Monday 17th September 2007

GTechniq Magic Goo

PetrolTed cleans his car... well the boys from GTechniq Paint Perfection do!

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Despite many years of owning a variety of nice cars, I still have a bit of a mental block when it comes to cleaning them. I do of course love to see them clean, but if it involves me dipping my paws in soapy water then I can usually find something more pressing to do – like tidying my sock drawer...

I’ve had cars washed, polished and waxed before. Our Cerbera was treated to a ‘Miracle Detail’, which transformed it from a scratched specimen into a fine shiny beast - for a few months.

Short of getting the experts around again for another day long session, keeping the cars clean for more than a few months still presents me with a challenge I’m not willing to face up to.

The latest company to claim they can assist is G|Techniq. Founded by Drew Gill, the story goes that he too got fed up with conventional creams, waxes and lotions. Living in the Far East, he also found that the permanent transparent films and treatments used to prevent stone chips would discolour or degrade in the vicious sunlight.

So Drew went to talk to some chemist types to see if he could develop a cross between a wax and a transparent film. Together with Bayer and BASF they devised a new coating that could be applied to paintwork. They claim it uses “nano-technology” to bond with the paintwork forming a tough, transparent protective coating over the body of a car (or boat or jumbo jet). Applied too thickly it actually crystallises into a very hard rough crust – a useful demonstration of the nature of the product.

I was obviously a bit nervous of having a ‘new’ treatment applied to my pride and joy so I grilled G|Techiq’s man in the UK, Rob Earle before I let them loose on it.  He showed me some of the vehicles they’ve applied it to (all manner of exotica) and went through some of the commercial contracts they’re working on (car manufacturers, airlines, etc).

Reassured that my car wasn’t going to turn green shortly after, I took a drive over to Rob’s facility in Hertfordshire and delivered one cleanish 911 ready to be treated. The paintwork was in pretty good shape when I bought the car albeit with plenty of swirl marks visible upon close inspection. Fortunately white hides these unless you look close up.

Eight hours later I returned to find a gleaming 911 sitting under the fluorescent lights in their workshop. The car had been cleaned and a very fine layer of paint buffed off to remove or smooth off any scratches. Subsequent to that, Rob and his technician applied a very thin layer of G|Techniq magic goo to protect the surface. This hardens and bonds with the paintwork leaving a very smooth surface with protective qualities claimed to be 40% better than wax.

Since having it treated I’ve done one track day and about 1500 miles around Spain in searing heat. After the track day the car was still clean – with just a few melted bits of rubber on the bodywork. They seemed as stubborn as usual to remove so no noticeable difference there. Where it did show benefit was with the grime and road kill obtained in Spain. The front of the car was peppered with dead flies and a damp cloth was all that was required to shift them. I don’t seem to have suffered any significant stone chipping to the front either – that could be lack of stones or hopefully the G|Techniq coating doing its job.

I haven’t got around to washing the car yet (when do I ever?), but a quick dab at one section with a damp cloth has shown the panels behaving as if they’ve been treated to a good traditional wax. The real difference will hopefully be in the longevity of the coating. Although the company don’t claim it will last forever I’m hoping it will give a significant improvement over the equivalent application of wax and some of the protection of a plastic film.

I’ll report back in a few months time…

Link: www.gtechniq.com

[Trenchtown]

Focus Daniel son!

Wax on! Wax off!

[shouldbworking]

And the cost of this treatment? something that can be done at home or does it require a pros attention?

Just had my car painted and the cost of protective film for it is prohibitive as it would have to be a one off set of films. Perhaps this could be a solution

[Don1]

Yes, very interested - especially at the cost....

[PetrolTed]

shouldbworking said:

And the cost of this treatment? something that can be done at home or does it require a pros attention?

Thought prices were on their site but I can't find them now. The treatment I had done was about £400 and took a day.

[bogie]

I had both my cars done (Vantage and Elise) a few months back. The Aston was done first as its paint was the worst after numerous dealer washes. Now 5 months later it still beads water like the day it was done (unlike any other waxes ive tried, and Ive tried a few!) ..ive picked up some very fine swirling, but nothing serious - I always wash it about every 2 weeks, 2 bucket and wash mitt method, but no matter how much care I take I seem to get some light marks in it - par for the course for a daily drive (car has done 13K miles in last 5 months).

A rinse with some filtered water (Flash gun) and dry off and it looks 98% like its just been waxed, so its been a worthwhile investment for me, as I hate waxing cars and generally dont have much free time

So overall highly recommended - you can get discount for multiple cars, and I certainly will be having all my cars done from new with G Techniq in the future

lots of pics on my webshots site here:

http://rides.webshots.com/album/558841766WIWiLV

(these were actually taken a week later, just after it had been washed and dried)

and here:

http://good-times.webshots.com/album/560135980KLyy...

cheers
bogie

[andyuk911]

There is a guy I know who does this as a hobby ... dam good at it now .. he even helped Miracle Detail with a veyron .. lucky bugger

[Kamikaze]

My car looks like crap. But it works. That's how a sports car should look like. Used.

[garylythgoe]

PetrolTed can i just say how jealous i am of your car

LOL! Good work!

Looks superb!

[JPF40]

Interesting:

I treated my boat with Aglaze this year and it still looks awesome, no signs of oxidation.

I notice that Gtechniq compare their product to Aglaze, I just wonder how on earth they come up such a biased comparison.

They need to be very careful with such bold statements when comparing products.

I think Aglaze are now standard treatments for Sunseeker, Fairline and Princess.

So Gtechniq lets see your proof, if it is a better product I'll use it.

[rob e]

let me come out of the woodwork and introduce myself. Rob Earle MD of G|techniq Ltd.

JPF40 said:

Interesting:

I treated my boat with Aglaze this year and it still looks awesome, no signs of oxidation.

A-Glaze is a good product with a good track record and a satisfied customer base.

JPF40 said:

I notice that Gtechniq compare their product to Aglaze, I just wonder how on earth they come up such a biased comparison.

Technically our product is not the same as A-Glaze. Please elaborate on what you think is biased.

JPF40 said:

They need to be very careful with such bold statements when comparing products.

I couldn't agree more. We are taking enormous care about making any bold claims as we feel there are many companies in this sector making misleading claims. Our coatings have undergone and are undergoing independent testing both in the real world - in marine, automotive and aviation, in labs (eg with Azimut Benetti & Scott Bader) and in what we have found to be the only industry benchmarking facility which is located in Arizona.

The results from these tests are very encouraging for our nano coating - particularly on superyacht paint systems where for eg our system results in a drop in gloss of 3% for the equivalent of a year's worth of Florida sunshine against up to 25% loss for some of our competitors.

We have also done the classic half with competitor's product and half with G|techniq. This was on a 45m yacht in the Mediterranean. From this we have secured orders for 8 40m plus superyachts.

JPF40 said:

I think Aglaze are now standard treatments for Sunseeker, Fairline and Princess.

True for Fairline - although they are not very active in selling it. I think you are also right about Princess too but afaic not Sunseeker. We are working with Sunseeker - we have restored heavily oxidised blue hulled yachts for them and coated them. Owners are reporting very high satisfaction.

JPF40 said:

So Gtechniq lets see your proof, if it is a better product I'll use it.

if you email me at [e-mail] and I'll send what we have to you. I hope from this we can work something out for you for your car/boat/plane.

[ro_butler]

Quick question for rob_e,

Can you still wax the car after the coating is applied?
Does waxing make any difference with the coating, or damage it in any way?

Apologies if these are silly questions but I haven't read your website yet.

Thanks

Rob.

[rob e]

once the coating is applied you can treat it like a painted surface ie no problem to apply wax if you like although this is not strictly necessary.

[Simond001]

Did we get a cost for a 996?

Mine is constantly filthy, and covered in swirls so this looks good to me.

[hutchingsp]

Is any special application technique needed, or assuming defect free paintwork is it pretty much apply, wait, buff?

I guess what I'm asking is can you buy the product rather than the full service, and if so what sort of cost is it?

[rob e]

Simond001 said:

Did we get a cost for a 996?

Mine is constantly filthy, and covered in swirls so this looks good to me.

will upload the full price list onto the site on monday. Pricing is largely reflective of the amount of machining we need to do. Our polishing system is relatively quick and has the added benefit of removing less paint than conventional abrasives.

Having said that a large swirled and scratched car can be up to 8 man hours of machining and some paints are more difficult to machine polish than others.

996 paint comes up great. i would guess you would need a full machine polish (we also do a limited machine polish - recommended for year or two year old cars which removes light swirls) which would take between 6-8 hours and priced between £400 and £600. for a 996 we quote 6 hours.

As mentioned we also do limited machining packages which are priced from £199 and coating only (recommended for new cars only) priced from £140. We are located opposite the panel and spray shop used by 911 virgin and JZ Machtech and we also have an excellent guy for wheel refurb and another non franchise paintless dent repair guy.

[rob e]

hutchingsp said:

Is any special application technique needed, or assuming defect free paintwork is it pretty much apply, wait, buff?

I guess what I'm asking is can you buy the product rather than the full service, and if so what sort of cost is it?

unfortunately for us and for the end user - the answer is no. this is because the coating cures to form an optically clear coating of a hardness on the mohs scale of 7, if it's not buffed correctly the residue will cure to form unsightly marks on your car's paint.

[cossiemetro]

sounds like a great product do you need anymore guinea pigs for testing ???

[Silent1]

You have an F40! :envy:

need a test driver?

[rob e]

cossiemetro said:

sounds like a great product do you need anymore guinea pigs for testing ???

ha! think we are pretty good on testing - that is unless you are MD of the HR Owen group

can send you a sample of our quick detailer - it's a carnauba co-polymerised with amino functional polymers.

[rob e]

just to clear one thing up from the article.

the coating is not designed as a replacement for the 3m helicopter tape as used by armourfend, ventureshield etc. etc.

for protecting against high velocity impact you need a relatively thick and relatively absorbent film. our coating is relatively thin (about 500nm) and hard. this means it's excellent for resisting microscratches but not as good for absorbing high velocity impact which can only be done with films such as the 3m one.