Silver Carbon Fiber Engine Cover 4.2L XKR
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There are so many items like automotive, motorcycles, guns, you name it that would look great with this process. The patterns are unlimited and the end user can be very creative with their individual pattern designs.
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From: Toronto, Canada
Richard, as an aside, if you have marble or granite counter tops in your kitchen, the Black Label Surface Coating is friggen unbelievable on them. They are incredibly shiny, smooth and best, if you spill anything on it, you just use a micro fiber towel dampened with warm water and it lifts even grease right off without any effort. That stuff is amazing. Can hardly wait to apply it to my car when the weather improves. Have you done yours yet?
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Richard, as an aside, if you have marble or granite counter tops in your kitchen, the Black Label Surface Coating is friggen unbelievable on them. They are incredibly shiny, smooth and best, if you spill anything on it, you just use a micro fiber towel dampened with warm water and it lifts even grease right off without any effort. That stuff is amazing. Can hardly wait to apply it to my car when the weather improves. Have you done yours yet?
https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/d...review-112622/
The Glass Coating was awesome......
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From: Maui
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I have seen several photographics and videos of wheels that have been Hydrographic coated. They do have a clear coat applied over the pattern, so i would think it really depneds on the thickness and hardness of the clear coat.
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Richard, as an aside, if you have marble or granite counter tops in your kitchen, the Black Label Surface Coating is friggen unbelievable on them. They are incredibly shiny, smooth and best, if you spill anything on it, you just use a micro fiber towel dampened with warm water and it lifts even grease right off without any effort. That stuff is amazing. Can hardly wait to apply it to my car when the weather improves. Have you done yours yet?
Took your recommendation....did all the granite countertops in the house with the Pinnacle Black Diamond Glass Coating product.....the results were
amazing.
Did the Pinnacle treatment to my Porsche 981.....https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/d...review-112622/
Are going to pursue the Hydrographic Coating?
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From: Pacific Northwest
Grrr Just went to drop off my engine cover to be dipped in "carbon fiber look", only to be told it cant be done...... The ridges and valleys on the base XK cover are way too deep for the film to enter. In the end I was told it would look like garbage, and there was nothing they could do to prevent it....
Bummed...
Bummed...
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Grrr Just went to drop off my engine cover to be dipped in "carbon fiber look", only to be told it cant be done...... The ridges and valleys on the base XK cover are way too deep for the film to enter. In the end I was told it would look like garbage, and there was nothing they could do to prevent it....
Bummed...
Bummed...
Cool Coatz Hydrographic Coatings Hoschton Georgia Cool Coats Water Transfer Printing Liquid Printing
I shipped mine from NM and Jim shipped his to Coolcoatz from MI. Turn around time was about 10-14 days from the time it leaves your home.
Cost was $180 to $200 complete.
There are good Hydrocoaters and fair Hydrocoaters. Get a SECOND OPINION. You will be glad you did. The results can be awesome.
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From: Pacific Northwest
Hard to believe that the Hydrocoater could not do the job. I suggest that you snap a photo (good resolution and a few different angles) and send the photo to Bill at CoolCoatz in Georgia. These guys did my Jag engine cover from a 2009 and another one of LstFords, which I believe was a 2008 and both turned out GREAT.
Cool Coatz Hydrographic Coatings Hoschton Georgia Cool Coats Water Transfer Printing Liquid Printing
I shipped mine from NM and Jim shipped his to Coolcoatz from MI. Turn around time was about 10-14 days from the time it leaves your home.
Cost was $180 to $200 complete.
There are good Hydrocoaters and fair Hydrocoaters. Get a SECOND OPINION. You will be glad you did. The results can be awesome.
Cool Coatz Hydrographic Coatings Hoschton Georgia Cool Coats Water Transfer Printing Liquid Printing
I shipped mine from NM and Jim shipped his to Coolcoatz from MI. Turn around time was about 10-14 days from the time it leaves your home.
Cost was $180 to $200 complete.
There are good Hydrocoaters and fair Hydrocoaters. Get a SECOND OPINION. You will be glad you did. The results can be awesome.
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The hydrographic coating film also has a clear coat that protects the finish. I cover is not exposed to any type of scratching etc.
So it continues to look as good as the day the work was completed.
Hydrographic coatings have been proven tested and we see so many new applications of this use. It is becoming a great alternative to air brushing many items like racing helmets etc.
I am a believer in this method, and think it's pretty cool. I did alot of research and spoke with many shops before sending my engine cover out for the hydrographic coating. I think I selected the right shop even though it was 1700 miles away from New Mexico.
Last edited by richzak; Jun 13, 2014 at 10:17 AM.
Looks Good To Me
As most of the forum members know I am not one for making modifications to my 2009 Jaguar XKR Portfolio Edition Convertible. It is one beautiful luxury automobile built as is. HOWEVER, over the past several weeks there has been talk about engine covers for the XK/XKR/XKR-S models. Most of talk was reference Carbon Fiber. While these carbon fiber engine covers look awesome, I could not consider spending the $3000 to $3300 which seems to be the present cost for these covers. I consider the carbon fiber covers to be a cosmetic enhancement only. They do look cool.
I was also quite interested in learning about a topic which was briefly mentioned on the forum, which was Hydrographic Coatings. So after spending quite a bit of time researching (which I love to do) I felt educated about this process. I then searched via quotes with many different Hydrographic Coating shops for prices to experiment coating my 4.2L engine cover in a Carbon Fiber pattern. I ultimately choose a Silver Carbon Fiber pattern, compared pricing to competitive shops and ultimately sent the engine cover out 3 weeks ago. Today, I received the engine cover back from the shop which is located very near the Road Atlanta Road Race course, in a smaller town close to Braselton, Ga.
The end result was awesome. Before sending the cover I spoke directly with the company to make sure they were whom I wanted to work with.
I have posted photos of the final result. You can compare a real carbon fiber cover to my Hydrographic Coating cover. The major comparison is pricing.....$3000 vs. $180.
Keep in mind that these Hydrographic Coating shops have numerous patterns to choose from. I went Silver Carbon Fiber as my XKR is painted in Shadow Gray which was a special edition color strictly for the 2009 Portfolio Edition.
The cover was thoroughly cleaned by myself before shipping, to remove any oil based or silicone based contaminants. Once the shop received the cover it was sprayed with a "black" base coat, then dipped into the hydrographics water transfer vat. Then dried, and then clear coated to a satin finish.
The results were awesome and shown below. If anyone wishes to know the vendor, please send me a PM and I will advise who I used. I am sold on this process of Hydrographic Coatings and after these results fully endorse the technology, but don't want to endorse any one shop or vendor.
While some may feel this process is "cheap" and does not look good, I will disagree with that thought.
Here is the results. These are just photos and the in person visual results are quite impressive.
Let me know what you think.
I was also quite interested in learning about a topic which was briefly mentioned on the forum, which was Hydrographic Coatings. So after spending quite a bit of time researching (which I love to do) I felt educated about this process. I then searched via quotes with many different Hydrographic Coating shops for prices to experiment coating my 4.2L engine cover in a Carbon Fiber pattern. I ultimately choose a Silver Carbon Fiber pattern, compared pricing to competitive shops and ultimately sent the engine cover out 3 weeks ago. Today, I received the engine cover back from the shop which is located very near the Road Atlanta Road Race course, in a smaller town close to Braselton, Ga.
The end result was awesome. Before sending the cover I spoke directly with the company to make sure they were whom I wanted to work with.
I have posted photos of the final result. You can compare a real carbon fiber cover to my Hydrographic Coating cover. The major comparison is pricing.....$3000 vs. $180.
Keep in mind that these Hydrographic Coating shops have numerous patterns to choose from. I went Silver Carbon Fiber as my XKR is painted in Shadow Gray which was a special edition color strictly for the 2009 Portfolio Edition.
The cover was thoroughly cleaned by myself before shipping, to remove any oil based or silicone based contaminants. Once the shop received the cover it was sprayed with a "black" base coat, then dipped into the hydrographics water transfer vat. Then dried, and then clear coated to a satin finish.
The results were awesome and shown below. If anyone wishes to know the vendor, please send me a PM and I will advise who I used. I am sold on this process of Hydrographic Coatings and after these results fully endorse the technology, but don't want to endorse any one shop or vendor.
While some may feel this process is "cheap" and does not look good, I will disagree with that thought.
Here is the results. These are just photos and the in person visual results are quite impressive.
Let me know what you think.
