Initial Impressions: Rainaway

With an abundant variety of detailing products on the market, many companies try to differentiate themselves from the crowd. Rainaway is one of them, they offer products that are supposed to outperform and outlast Over-The-Counter(OTC) products.

They offer four different services, which are:

Nano Glass Coating
Nano Paint Coating – Premium
Nano Paint Coating – Diamond
Nano Titanium (Coats a surface to become anti-bacterial, anti-fungal and mold free. Used on interior surfaces)

These services are not available directly to the end user and can only be applied by detailing centres that offer Rainaway services.

This post will show how these products are applied as well as a small glimpse of whether they are worth it.

Read about my initial impressions after the jump!

Products that will be tested is the Nano Glass Coating and Nano Paint Coating(Premium series).

When you opt for the glass coating, the detailing centre will first clean the windscreen with an abrasive powder to remove any oil, grease, etched in waterspots as well as any previously applied products on the windscreen.

I applied the powder with a 4″ Lake Country CCS pad by hand.

As you can see below, the pattern show lines of waterspot etchings on the glass.

I then worked the product in until it does not show any lines or hydrophobic properties.

After rinsing and washing the powder off,

Crystal clear glass with no waterspots,

For the test, the entire front windscreen will be coated with Rainaway’s Nano Glass Coating. The rear windscreen will be split into half, with one half coated with Rainaway and the other with a very popular glass water repellant, Rain-X.

The Nano Glass Coating consists of two chemicals, F1 and F2, which have to be mixed together prior to application. I’m assuming that one if it is the hardener/catalyst.

The mixed solution is then applied with a cotton pad.

The removal process was vastly different between Rain-X and Rainaway Nano Glass Coating.

Rain-X is very much oilier and washing it off with soap and water is the best and cleanest option for removal, I tried that method with the side coated with Rainaway Nano Glass, it was hardly removed.

It had to be dry buffed and any remaining streaks cleaned off with a glass cleaner. Buffing it off was difficult indeed, it was dry and grabby.

Rainaway is also supposed to protect the glass from watermark etching. From my previous experience with Rain-X, it doesn’t do much for protecting in the long term, but it’s water repellency is pretty durable.

That’s all for now for the Nano Glass Coating.

Next product to be tested is Rainaway’s Nano Paint Coating – Premium series. The higher end version is the Diamond Series.

I prepped the paint with some Meguiar’s SwirlX on the Random Orbital Buffer. This was more than enough since it had a paint makeover a few weeks ago.

Worked in,

Buffed off,

Reflection,

Dirt and contaminants removed from the paint,

The Bosch ROB may be an infant in the world of polishing machines, that doesn’t mean it’s unable to kick some butt on its own!

The Honda that had the full monty HERE, had suffered from severe watermark etchings.

However, frequent washing prevented the watermarks from being etched in too deep and was possible to be removed with only the Bosch ROB.

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

I also received instructions to remove any polishing oils on the surface prior to the application of Rainaway Nano Paint Coating.

So I washed the boot and bonnet with Osren Nano Wash, a basic shampoo without any wax or gloss enhancers. The roof wasn’t washed just to see if the oils would affect the durability of the coating.

All horizontal surfaces were then taped into half.

Products and process is as follow.

Driver’s side:
– Apply Duragloss #601 Polish Bonding Agent
– Apply 1st coat of Duragloss #105 Total Performance Polish
– Wait half an hour and buff off
– Apply 2nd coat of Duragloss #105 Total Performance Polish

Passenger’s side:
– Apply 1st coat of Rainaway Nano Paint Coating(Premium)
– Wait half an hour and buff off
– Apply 2nd coat of Rainaway Nano Paint Coating(Premium)

Then during the buffing process, experienced the same thing as the glass coating. VERY difficult to buff off.

On the Duragloss(DG) side, as expected, it came off with ease and leaving a smooth, deep and even finish. On the Rainaway side, it’s like I had to buff through several layers of dried product.

Sorry for the poor picture below, but you can see on the right side(Rainaway) of the picture, the light reflection is not sharp.

The left side(Duragloss) just had light smearing that was removed with a fresh microfibre(MF) cloth.

This could be one of the reasons why it is not available for end users and have to be professionally applied.

In addition to the buffing process, the looks was also different. Now I belong to the camp of ‘looks is in the prep work’, whatever wax or sealant I put on afterwards is merely for protection.

On the DG side, it looked dark and wet. On the Rainaway side, it didn’t look as dark, this could also be due to the coating that I used, which was meant for metallic paint. Rainaway has another type meant for dark coloured vehicles.

Fast forward 2 days with an afternoon of heavy rain.

The bonnet is washed with shampoo, dried and the Rainaway side is buffed off again with a dry MF cloth. Even shampoo solution wouldn’t wash the excess product away!
After much difficulty, the finish was quite even and on par with the DG side.

The pictures are just to show their water beading characteristics, not a comparison as DG #105 isn’t a very strong beader in itself.

However, the Rainaway side repelled water VERY nicely whereas the DG side was a little bit slower. Even so, I do not blame it as that is how it is supposed to be.

Speaking about water beading, I’m one who believes that water beading is not the absolute indicator of protection as a cheap RM19 bottle of Soft99 Fusso Coat can repel water very well, but lacks in protection.

This is where Rainaway is supposed to differ, it’s meant to repel water greatly and at the same time provide great protection.

Although it is too early to tell, there were slight differences between the two halves. The DG side had very tiny waterspots whereas the Rainaway side was as clean as freshly polished paint.

In conclusion, my initial impressions of Rainaway is good, only if you do not have to apply it yourself. It is too early to evaluate it’s performance, therefore, do stay tuned and check back in 1-2 months time for the full product review of Rainaway with videos.

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Thanks for looking!

Many thanks to Darren from Autowaxshop in Kuching, Sarawak for the Rainaway samples!

Feel free to post your comments, or maybe a prediction of the outcome below.

Experiences of current Rainaway users are highly appreciated!

^^V

p.s. Just in case anyone might get the wrong signal, there is NO intention to defame any product, person or company.