We frequently get asked how to prepare a vehicle for Ceramic Coating. Overall the goal is to have your paint looking the best you can get it before putting on your coating. What steps you need to take to achieve this will vary from vehicle to vehicle depending on the condition of the paint. Preparation could be as simple as a clay bar treatment followed by a wax/oil remover "paint prep" product for vehicles with pristine paint to a full paint correction (machine compound & polish) for vehicles with damaged paint.
Frequently paint falls somewhere in between the 2 extremes (IE: minor swirls but paint overall is in pretty good shape). If this is the case for you and you want to really prepare your paint with an extremely high gloss finish before applying your coating you may want to consider CarPro's Essence.
What is Essence?
CarPro Essence is a semi-permanent sio2 extreme gloss enhancer, finishing polish, primer, and protective coat in one.
CarPro Essence is a unique blend of nano-tech Quartz, high gloss durable resins, and fine abrasives that are blended together at a microscopic level to form something truly ground breaking! CarPro Essence leaves an amazing high gloss finish with semi-permanent fillers and protective capabilities all built in!
In less than the time you take to polish a car with conventional products, CarPro Essence is capable of removing swirls, building your clear coat thicker, leaving higher gloss, and laying down a semi-permanent coat of protection.
This makes the product perfect for use as a polish before applying your Ceramic Coating. When used before applying a Ceramic Coating Essence binds to the paint surface, the Si02 coating then binds to Essence.
Although Essence will provide a certain level of protection (up to a year under optimum conditions) because the contact angle is not on par with an actual ceramic coating you will not get the same the water beading & dirt repellent capabilities. It is recommended to still ceramic coat the vehicle for optimum results
Features
Here are the overall features of Essence..
Primes surface for Coating (or Reload)
Produces Extremely High Gloss
Semi-permanent filling capabilities
Adds layer of SiO2 Quartz protection
Use with D/A, Rotary, or by Hand
Benefits
The benefits of using Essence are numerous...
Gloss on another level
Hours saved per vehicle
Ease of finishing even the most difficult paints
Thickening of the coating (Essence builds a glossy and reflective quartz coat) which bonds with the paint and merges with your coating if applied after Essence.
Added benefit for vehicles with PPF.
We all know PPF is not the best looking means of protection. The clarity and gloss of ppf is VERY visibly enhanced when Essence is used on top.
very good, informative articles. thank you and keep doing more...