While my M3 has been coated with Ceramic Pro for several months now, I always enjoy trying new products and seeing what the latest offerings can do. Gyeon Q2 Pure is a new coating in Gyeon’s 2018 lineup, replacing Q2 Prime. It is positioned to be their first level of the “Professional” line of coatings, with Syncro being the top of the pro series. Gyeon does an excellent job of marketing their coatings appropriately and ensuring that the right people are going to be buying the right products. Recently, I had the opportunity to coat a friends M240i with this coating, as well as apply it to my trunk and diffuser for the purpose of comparing it to my Ceramic Pro coating. First, a quick note about what Pure is. Pure is a Si02 (Silica Dioxide) based coating meant to provide chemical resistance, a glossy finish, and excellent self-cleaning abilities, all while remaining fairly easy to install. Pure is made to be installed in a single, thick layer, making it incredibly convenient for mobile detailers and high-end DIYers alike. Gyeon advertises it as lasting 18 months or 15,000 miles, which will prove impressive if it holds up that long with regular maintenance.

Application

Moving on to the application, we’ll first touch on prep. While I won’t be going fully over prep in this guide, I do want to stress how important it is that the surface is bare and clean of any oils or sealants before coating the car. If your car is already swirl-free and you feel confident that the paint you have is the paint you’re ready to lock in with this coating, I would still recommend that you go over the car with a finishing polish (I like Sonax Perfect Finish) to remove whatever your current LSP is. Whether it’s a Polymer sealant like Sonax Polymer NetShield, or a ceramic spray coating like HydroSilex Recharge or Gyeon CanCoat, you’ll need it to be removed. After that finishing polish, you’ll want to wipe down with either Gyeon Prep or IPA. I recommend doing a full car wipe down, and then going over it quickly a second time to ensure nothing was missed. If you are fully correcting your car before coating, nothing changes in terms of the final steps I’ve mentioned here, just be sure to get that paint clean and bare! Once the paint is bare and ready to be coated, we can get our gloves on, our coating bottles out, and begin the process. Pure is not a coating that can be applied one whole panel at a time, you’re going to want to section things out. I did the hood of the M240 in 4 sections, the doors in 3, and most other parts of the car in 2-3 sections. Use your common sense here, something like a trunk is small enough to do in 2 sections, but a rear bumper should be broken into 3 or 4 depending on size. To begin, place 4 or 5 drops on the top of your applicator, enough to make a dot about the size of a quarter. I’ve used the included foam block with microfiber suede. Once you have your dot, start at on your chosen panel making either an up and down or a left to right motion, you don't need to lift the application in between passes. You do not need to crosshatch this coating. Once you’ve covered your desired area, wait 5-10 seconds and then go back and make circular motions using the applicator in the area you just covered, following the same up and down or left and right motion. This method was outlined by Jeff from Gyeon in this Detailed Image guide, and it makes install a breeze. Click through to see Jeff’s method in further detail. Next, you’ll want to wait a few seconds and then begin your wipe off. The time to wait can vary based on your humidity, the higher the humidity, the faster you’ll want to begin wiping. It's worth noting that the bond between the coating and your paint takes place in the first 3-5 seconds, after that, it's all about picking a time that makes the leftover solvent carriers easy to remove. Too little time and it’ll be wet and will streak easily, too much time and it will become tacky and hard to buff. I found that waiting about 5 seconds produced great results for me in slightly above 60% humidity. I also recommend using a hile pile microfiber, as it absorbs the solvents very well and left me with no streaking. Once you’ve completed buffing that specific section, take either a penlight or your phone’s flashlight and inspect the area you’ve just buffed for any high spots or streaks. Remove any spots that you see before moving on to the next section. These areas will be very easy to see, and will look similar to hologramming. Now that any high spots are removed, you’re ready to move on and repeat this process for the next part of your panel and the rest of the car. Err on the side of overlapping when coating the next part of your panel. Don’t worry about getting your invisible line on the car perfect, you just want to be sure that you didn’t miss anything and putting more coating on top of the section you just coated won’t hurt anything. When you’ve finished coating the car, give it a once-over with your flashlight to check for any high spots you may have missed. If you do see one, you’ll most likely need to hand polish that area and re-apply, as the coating will have set. Lastly, you can choose to apply Gyeon Cure on top of the coating to help Pure cure without disturbance from the outside world and to prevent water spotting during the curing time. You can apply Cure 1 hour after you’ve finished coating your last panel. Cure should be sprayed (1-2 sprays per 2x2 section should do) directly into a clean microfiber towel and buffed into the paint. It will create an incredibly slick feel on the surface and you’ll know if you missed any areas. At this point, if you have a garage, I’d recommend leaving it inside for 24 hours to give the initial drying phase some time to occur without any outside influence. If not, don’t worry, you the car will be fine outside, but if possible, avoid driving it for a little while. Keep in mind that you should consider the weather if you don’t have a garage. Don’t apply the product on a Monday evening if you know it’s going to rain on Tuesday, etc, etc.

My Thoughts

Gyeon Pure was an absolute breeze to use both in controlled and less than ideal environments. The M240i was coated in a friends garage, with the garage door open, so the only benefit I gained being inside was having some cover from the elements and no chance of anything falling from trees landing on the car. The trunk of my M3 was done indoors, at a local shop that is gracious enough to let me use a little bit of space to work. I found wipe off to be incredibly easy in terms of the coating not making a streaky mess. It does take a little elbow grease, but your effort will not be for nothing when you finally look at your results under light. For most panels, I was able to get nearly all of the excess solvent carriers off with just one buffing pass of the towel. As far as beading and hydrophobicity go, the contact angle of this coating is very impressive, and the water flew off very quickly using an air blower to dry the car. I don’t think that beading lovers will be disappointed at all with this coating. Durability is yet to be seen, but I will be updating the blog in due time with photos and video of the coating as it ages. If this coating holds up for its advertised amount of time, I think this makes a great go to for those of us who wanted to keep our leased vehicles in great shape or anyone who is just looking for a more long-term level of protection. In my case, my car stays outside 24/7, so I want to make sure it is protected from the elements as best as it possibly can be, for as long as it possibly can be.

Q&A With Jeff McEachran, National Brand Manager for Gyeon USA.

Q: To achieve the advertised results, is one layer sufficient? A: Yes all of the performance measures from GYEON are based on 1 single layer. Q: Is there any benefit in layering this coating, or is it not even stackable? A: You can layer PURE up to 3 layers max. The biggest benefit to layering would be an increase in durability. Q: Let’s saying you're working on this product outdoors, coating in the shade or under a tent, any special precautions? A: Humidity is the biggest factor, the higher the humidity, the thicker it will feel and the faster the solvent carrier will release and the faster you’ll want to remove it. Do not work on hot panels. Initial bond is 3-5 seconds. Wipe too early and it’ll be wet and smear around, too late and it’ll be very tacky. If I (Jeff) knew I didn’t have this setup right for optimal use, I’d switch possibly to One or Mohs, which are easier to apply in high humidity. Q: Should I use Booster on top of Pure? A: Booster is awesome on top of any high quality coating. It’s a Fluorine based top coat, designed to increase hydrophobic and self cleaning abilities. It’s not really an additional layer, its a chemical reaction that occurs between the Booster and the base layer and it must be applied before the base layer cures fully or you won’t see the full effects. In use, you’re not going to see it lay down, it evaporates quickly but rest assured if there is product on the applicator, it's making it onto the car. If you can see a trail, you’re using too much. Q: What separates Gyeon coatings from others on the market? A: Time in production and quality of raw materials. Cheap vs expensive carriver solvents and high quality silica. It takes a lot to figure out the perfect mix of silica and solvents to make sure you have as much silica as you can get while still making it easy to remove. At the end of the day Silica is Silica, but the quality of materials used makes all the difference when it comes to ease of use for the customer. Q: How does Pure differ from other coatings in the lineup? What would you recommend at different levels? A: Main differences in the Enthusiast line which are CanCoat and One is the concentration by volume of Si02. Both coatings are a single layer, pure Si02 base, CanCoat being the lowest. Immediate wipe on, wipe off immediately for CanCoat. One is in the middle with a slightly higher Si02 Concentration. Concentration by volume of Si02 correlates to ease of use and and experience. If you have experience, jump to the professional grade for Pure, if not, consider One as it has less concentration by volume of Si02. In MOHS and Syncro, you’re talking about a different type of chemistry base to the coating, they also are layered and require a more controlled environment. That's all for this review! If you have any questions regarding the usage or Gyeon Pure or any of the methods discussed, leave a comment below. Until the next review, I leave you with this video of the hydrophobicity of a fresh coating of Gyeon Pure. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bx1IWeEeuxY Products Used in this Review:

• Gyeon Q2 Pure
• Gyeon Prep
• Gyeon PolishWipe Towels
• Sonax Perfect Finish