Paint Protection Dissipation - Photo Documentation
After re-applying my Prima Paint Protection back in June last year, I've known for a few weeks now that it is starting to completely dissipate.
Before going through the process of re-applying it, I thought I'd take the opportunity to do some photo documentation on its dissipation, and the paintwork itself.
As this is a sealant-based paint protection, it is expected that this dissipation will start happening as the paint protection sacrifices itself over a period of several months in order to protect the paintwork underneath. This is why I use the term "dissipate" as opposed to "fail". The paint protection has, as you'll see in the following photos, actually done the job admirably well of protecting the paintwork up until now.
The first group of photos were taken during washing. Here I could tell that the roof paint protection is pretty much entirely gone (and has been for about three weeks now)
As you can see, the water on the roof is hardly beading, indicating that the surface is significantly less hydrophobic that it was (generally speaking, the more hydrophobic the surface is, the easier it is to clean, and the less likely you are going to have issues with water spotting etc)
Notice that the 'beads' are large and uneven, and there are large sections of standing puddles, indicating that the paint protection is pretty much gone.
Next, here's the bonnet. Here you can see that there is still a small amount of tight beading, indicating there is still a little paint protection remaining (though this is probably only three or four weeks off completely dissipating also)
Down the side of the car, you can still see some quite tight beading occurring, which indicated the paint protection is still doing its job here
So why the uneven results? Why are some areas still protected, and other areas the paint protection has severely worn, or dissipated entirely? It stands to reason that the first areas to dissipate will be the large horizontal surfaces, as they are the areas that see the most action in terms of rain, bird droppings, tree sap, UV, etc etc. and therefore will be the hardest hit and the first areas to dissipate. Which is why we're seeing the roofline start to go first, followed closely by the bonnet, yet the sides of the car still seem to be reasonably well protected.
So with that in mind, after washing, I dried the car and pulled it into the garage to take some photos under the lights
As you can see on the roofline, with the paint protection pretty much completely dissipated, I'm starting to get water etching on the paint surface. These photos were taken after spraying with Prima Hydro Quick Detailer.... just to prove that these are water etchings, not just light marks in the paint surface that are easily removed. They are in fact there to stay and will need light machining to remove.
See the areas of the roof near where the light is shining to see the blemishes of water etching:
Bear in mind that while the paint protection has been on the car, I have never had to deal with water etching. When it's been washed and dried, the paintwork clarity has always been excellent.
Now see the bonnet, where there is still some paint protection on the surface.
No water etching at all.
The bonnet has been treated in exactly the same way as the roof, and in exactly the same way as the rest of the car. They've all been washed at the same time, been exposed to the same elements etc etc. The only difference right at this very second, is, due to normal uneven wear explained above, there is still paint protection on the bonnet but not on the roof.
What I would expect to happen from now if left unchecked, is the paint protection will completely dissipate on the bonnet within 3-4 weeks. The rest of the car withing the next month and a half.
From there, with no protection on the car, water etching will cover the entire surface of the car. After that we will start to see swirls appearing from washing, I'd say easily within a few weeks of the paint protection dissipating entirely.
Needless to say I will be re-applying the paint protection well before this starts to happen
Dan
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Originally Posted by LittleredMPS
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