit.

Wow! That was fast.

There was about 5-6 months that my first bottle lasted...but then somewhere a month after that it was crystallized. Not sure if I did not seal it well, or ??? But it lasted far longer than the advertised 6 weeks.

I am on my second bottle now, used it on the Sporty and the TG. Now that I've decided to put film on the TG, hoping that this second bottle is still good when I go to coat over the film in a few weeks.

Kevin

[FuzzyWuzHe]

Wow! That was fast.

There was about 5-6 months that my first bottle lasted...but then somewhere a month after that it was crystallized. Not sure if I did not seal it well, or ??? But it lasted far longer than the advertised 6 weeks.

I am on my second bottle now, used it on the Sporty and the TG. Now that I've decided to put film on the TG, hoping that this second bottle is still good when I go to coat over the film in a few weeks.

Kevin

It may have been my fault ... kept the pump sprayer on instead of the hard cap. It took like 5-6 weeks.

[ultrafxr]

It may have been my fault ... kept the pump sprayer on instead of the hard cap. It took like 5-6 weeks.

Yep. That'll do it.

[DK Custom Products]

Just got this video showing the coating process on the Tri Glide uploaded-



Kevin

[FuzzyWuzHe]

And there was a big shady area right in front of my garage so I asked mom if she would keep an eye on my patient ... long story.

Since I haven't ordered the new ceramic stuff, I decided to see if I could use any of the stuff that has crystallized ... turns out ... it was just the spray thingie was clogged and there where crystals on the sprayer. and a few inside the bottle, looked worse than it was. Took the spray thingie off and it was in pretty good shape. About a half a bottle left. So ... I poured it into an old butter tub, then poured it back through cheese cloth into a funnel and back into it's bottle ... voila .. I think I'm back in business.

So ... I went out and did a "test" on a lower faring panel.

Here it is:



While I was at it ... I did the rubberized things on the lower:



Okay ... so I don't know if since some of it had started to crystalize, if it will protect as well ... but ... the paint didn't bubble off, so I started on the outer faring, inner faring, front fender, other lower, tank and both side covers.

I came up with a system that worked well:



I clean a section with the Honda cleaner/wax. De Wax it with isopropyl alcohol, then put the ceramic on with it's applicator and wipe the excess off with a clean micro fiber towel. I keep the product on it's corresponding micro fiber towel. Kept things straight.

Outer Faring, the white line is not a scratch, it's a hair from my Rottweiller/Lab mix on the phone lens, didn't see it until I uploaded the pics:



Front Fender:



Okay ... so my system was working so well ... I forgot the inner faring, tank, other lower and side cover pics ... hopefully you'll have to trust me on those. For now I'm only doing the painted parts, except I did do the dash on the tank ... and all I have left is the tour pak, and the rear end. My shady spot was quickly diminishing (sun moving west), so I pulled her into the garage and took a break ... tomorrow I will pull her out, back her into the shade and tackle her rear ... not looking forward to that ... she is called the Fat Bottom Girl after all ... LOL.

Hours later

Okay ... I gotta admit ... the outer faring pic had me a tad freaked out ... I went to the garage and looked at it ... no scratch ... came back in ... after looking at the pic some more again, I talked myself into thinking with the trike nose in maybe in the low light of the garage, I couldn't see it. I couldn't let it go ... pulled the trike out into the driveway ... yep .... no scratch ... I turned it around and backed it into the garage ... ya know ... so tomorrow I can do the rear in the shade ..

[FuzzyWuzHe]

Since the sun is not direct ... shining through clouds, I decided to tackle the rear. What a rear ... LOL ... actually it wasn't that bad. It was big ... but lots of flat area. Tour pak with the luggage rack was a tad tricky ... but ... it is finished.











Now to stay away from it for 12 hours ...

[FuzzyWuzHe]

'Thanks for all the extra work Kevin ... LOL ... but I gotta say ... I love the way this stuff "feels" the next day when it's "cured" ... Looks great too ... .. all kiding aside ... thanks for the tip.

[DK Custom Products]

Since the sun is not direct ... shining through clouds, I decided to tackle the rear. What a rear ... LOL ... actually it wasn't that bad. It was big ... but lots of flat area. Tour pak with the luggage rack was a tad tricky ... but ... it is finished.











Now to stay away from it for 12 hours ...

Man, that looks amazing! Makes me want a black bike again!

'Thanks for all the extra work Kevin ... LOL ... but I gotta say ... I love the way this stuff "feels" the next day when it's "cured" ... Looks great too ... .. all kiding aside ... thanks for the tip.

hahaha, you're welcome!

Kevin

[FuzzyWuzHe]

Man, that looks amazing! Makes me want a black bike again!Kevin

I'd trade with ya.. but red bikes get lots of speeding tickets ...

[FuzzyWuzHe]

Okay so it's been about 5 weeks since I did the ceramic stuff on the FBG. Since then I've done nothing but run it through the wand wash twice, water and soap, then the spot free wash, no scrubbing. I did do a little of the Honda cleaner because it had a few water spots and don't like the minerals sitting on paint. Today was the second wand wash. Forgot my battery powered blower, so I spent a lot of time with the spot free rinse to help with the spots, might need to wipe with the Honda stuff again. I haven't yet as kind of a test.

Okay, so 5 weeks and over 1000 miles in prime bug season. I keep forgetting to get before pics. FBG was pretty much covered in the juicy yellow gutted bugs we get here. Every vertical, forward facing surface was nasty.

I did about 5 minutes with the wand wash, you get 5 minutes for $3 and even if you stop it sooner they charge your card $3, so I use it all ... LOL. Over shot today, spent $3.16.

Here's the results:











As you can see, the water is running off or beading. This stuff is amazing ... used to take me a lot of elbow grease to get the dead soldiers off the bike, now, spray and ride ... I Like It! One of these days, maybe after the meandering rides and 890 miles on the trailer, I'll get some before pics. She should be pretty nasty by then. I always forget about them until I see how easy the bugs leave. Even if this stuff only gets me through a single summer ... Alan will be a happy man.

[FuzzyWuzHe]

Here's what the front on the trike looked like after 4 days and 1500 miles of abuse ... LOL.



Lots of bugs on bugs on bugs ... baked on by the Nevada Sun.

Here's what it looked like after the first just water rinse:



if you look close, you can just see the remains of a few bugs, but, the water is still beading nicely. Did another water only rinse and then ... I next did a "spot free" rinse. Not sure it's working like it should. Next I did the blow off with the worx battery powered blower and rode home.

Here's what the front looked like after that when I got home:



I gotta say ... I'm pretty amazed at how this stuff is working ... on some of the less "frontal" spots there are a few water spots, but, nothing I couldn't live with. Not like I am taking it into a car show ... ... I'm all about just riding ... less cleaning. On a white bike, I think you'd never know I didn't spend hours cleaning and waxing.

[ultrafxr]

I agree. My TG, my wife's Infiniti and my Buick SUV all seem to stay much cleaner . . . and easier to clean up after the ceramic coating. Good stuff for sure.

[FuzzyWuzHe]

I just got a new bottle ... ... now I get to do the Tacoma ... got de swirl it first ... it's gonna be a big job. I got a small buffer for auto's and some McKey's 37 swirl remover. I'm gonna do a small pannel at a time ... over several days.

[Dave59]

I've been following the ceramic coating posts and have not had a chance to do my Tri yet. Today I saw an add for Mothers Ceramic paint coating. I was curious if anyone had any experience with this. Is it the same type of product? Thanks