Testing 303 SiO2 Touchless Sealant (it really is touchless)

I respect that. I wish I had the drive to wash my cars more often. I just stare at them being dirty, feel sad, and then go back to bed.

@haloruler64

It is a "new to me" top that I believe to be a couple of years old at best. It appears to be cloth as the pattern and texture are way different from my OEM top, but I have yet to find any identifying marks on it. I haven't read that the strap may cause damage to cloth top, will have to read into that more. I just noticed the "ears" and lack of said strap before I removed the assembly from the donor car.

@pwnzor I wish I had your drive and the time to keep my cars that clean... I do feel an incredible ego boost when I am driving around in a clean car. Unfortunately there are some significant paint imperfections on both my vehicles, which leads me to not care if they are looking their best, which likely exacerbates said paint imperfections...

Then there's my motives... If given the choice of washing a car or tinkering in the engine bay.... 9/10 I'll choose the engine bay.

Thanks again to Haloruler64 for turning us onto this product.  Mine arrived yesterday and I thought I'd give it a test today on my 1999 Toyota Tacoma Pick-up.  This truck has over 205k miles, does not use any fluids, doesn't leak -- it's like an old Timex watch, "it takes a lickin' and keeps on tickin'".  There were years wehre it was parked outside all the time.  It was a daily driver for a loooooonnnngg time.  I thought this would be the best test vehicle for me to see how good the 303 Sealant is at beading water instantly.  These days the truck spends most of its time in my shop, protected from the elements.  That said, the paint is getting tired.  I last washed and waxed this last summer, so about 6 months ago.  Today I washed the truck and rinsed it off.  Here is a picture of the truck right after the wash and rinse.

I then, as per the instructions, sprayed 303 sealant onto the car (in sections, i.e., windshield hood first, top of cab, sides, etc.) and immediately rinsed.  Here is what the hood looked like:

Needless to say, I was impressed!

If the Spirit moves me, maybe tomorrow I'll wash and seal the Prius V.  I also just ordered some 303 solution to treat rubber and will soon spray that on CV Boots and other underside rubber part of the Spyder and whatever other car in the driveway I can crawl under 🙂

I like to keep the engine bay clean, too.  It's been raining and I've been a little remiss this week with only a single wash, and a bit of dirt gets up in there since I removed the rear portion of the diaper... still, it's pretty clean

My bottle of 303 will be here on Monday... so we'll see how that works out.  I'm sure it will be every bit of what we've seen in these posts which will make me happy.

Don't forget, sealants work best on clean paint free of contaminants. So results are worse if the paint hasn't been clayed and polished (of course). So the results on my Lexus are best case because the paint is relatively fresh. Just wanted to throw out that warning. 

marsrock7 I have an aftermarket cloth top. With ears. I sometimes tuck the ears in manually when it's down for extended periods of time. Honestly I don't really use any products on it, just car soap. Which is bad because it does have dirt on it that's difficult to remove. 

Uncle Mush I love your Tacoma! Great truck. 

Damn pwnzor that's super clean. My engine bay gets disgusting in a week of driving no matter how meticulous I am about it. 

A spray bottle with distilled water, old paint brushes and compressed air.  That's what I use on the engine bay.  I have a few nylon brushes to get in the cracks.

Well the issue is that 3 drives later and it's disgusting again. I've cleaned my engine bay a few times. My Corolla's engine bay would stay pristine and I was proud to show it off. With the MR2's getting dirty so quick I stopped trying. Maybe because I don't have my diaper on.

@haloruler64

That Corolla is looking proper.

I have the front half of my diaper on, so it's not too hard to keep it clean in there.  Still, I spend about 20 minutes a week on it.  Having an air compressor attachment with a long skinny tube at the end helps a lot, I can blow dirt out of tiny places that would normally be out of reach.

My bottle of 303 finally arrived today.  I left work at lunch time to go wash my car... again.  I washed it yesterday, but so what.

I went and washed it, and while it was wet I sprayed down everything but the stayfast cloth top.  Then I hit it with the water again, and it was like a magical transformation.

THANK YOU for bringing this product to our attention.  I didn't take any pictures, but it looks just like Haloruler's and also the product advertisements.  This product works exactly as advertised.  How long does it last?  I can't say... yet.  But I will say.  So stay tuned.

Glad to help! Glad to see people enjoying a genuinely good product. I use a lot of detailing products, some very expensive, but this is just such a good product for almost anyone on the cheap.

So, does it go under or over the wax? Or is wax now obsolete?

Well... if the car's not waxed, it goes instead of the wax. But you can wax your car and use this on subsequent washes to kinda protect the wax. Add another protection layer. But I don't think you should wax OVER this.

For my Lexus, this replaced wax. But realistically, it does serve as a different product with overlapping features. It's better at beading, also adds slickness. A quality wax will add more shine though. I think it's also a thicker layer, well I assume. It's REALLY hard to say when there are 100 different products doing the same thing now. 

Natural wax topper over sealant has been popular in the detailing community.  Natural wax  is far less shiny than sealants but that is the point if you own a concourse car.  Natural wax is about depth and quality of the shine (subdued) which sealants cant mimic.   Sealants give off a plasticky finish and too much shine especially on dark colors.  I still have a jar of white carnauba that I plan to use for a photo shoot but once that is done I will go back to a sealant but when I use the stuff its like looking into into a deep dark pool.  Keep in mind that the carnauba waxes found at your local auto parts store is crap and most of the products that people use these days are not waxes but cheap sealants.  

Usually synthetic right? Yeah real carnuba wax is really deep and wet but lasts like a week. Really a car show thing. That's part of why I liked the 303. Not too shiny, and fairly deep. Nothing like  a wax but not super gloss.

Posted by: @haloruler64

Usually synthetic right? Yeah real carnuba wax is really deep and wet but lasts like a week. Really a car show thing. That's part of why I liked the 303. Not too shiny, and fairly deep. Nothing like  a wax but not super gloss.

   It depends.  The good carnauba waxes can last a good month or two.   There are varying degrees of sealants and waxes. There are some sealants that try to mimic the natural wax look like the Ultima Paint Guard  plus but it actually gives off a different look as if the car has 10 coats of clear.  

 I have both the P21S carnauba and the Pinnacle Sovereign.  The P21S is very good because it lasts and it can repeal dirt. Its also not terribly expensive and comes with a quantity that can last for years.  

  The Pinnacle Sovereign on the other hand is a weird one.  It attracts dust and needs to be wiped down often. It can last about a month and its application is very easy because it goes on like an oil. The big downside is the cost which is now $100 for a small amount that can only do 25 applications.   However despite all this, its the best wax as far as looks go and it shows up in pictures.  If you do a search you will see what I mean as the cars look unreal by the way it absorb all of the light where you don't see any specular highlights or gleam. You actually see a clear reflections of the clouds and sky and the cars paint looks darker, almost magical.  

 This is the stuff I would only use for photoshoots or car shows because it is hard to live with.  At the time when I bought my small bottle I paid $60 and it was a hard pill to swallow but the curiosity got me and now that its $100 I would pass on it and get the P21S.