In 2020, ceramic coatings are more popular than ever. There are hundreds of brands and knock offs of each other that it can often be super confusing. Mid 2020, Graphene Coatings come on to the scene. Similar to when ceramic coatings come out, there is an extremely toxic reaction to those people that are brand loyal and that don’t like to see anything new or immediately believe that something new is snake-oil.

Graphene coatings in the consumer area are ranging from about $80-$100. In the “professional quality” for “certified installers” range, anywhere from $150-$200. Those are some significant price points.

In comes 303 with their take on the Graphene Coating with their “303 Graphene Nano Spray Coating“.

303 Claims this about their 303 Graphene Nano Spray Coating:

• 1+ Year of Premium Protection
• Lowers surface temperature, reducing water-spotting
• High water contact angle, sheds water quickly
• Easy to use! Black paint? Direct sunlight? No problem!
• Great for use on chrome, wheels, trim, and glass!

it retails at $19.99 a bottle. Those are some rather BOLD claims for a product with such a small price tag.

303 Launches the product after putting it into the hands of several Youtube Influencers, such as Jason @ Chicago Auto Pros (who proceeds to blow open the entire Graphene Market with his no-bs direct comparison to a lead ceramic coating) who posts a video that eventually causes the severing of a tie with a well known Graphene Coating manufacturer. It also gets sent to Apex Detail and Pan the Organizer.

I personally went and bought 3 bottles of the 303 Graphene Nano Spray Coating Launch Edition from 303’s website before even watching anyone video because I knew it would be blowing the graphene market wide open.

The 303 Graphene Nano Spray Coating is rated to be used in direct sunlight, can be installed directly over an existing ceramic coating, wax, or sealant, and does NOT need to be installed on a corrected surface. (Be advised, it always recommended you polish a vehicle prior to installing a resin-carrier coating to ensure proper curing of the molecular matrix in the coating to a level surface). Remember that 1 Year claim is subject to variables – how the vehicle is driven, how often it is washed, if it is stored outside, and how clean the vehicle is when the coating is installed.

Installing 303 Graphene Nano Spray Coating

So I had a customer in our shop with a 2020 Buick Envision. Super nice looking car, great paint condition. We performed a light surface enhancement polish and then applied the 303 Graphene Nano Spray Coating.

This coating is a solvent resin-carrier based coating, although the resin-carrier base isn’t crazy strong like traditional glass bottle ceramic coatings, you can smell it as soon as you spray it, which is a dead giveaway that there is a significant amount of the solvent present in the coating. You should always wear gloves and ensure there is plenty of ventilation when working with a solvent product – it can be extremely dangerous to handle solvents on bare skin and breathing heavy concentrations of solvent fumes can be fatal.

After polishing, we performed an IPA wipe down of the entire vehicle to remove any possible polish residue left behind.

(Shown is our 303 Graphene Nano Spray Coating Install Kit – It includes 3 of our GREEN SHORTY 350 GSM Short Pile Microfiber Towels, a Pair of Nitrile Gloves, a Saver Applicator, and the 303 Graphene Nano Spray Coating)

We used a Thin Microfiber Saver Applicator to install the coating. After applying the coating 2 or 3 times to the applicator, it becomes saturated with the coating, making it very easy to stretch the product over a larger area and use very little, since the applicator isn’t absorbing a ton of the product.

Shake the bottle very well and spray the applicator with 3 sprays of product. You will see the graphene deposit on to the applicator with a dark-colored tint. 

In a cross-hatch pattern, wipe the applicator over a 2 x 2 section on the vehicle. Once you have a feel for how the product applies and wipes off, you can wipe this over entire panels at a time while waiting for it to haze. This is how it will look after you first apply it.

 After applying, wait 2-3 minutes for the coating to “haze over” – it will cure to a white, cloudy, sweaty haze.

Now, take your GREEN SHORTY microfiber towel and wipe the area in a circular motion. We use a circular motion to ensure that you don’t push the coating around and leave high spots on the vehicle. This coating is extremely user-friendly so high spots level very quickly. There is no need to machine polish off high spots, even after curing. You can simply apply more product to that area to reanimate it and level it. I like to use one towel to “circle wipe” the majority of the coating and then use another towel to buff off the rest to a high gloss finish.

While wiping off, you should feel the surface turn to “butter” under the towel. It’s not insanely slick like a true ceramic coated surface but the buttery slick feeling is absolutely there.

You can also install 303 Graphene on plastic trim. You can see here in the photo, it lights up the trim exactly the way a traditional coating does, which is a great sign for the amount of resin solvent content in the coating.

We also installed 303 Graphene Nano Spray Coating onto the front windshield to provide superb water repellency to increase driver safety. The application method is the same. You should make sure you use SEVERAL clean microfiber towels (Like our QuickNap MEAN GREEN Waffle Weave) to ensure the surface is clean. I also use an IPA Spray as the final window cleaning step prior to installing. Crosshatch half of the windshield with the saver applicator. 

Allow to flash off to a white, sweaty/beady haze. Approximately 2-3 minutes.

Then use a GREEN SHORTY 350 GSM Microfiber Towel to circle-wipe the coating off of the glass. Use a second towel to buff to perfect clarity. 

Repeat the process on the opposite side. Be sure to wipe the coating on to the wiper blades to ensure that you don’t get “skipping” across the glass. 

Treat the vehicle like any other coated vehicle. Consider these factors when caring for your vehicle:

• Avoid touch tunnel washes. They are abrasive and will strip the coating off of the vehicle.
• If using a self-service, do not use the pre-soak setting OR the foaming brush. They are dirty and can and will scratch! 
• Touchless washes should always be a last resort if you cannot hand wash. The chemicals used in Touchless Washes are VERY acidic and extremely aggressive. 
• Hand wash using a soft wash mitt (like our EZMitt) and use a PH Neutral Soap like Auto Surface Protection DRIFT Ceramic Coating Safe Shampoo Concentrate.
• Remember to always wash top to bottom, left to right!
• Dry using a soft microfiber towel. We recommend our THICC Drying Towels. Using a drying aid with that towel is a good idea to reduce towel damage. We recommend using our KINETIC Extremely Slick Detail Spray as a topper product to give the coating some adding slickness and additional protection. 

That’s it, you’ve installed 303 Graphene Nano Spray Coating on your vehicle to provide amazing gloss and protection!

Thanks for reading this How-To article. I hope it helped you to better understand the process of installing the coating on your vehicle.

-Gabe Fletcher