So when I bought my car the dealer insisted on applying Diamond Brite for free... as it was nearing winter and the chance of me being able to apply anything to the car I didn't argue too hard. Since then I have been applying CarPro Hydro and Hydro Lite (in a similar way to Autoglym Aqua Wax but without all the buffing!)
Have been impressed with Hydro, but it hasn't lasted as long as I'd expected, after speaking to CarPro they suggested that I was probably using too strong a dilution of Reset when washing, and also that Hydro may not be clinging as well as it should to a Diamond Brite protected car.
I'd love to strip the Diamond Brite off, get the car indoors for a few days and have a go for a first time at a ceramic coating, but it's not an option at the moment, I therefore thought about adding a glaze/wax over the Diamond Brite (as the current Hydro coat had nearly gone) - being a CarPro fan at the moment I had a look at their current product range and stumbled across Essence Plus, a non abrasive coating designed to go over the top of existing coatings!
https://carpro.uk.com/collections/w...ssence-plus-non-abrasive-gloss-enhancer-250ml
So this weekend, I set about giving it a go, my car looked pretty dirty but had only been washed last weekend
a quick snow foam and rinse later, and it was almost clean!
i then use CarPro Iron X on the wheels and the bodywork to fully decontaminate
2 bucket method clean (well 3 as I cleaned the wheels by hand separate as I planned to seal those too), using a high dilution of CarPro Reset to remove any remaining Hydro - I never used to use 2 buckets, but now I see how dirty my rinse bucket can get, I would never go back! I also like using a Swissvax Wash Puddel, mainly because it's white, so you can see if its getting dirty, or needs to be cleaned before continuing to use.
After than I dried the car off using CarPro Boas and cleaned down the whole car with CarPro Eraser, before applying the Essence Plus with a CarPro gloss pad (non abrasive coating/non abrasive pad)
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With the DA it went on very easy, hardly needing to use over speed 2 to fully work the product in, and easily buffed up to an awesome shine with no dust or residue at all!
Finally left with this - bear in mind this was a cold overcast day with no direct sunlight at all, and the car still looks awesome!
I then quickly finished my tyres off using G-Techniq T1 and coated my wheels with come G-Techniq C2v3 (which I had a free sample of)
All in all took about 3 hours, the car looks better than new now, and the beading is great (obviously it started raining as soon as I'd finished)
Will be looking forward to getting a coat of Hydro Lite on after my next maintenance wash.
Hope some find this useful, I think there has been some debate recently about the need to machine/polish a "new" car, but I'd like to think this is a good example of doing both without stripping any paint off!
Have been impressed with Hydro, but it hasn't lasted as long as I'd expected, after speaking to CarPro they suggested that I was probably using too strong a dilution of Reset when washing, and also that Hydro may not be clinging as well as it should to a Diamond Brite protected car.
I'd love to strip the Diamond Brite off, get the car indoors for a few days and have a go for a first time at a ceramic coating, but it's not an option at the moment, I therefore thought about adding a glaze/wax over the Diamond Brite (as the current Hydro coat had nearly gone) - being a CarPro fan at the moment I had a look at their current product range and stumbled across Essence Plus, a non abrasive coating designed to go over the top of existing coatings!
https://carpro.uk.com/collections/w...ssence-plus-non-abrasive-gloss-enhancer-250ml
So this weekend, I set about giving it a go, my car looked pretty dirty but had only been washed last weekend
a quick snow foam and rinse later, and it was almost clean!
i then use CarPro Iron X on the wheels and the bodywork to fully decontaminate
2 bucket method clean (well 3 as I cleaned the wheels by hand separate as I planned to seal those too), using a high dilution of CarPro Reset to remove any remaining Hydro - I never used to use 2 buckets, but now I see how dirty my rinse bucket can get, I would never go back! I also like using a Swissvax Wash Puddel, mainly because it's white, so you can see if its getting dirty, or needs to be cleaned before continuing to use.
After than I dried the car off using CarPro Boas and cleaned down the whole car with CarPro Eraser, before applying the Essence Plus with a CarPro gloss pad (non abrasive coating/non abrasive pad)
With the DA it went on very easy, hardly needing to use over speed 2 to fully work the product in, and easily buffed up to an awesome shine with no dust or residue at all!
Finally left with this - bear in mind this was a cold overcast day with no direct sunlight at all, and the car still looks awesome!
I then quickly finished my tyres off using G-Techniq T1 and coated my wheels with come G-Techniq C2v3 (which I had a free sample of)
All in all took about 3 hours, the car looks better than new now, and the beading is great (obviously it started raining as soon as I'd finished)
Will be looking forward to getting a coat of Hydro Lite on after my next maintenance wash.
Hope some find this useful, I think there has been some debate recently about the need to machine/polish a "new" car, but I'd like to think this is a good example of doing both without stripping any paint off!
