FAQs

Gtechniq products can currently be purchased through various resellers across the globe. Click here to find your nearest dealer.

A question we get asked a lot and there’s no right or wrong answer.  In our opinion it really depends on your car and how you plan to use it. If you are looking at using your car heavily and are looking to reduce stone chips then PPF is probably a good move. In many cases owners choose only to have leading edges – front bumper, part or whole of the bonnet and wing mirrors – protected with PPF film, and then coat the rest of the car with Gtechniq to prevent premature dulling from wash swirls.

One thing to bear in mind is that PPF can be porous and therefore contaminants will stick and be difficult to remove, coating your car with HALO Flexible Film Coating will prevent your film from UV damage and make it much easier to look after.

As a side note on this: ceramic or any other type of paint coating, no matter how much their marketing claims tell you otherwise, cannot offer any meaningful protection against stone chipping as in order to absorb the impact of a pebble travelling at triple digit speeds, you need to have a relatively thick and relatively soft membrane.  PPF film is approximately 150 microns thick and our coatings are approximately 1 micron thick (please be very sceptical if you hear marketing claims of coatings that say they offer more than this).  And whilst a thick and soft film works very well at absorbing stone chips, it is much more susceptible to micro marring (some newer films self-heal which addresses this issue) whereas a thin hard film such as Crystal Serum Light, Ultra, or Crystal Lacquer, provides optimum protection against micro marring.

You can as the wax will not damage any of our coatings.  But we recommend you don’t for a number of reasons.  Firstly, if you have an extremely hydrophobic product such as EXO or C2, the wax will dull this effect.  Also all our coatings are designed to prevent contaminant bonding and are non-yellowing.  Wax on the other hand is a soft finish into which contaminants easily bond and wax is not optically clear.

Our coatings have no adverse effects on correct repaint procedure.  Also, none of our coatings produce airborne silicones and so will not cause any body shop contamination.

For EXO, C1 and Crystal Serum Light, 30ml is sufficient for all vehicles up to and including a medium sized saloon such as a BMW 5 series.  For anything larger you will need the 50ml bottle.

All our coatings are gas permeable and therefore do not prevent paint from “out-gassing” solvents.  But, we do recommend leaving at least 72 hours between painting and coating.

So long as you follow the instructions then none of our coatings will ever peel or flake. But if you do not remove residue as instructed, the excess product can peel, flake or turn into a white crystalline powder.

Whilst coatings such as C1 Crystal Lacquer, Crystal Serum Light and Crystal Serum Ultra have class leading abrasion resistance, there is a limit to the amount of resistance a 1 micron layer of hard ceramic can offer to hedges, automatic car washes or contaminants in wash mitts. Whilst, on their own, these products are phenomenally hard (C1 is 7h on the pencil hardness scale, CSL 9h and CSU 10h), they will typically only add between 2 and 3h on the pencil hardness scale to the paintwork being protected.

Therefore.  If your vehicle is painted with a very soft paint measuring HB on the pencil hardness test, coating it with Crystal Serum Ultra will change this to a 2H rated finish.  So whilst this is a considerable improvement, it is still softer than an unprotected high solid painted car which can be as hard as 3h meaning that no matter how careful you are, some degree of surface scratching is inevitable.

All we can say is that due to the benefits of your coated car staying cleaner for longer, being easier to clean and having added hardness, swirls and scratches will be minimised.

This is a common question.  The perception is that if a surface is not repelling water anymore then the protection must have failed.  This is only partly right.  One of the things to note here is that the surface of what you may think is a clean car may actually be slightly contaminated with road grime.  Removing this with W5 Citrus All Purpose Cleaner will often return the hydrophobic function.

But.  It may be that the hydrophobic layer is no longer present.  Please note that our guarantee does not cover this as whilst our hydrophobic products, C2 Liquid Crystal and EXO have class leading durability, the maximum durability they have is 2 years.

So even if the hydrophobic layer has stopped working, the base coating of either C1, Crystal Serum Light or Crystal Serum Ultra will still be present as these coatings bond permanently with your paintwork.  So this layer will still be there working to keep swirls and scratches to a minimum and helping to prevent loss of gloss through surface staining or oxidation.

Crystal Serum Ultra forms a composite of two inorganic layers of ceramic.  The slightly softer layer migrates to and chemically bonds to the substrate (it can bond to any type of gel coat, vinyl and all kinds of paint – eg clear coat, acrylic, nitro-cellulose, two-pack, solid paint, metallic paint, pearlescent, urethane, polyurethane, matte etc.) whilst the thinner harder layer migrates to the surface.  This combination offers significantly better swirl resistance than standard ceramic coatings (including so called 9h “super coatings”), plus Crystal Serum Ultra is resistant to the strongest acids and alkalis.  It is also resistant to temperatures up to 500 degrees Celsius.

Applied incorrectly, Crystal Serum Ultra can only be wet sanded off your vehicle’s finish which means that we can only release this product to our fully trained Accredited Detailers.  See here for a demonstration of this.

If a car is looked after well, washed using Gtechniq shampoos and accessories, then Crystal Serum  Ultra will easily reach its 9 year guarantee.

The best place to store opened bottles is next to your bottles of Chateau Laffite 1953 (we assume only the best for Gtechniq customers!) – ie at a cool stable temperature, dry and out of direct sunlight.  We recommend using up the bottle within 3 months of opening.

We do not recommend stacking layers of Crystal Serum Ultra over previous layers of Serum Ultra (you can but our tests have shown that it doesn’t offer an advantage), but you can stack layers of EXO or C2 over Serum Ultra to give surfaces the ultimate dirt and water repellency.

Because Crystal Serum cures very quickly, you can apply these ultra hydrophobic top coats (this is optional!), right after finishing your CSU application.  Just start at the same start point and follow the same order of panels you did when you applied CSU.

Even though, when compared to traditional waxes and sealants, this product is exceptionally durable, we have built an entire and fully compatible maintenance line.  All of the products you find here have been tested for 100 wash cycles on EXO, C1, Crystal Serum Ultra and Platinum without damage to the coatings.

Whilst your detailer or body shop will find it somewhat harder to polish a Serum Ultra treated surface it is entirely possible and will present them with no great obstacle.  The reason incorrectly applied Serum Ultra is so hard to remove is that it forms a very uneven finish and the same way that polishing does not remove “orange peel” from a vehicle’s finish, polishing will not remove incorrectly applied Serum Ultra.

Yes!  In fact due to it’s chemical bonding mechanism, Crystal Serum Ultra, Crystal Serum Ultra Light and C1 become the functional surface of your vehicle’s paintwork.  In essence they bond permanently to your vehicle’s paintwork.  Our stock answer to the question “how long does C1 or Crystal Serum Ultra last?” is that this is the wrong question.  The right question is how particular you are about your paintwork and how carefully you clean your paintwork.  If you are, like us, very very fussy about swirls etc. on your paintwork but at the same time have a poor wash technique then, even though Serum Ultra is highly and C1 is somewhat resistant to swirls, you may find that you will want your car to be repolished in a shorter period than someone who is less particular about swirls but uses a very good wash technique.

Standard quartz coatings freely react with air to form crystals.  Crystal Serum Ultra (and Crystal Serum Light) only forms a film when it reacts with the surface of your car’s paintwork where it produces a composite film that comfortably outperforms industry standard air curing 9h coatings.

EXO is a hybrid of a chemically bonding inorganic base layer (it can bond to any type of gel coat, vinyl and all kinds of paint – eg clear coat, acrylic, nitro-cellulose, two-pack, solid paint, metallic paint, pearlescent, urethane, polyurethane, matte etc.) with an organic top layer that provides incredible water and dirt repellency plus surface slickness and incredible gloss.

EXO can be applied to on top of C1 Crystal Lacquer, Crystal Serum Light, Crystal Serum Ultra, or as a standalone product. We would not advise EXO be applied over any other brand of coating – we cannot guarantee how the product will react.

EXO will need to be polished off to ensure it is removed efficiently.

EXO is a very hydrophobic coating designed to repel water and dirt, helping to make your car easier to maintain. While it is unlikely that a bird dropping would completely slide off the surface, EXO would certainly make the mark easier to remove.

The best place to store opened bottles is next to your bottles of Chateau Laffite 1953 (we assume only the best for Gtechniq customers!) – ie at a cool stable temperature, dry and out of direct sunlight.  We recommend using up the bottle within 3 months of opening.

Yes to all!  EXO is ideal for PPF and vinyl but be sure that you don’t apply EXO first as PPF film and vinyl won’t stick to your paint with EXO applied.  EXO is good on matte finishes but C1 EXO is best.

For optimal results we recommend two layers of EXO.  These can be applied one right after the other (but be sure start on the same panel and work in the same sequence).  Further layers can be applied but to little extra advantage.

We recommend you allow this coating cure for 12 hours before you get it wet.

As with many things in life, there are often downsides to great things.  With any hydrophobic (water repelling) coating be it a wax, sealant or coating, if dirty water and in particular hard tap water is left on the surface to dry, it often leaves any residues that were in the water behind as unsightly spots on your beautifully glossy paintwork.  In most cases these will wash off.  But in some cases, particularly with hard water which leaves white spots of calcium and magnesium behind, they don’t.  In which case we suggest using our W9 Water Spot Remover followed by a neat application of our W5 Citrus All Purpose Cleaner or a light hand polish and reapplication of EXO.  Our best advice to prevent this happening is to never allow tap water dry out on your vehicle.

Even though, when compared to traditional waxes and sealants, this product is exceptionally durable, we have built an entire and fully compatible maintenance line.  All of the products you find here have been tested for 100 wash cycles on EXO, C1, Crystal Serum Light and Ultra and Platinum without damage to the coatings.

In many cases your EXO coating can be refreshed by a thorough decontamination including an application of undiluted W5 Citrus All Purpose Cleaner and or W6 Iron and General Fallout Remover.  In many cases the horizontal surfaces of your vehicle will have a fine film of contaminants that a normal wash routine does not remove.  This film blocks the function of the hydrophobic ligands and W5 and or W6 will, in many cases, remove these contaminants thereby refreshing the coating.  If after doing this the coating is still not functioning, you can reapply a new layer of EXO using the standard application technique.

See the solution in the point above for our recommendation.

This is unusual but not unheard of.  In 90% of cases the juddering window wipers will cease after a few weeks. But there are some things that often cure this.  First is to ensure your blades are thoroughly cleaned, and if partly worn we would recommend they are changed.  Another solution is to apply some G1 directly to the wiper blade without removing it with G2 Residue Remover.  If the issue persists and you need to remove the coating you can either do this by using a machine polisher with a hard foam compounding pad using either G4 Nanotech Glass Polish or by hand using a “cerium oxide” based polish.

G1 can be applied to all windows. With a car we recommend starting on the front window screen removing residue, moving around the car coating each window and finally giving the front windscreen a second coat. Take a look at the G1 ClearVision Smart Glass application video.

Fresh G1 can be applied in the normal way over the top of an existing layer by simply preparing the glass using G6, polishing using G4 and then recleaning with G6.

We recommend you allow this coating cure for 3 hours before you get it wet.

Neither will have any impact on G1’s durability.

G1 can be removed either by machine using a regular rotary or dual action polisher, a hard foam pad and Gtechniq G4 Nanotech Glass Polish or by hand using a liquid cerium oxide based glass polish.

All rain repellent glass coatings cause this to a greater or lesser degree.  Whilst G1 doesn’t suffer too much from this issue, it can appear particularly when it is drizzling.

Yes.  Just follow the same procedure you did when first applying by first using the G4 Nanotech Glass Polish and G6 Perfect Glass to prepare and then apply as normal.

For cars, we always recommend G1.  The reason is that even though the G5 is more repellent, the durability of the G1 makes it the better choice.  But if you are looking for a product to minimise water spotting on, for example, shower screens, marine glass or building windows, G5 is the right choice as this application will require the very best water repellency.

Crystal Lacquer is a chemically bonding quartz (ceramic) paint coating.  It can bond to any type of gel coat, vinyl and all kinds of paint – eg clear coat, acrylic, nitro-cellulose, two-pack, solid paint, metallic paint, pearlescent, urethane, polyurethane, matte etc.  As C1 is a relatively thin and relatively hard it offers good swirl resistance but we recommend over coating it with either C2 or EXO to give your finish the ultimate in dirt and water repellency, gloss and slickness.  C1 is also resistant to temperatures up to 500 degrees celcius.

If C1 has been applied correctly, and is maintained using Gtechniq shampoos and cleaning products, it has potential outlast its 5 year guarantee. If mistreated and looked after incorrectly, then the lifespan of the coating will be substantially reduced.

You need to leave C1 to cure for at least 3 hours but no longer than 12 before coating EXO over the top.

The best place to store opened bottles is next to your bottles of Chateau Laffite 1953 (we assume only the best for Gtechniq customers!) – ie at a cool stable temperature, dry and out of direct sunlight.  We recommend using up the bottle within 3 months of opening. (NB this also applies to C4 and C5)

We recommend you allow this coating cure for 12 hours before you get it wet.

Even though, when compared to traditional waxes and sealants, this product is exceptionally durable, we have built an entire and fully compatible maintenance line.  All of the products you find here have been tested for 100 wash cycles on EXO, C1, Crystal Serum Light and Ultra and Platinum without damage to the coatings.

This normally only happens with highly textured trim where you didn’t manage to get the excess product from the “valleys” of the trim.  Once cured, those little lakes turn into a solid piece of quartz which can shatter into a white powder.  See below for an example of this.

To remove, you should agitate the surface with a medium stiff brush and a strong mix of Gtechniq W2 Universal Cleaner Concentrate (1:2).  And once removed you can reapply making sure that you remove the residue completely (you may need a longer pile microfibre for this task)