Testing Archives - NDG PRODUCTS

August 28, 2018September 17, 2018

Ms Renault Megane from top of a hill

We read the Facebook trash and treasure ad with interest as it has all the elements of what we want for a Nano/Mechanical blog project. So for this blog this is where the adventure starts.

The Megane was described as having a mechanical failure but well looked after in it’s life. It was about 200kms from our place which is a further away then we would like but we decided to reach out and see what this car held for us. After many months for what started out to be a reasonably straight forward Nano/Mechanical restoration ended up dishing out lots of surprises as you will read below, but we did get it finished.

We arranged to go and see the car to determine if it was a feasible project and if so buy the car, then go back and get the car on a car trailer using one of our other DIY project cars as the tow vehicle.

We left to go see the car and hit road works all the way delaying us about an hour but on getting there we were greeted by a massive great dane closely followed by 2 chihuahuas and 2 Shetland ponies who looked on with slight interest.

The Megane was sitting on a hill on it’s own. We took a look at the car and saw that the car had been licked clean in some places by a big tongue, possibly from a cow or that great dane. The body was in good condition with some battle scares in the usual spots but for our purposes these are acceptable.

We could not see the mechanical fault that was described so we spent about an hour looking at the basics. There were no faults in the OBC so we determined that the problem was more than likely the cam belt was broken. Super hard to see the condition of the belt on these engines without some effort. So we decided to buy the car anyway.

A few days later we leave pre-dawn and drive the 200kms with a car trailer using our Mazda Tribute to do the heavy hauling. Surprisingly the Tribute did the towing of the trailer very easily.

We get to the Megane, load up and head back to base. On the way we stop to check the tie-down tensions out font of a second hand wares shop that had a lychee covered VW beetle for sale out front. The owner came out to find out more about Ms Megane’s issues and fate. During the conversation he made an offer that was well above what we paid for but we gracefully declined his offer and got on our way.

The following day we decided to have a look at the cam belt and got to work. As suspected the cam belt idler pulley bearing had failed and the belt had broken as a result. We needed to remove the head anyway to see what level of damage had been caused as this is like almost all engines of this era are interference engines so the pistons and valves occupy the same space, meaning there would be some internal engine damage.

Engine damage

A few hours later we had our answers. very minimal damage had occured to the internal engine. Very, very lucky. We sent the Head off to one of the finest Automotive engineers we know in Mr. Phil Baker to recondition the head. While that is being done we will get to work on the rest of the car.

What we need to do:

Wash and claybar the car with NDG Mega Gloss wash
Cut and polish the paintwork and carry out paint correction
Replace the passenger door regulator
Remove buckle from front rim
Find radio code
Hyperseal the body and all other plastic parts
Order trim clips
Refit plastic trims that are missing screws
Replace the water pump and other seals
Service the injectors
Order colour coded touch-up paint

Mid way phase

We get to work on locating and ordering the parts we need.
We start on the bodywork NDG DIY bodywork coating process.
Wash and claybar the car
Carry out paint correction on several areas of the car.
Re-secure any body plastic parts
Clean engine bay and apply NDG Instant engine gloss
Recharge battery
Check and change all fuses

Some weeks later,

We assembled the engine replacing the waterpump, idler, Timing belt and tension and various bolts and this got the Megane back on the road.

We took it for it’s first road test. 1 and 2nd gear it all sounded good then as we grab 3rd we hear a bearing growl start-up in the gearbox and this only got worse in 4th and 5th. Dam, this is not something we needed to have happen!

Out comes the gearbox and stripped down. Noisy bearing found and the search started for the bearing kit. No kits in Australia so a kit was ordered from the UK which arrived a week later.

With the Gearbox rebuilt and installed into the car we get to detailing the car and Hyperseal the body and plastics and fitting the new passenger front window regulator.

All done.

Plan is to drive the car for a couple of weeks and then put it onto the open market to sell. But, it turned out so dam nice ans so much fun to drive it is tempting to keep it!!!.

An Update to the Megane.

It is certainly a head turner and people want to know what it is, Sounds strange as they are common but not so in rural Australia, they are around but tend to blend in as most are standard looking commuters.

The car was delivered to it’s new owner Narelle in Sept 18 and, she loved the car the moment she laid eyes on it.

August 5, 2018

Hands-on experiment DIY Style

During our product development process we use focus groups and live off the street people to test our processes so we grab a young couple who were in the street and in exchange for their services gave them a bag of NDG car care goodies.

We we wanted them to do was read some very basic instructions on applying Hyperseal to their car and then go for it with him working on one side and her on the other. Our objective was to backup our claim that NDG Hyperseal is truely a DIY (Do it yourself).

It was an interesting exercise as what we were looking for was can you get the same result using your own style?

So how did they go?

Besides the very difference of opinion as to the right technique and the wrong it was all pretty straight forward. We were asked to give an opinion as to who did the best work? It could have been a diplomatic answer but we hands down said that her work was the best.

Bottom line in this experiment was that it really doesn’t matter what technique you use you will still get a great result with our Hyperseal.

NDG HYPERSEAL IS A TRUE DIY NANO COATING

You can by Hyperseal here

NDG Hyperseal

July 29, 2018

NDG’s 2014 Summary

2014 has been our biggest growth period with most of that being through the launch of our NDG Self Healing coatings. Our testing and product development is going leaps and bounds and we have many new and innovative products being readied to launch in the coming 24months.

The market acceptance of our brand and products has been excellent.

Below are just some images of some of the projects we have done this year.

July 29, 2018July 29, 2018

First cross country test USA

2013 was our first fore-ray into the Nanoscopic world and what we found was very intriguing and we wanted to know more but in order to understand what it was we needed to live with for some time and this is what we did.

One of the very early products for cars was a ceramic coating which we were unsure how to take it to market and fully explain what it did so we do what all car guys do and go on a road trip.

The car we used was and Oxford green 1998 BMW 740IL, perfect for what we wanted to do as that colour shows any marks, blemishes, and any soiling so we starting in Florida we coated the car with the Nano ceramic coating, nano tire shine and windscreen coating, packed up, and headed on a 3,200 mile drive west toward Los Angeles.

We took our time doing the crossing taking 7 days to step foot on Santa Monica pier via Las Vegas. This was the BMW’s 10th transcontinental USA crossing so we had a good feel for any changes in the way the car performed.

Here is what we found

Fuel economy had improved. The car always got 26 MPG but we noticed that we got a solid 28MPG with the coating on the car
The claim of not needing to wash your car again was not accurate. The car still got dirty as it normally would but it was far easier to clean
The ceramic coating did give the paintwork depth and made the metalic flakes shine more
The windscreen coating didn’t work as we were told, that it repelled rain but we did find that it was much easier to clean off bug splatter and that rain drop dispelled very well and the windshield wipers were much quieter
The tire shine didn’t last 2 days so we count that as a non-starter.

After this trip we saw that the products although good they were not great. we believed that they could be made great so we formed Nano Development Group and from that the Brand NDG.

We employed a chemical engineer who specialised in Nano technologies and started on the long expensive road to product development.

We plan to expand our testing to other parts of the world and develop products that are DIY in their application rather than products that need to have specialist applicators.

Stay tuned for further blogs.

July 28, 2018

Keep an eye out for Mad Max

Our long term test car is still at it, driving around the vast Australian landscape but not without it’s challenges.

Just last week we had the turbo Ford in the workshop to do our annual inspection after it had rear suspension failure somewhere out on a country road. It had to be recovered and brought in. The car is now at 230,000kms on the odometer which is far beyond our original 60,000km test and now well beyond the 2nd 60,000km testing and into the 3rd 60,000 test cycle.

We are super pleased with the results we are getting from our products and this car has helped us understand how far we can predict that our product will last for and how robust they really are.

We prep the car with some new experimental products and some of our existing products while the suspension is being repaired.

We wash & claybar the body with Mega Gloss Wash to have a look at the condition of the paintwork and Hyperseal. We find that the Leading edges of the car are holding up well and the Bugs are still easy to remove but the water beading has dropped off. The horizontal surfaces that are most exposed to the sun and acid rain are doing well and no halo’s or swirl marks are appearing and the acid rain fallout is easily removed without any ingress into the clearcoat.
We re-coat the car with Hyperseal. We found the application to be easier than the first time we did it so reapplication after extended periods is no problem.
We take a good look at the Shield 120 that was applied to the windscreen and see that there is very little pitting on the glass and no cracks or impacts to be found. This is 2 years of service for 130,000kms.
We then applied Screen Shield which is a stronger product for impacts and is a permanent solution for the windscreen.
We apply our Long Lasting Tyre shine to all tyres
We apply some experimental products to various components

After replacing the lower coil over suspension bolt (one of the problems with coil overs is that any failure will cause the car to bottom out with no spring support).

Keep and eye out for Mad max — Recovery truck loaded

On the road again

No sooner had we photographed the car and it was on the road again going west into the Australian interior desert for a very long, hard drive to Adelaide via White Cliffs and Broken Hill, MAD MAX territory.

The end of the trip findings

This trip the ford travelled over 5000kms on a variety of terrains in borderline extreme conditions. We check the condition of the coatings after the trip and we are very pleased with the results.

We will take our findings to develop some of the still secret experimental products further and finalise some of the others.

We will keep updating blogs on the test car over the next 12 months when the car will be at the end of it’s service life.

Typical outback test road — Keep an eye out for Mad Max

Mid 2018

It was decided to retrofit the original coil and shock suspension system after several more suspension bolt failures that when happens the car is immobilised. Along with this we started looking around for a replacement car as the reliability of the ford was starting to become an issue.

Some time later we found a 2006 BMW 740Li with 100,000kms and matte grey vinyl wrap. See blog

On driving back from picking up the BMW and a final drive around Mount Panorama endurance circuit a kangaroo jumped out in front of the car and caused big damage to the car..

This spells the end of the road for our long term test car.

Kangaroo Impact

March 7, 2018March 7, 2018

Infrastructure Solar Panels and NDG Solar Flare

We have developed several Solar panel coatings under our name Solar Flare that have different characteristics for different locations and applications. To get to this stage took a lot of testing and validation in various parts of the world.

We tested on infrastructure large array solar farm panels to ensure correct tune levels and not void the panel manufacturers warranty

We tested on domestic solar panels for performance over the 4 different seasons and environments

Domestic Panel with NDG Solar Flare applied. Great colouration and clarity

We tested on solar panels for government and city infrastructure structures over 2 years.

Long term testing in extreme environments on LED Solar street lights

What we have now is a solid range of solar panel coatings that are tuned to do specific jobs.

Long Term Solar testing Biosphere 2 Arizona USA

We are very proud of our range of NDG Solar Flare products.

We are committed to developing the range of Solar Flare products further in step with the Solar and Renewable energy industries so please contact us for developmental request.

Solar Flare products can be bought here. or send us a message for further information.

March 6, 2018March 6, 2018

Livestock Drinking Trough Test Phase 1

As part of our blogs we will be covering some of the industries where our products are being tested in the field and also in action with our clients.

For this blog we will cover an agricultural element test program with attempting to reduce the amount of algae build-up and to reduce the leakage through cracking that inevitability occurs on a Livestock drinking trough in outback Australia.

For this we will be using one of our main industrial products FPU industrial along with an experimental Nanoscale PU coating.

In March 2017 we travelled from our Australian test facility into the interior of Australia to the edge of the wheat & sheep belt to marginal farming territories to carry out a test on a new large volume trough. We took our long term test ford for a quick outback drive. See the blog about this car here.

One arriving we found that the trough was empty of water and had a very healthy build-up of algae on the sides and plenty of dust. We set to and cleaned the trough in preparation of the coatings.

Once thing we did see was that the concrete forming of the trough had a rough finish and very pitted with micro and macro holing so we were not confident that sealing without compromising the coatings would not occur.

We coated the trough 50% FPU Industrial and 50% experimental PU coating and applied it by painting on with a standard paintbrush. We noticed that there was bubbling through some of the pitting in the concrete which means we will need to include a concrete sealant into the best practises to eliminate the bubbling.

On applying the coatings were touch dry in 10 minutes and imparting a very smooth surface which was the objective and the larger crack that had been leaking was sealed. (the cracking is important to seal as the livestock will dig around the base of the trough to get to the water on the ground. This is especially the case when there is algae buildup in the trough as the livestock do not like the algae in the trough and prefer to dig into the ground which opens the cracking further in the trough)

We will leave this test to run for 12 months and we will revisit the trough in March 2018 to see the results and gain an understanding on what we can do to improve and refine the products for this job.

Stay tuned for Phase 2 revisit to the test site @ 12 months.

March 4, 2018March 29, 2018

60,000km Test

1 year and 60,000kms for our test car

We are always pushing our products to the limits just to see what they can and can’t do. 12 months ago this 2011 Ford Fairmont Ghia had just past the 110,000Km mark when it came to our attention on how many Km’s this car drives each week which at that point in time was about 1500kms per week, sometimes more.

12 months on the car has past the 170,000km mark and time for us to have a really good look at the condition of the Hyperseal coating we put on. We had seen the car on and off during that time but it was just for a moment and it was usually plastered with roadworks mud and spattered insects or it had just come out of a automatic car wash and was looking like it was freshly coated with Hyperseal.

So looking at the numbers.

The Average car gets driven 20,000kms per year and that is the top end number for the motoring.
This Ford has therefore driven 3 years of Km’s and out getting hammered on country and city roads all within 1 year and usually not on the same roads.
It was thought to have had over 50 car washes with 100% of them using harsh automatic carwash chemicals.

The inspection

The car is a state rep’s car for the farming and hardware company called Fjord . We arranged for a visit and a wash with NDG Mega Gloss wash and a look, touch and feel of the paintwork. We also took the car to one of the local detailers for their opinion (truely unbiased opinions come from him)

But first before we washed

The car had taken a lot of large stone impacts on the Bonnet/Hood and there was a lot of insect splattering on the Bonnet and wing mirrors.

Tar and other grime on the side doors
After washing with Mega Gloss wash

After Washing with Mega Gloss wash

All the grime and most of the insects came off with the washing
The Mega gloss and super light refraction that Hyperseal imparts was still just as good as the day it was applied (the owner says that it looks back to new each time it is washed)
We used NDG Bio Crystal magic to remove the remainder of the insects that were harder to remove and found that they had not compromised the Hyperseal protection and had just been baked on with the summer heated hot air flowing over them.
We did a quick claybar on the bonnet and wing mirrors to remove any acid rain and diesel particle adhesions and as we had hopped for the car felt as smooth as it was shinny. (One of the features of Hyperseal is you can do spot repairs without special equipment or special skills).
Once the inspection was over it was time to go out for a sunset photoshoot. (pics below)

The next test phase.

Considering that this car maybe sold within the next 12 months, it’s job is complete. For the effort the owner made in doing this long term test we will coat the car with a new layer of Hyperseal and this time we will do the rims which we didn’t get time to do 12 months ago. We will then ask the owner to take more photos of places he and his car go.

Summary

We are always surprised at how strong NDG Hyperseal is and here is an indisputable test that we had no influence over and the results are spectacular. The local detailer concurred with our observations pretty much work for word. Excellent. We are very thankful to Garry for doing this long term test.

July 22, 2017March 4, 2018

Bling my Lawn Mower

Bling my Mower Challenge

Without sounding a bit Top Gear we are handed these challenges and don’t get a lot of say in what they will be but Bling my Mower is the only way to say this. In all honesty we were thinking something classic as this is what we were told and, our minds went automatically to pre-80’s something but none of us were thinking, LAWN MOWER.

Ok here we go.

This is a 4 year old Honda Mower that has seen it share of lawn hours and it’s share of neglect from the day it was bought. We are going to “Nano the Hell out of it“, just because we can. Our job is to take it from it’s current condition and make it look new, and remain looking new.

What is needed:

Deep clean with NDG Bio crystal Magic
Hyperseal treatment
Time & effort

The results

Well we were all surprised with what we achieved. It really looks new and in fact the owner walked past it thinking it was a new mower that someone else owned. Not such a stupid idea after-all but we are all thinking that a washing machine will come along soon enough.

Here are the photo results:

Before After

July 21, 2017March 7, 2018

Road test across the USA

For this Blog , Road test across the USA, we will give you a look at one of the many ways we test our products prior to launching any of them to market. We took one of our US based cars to a drive across the USA from Fort Lauderdale, Florida to the Pacific coats in Los Angeles to test the beta version of Hyperseal, long life tire shine and leather care.

For this we coated the car front to back on the driver’s side with Hyperseal and the Windshield with Shield 120 and the tires with Long life tire shine which were applied the day we were leaving. To prove a point (that NDG Hyperseal is a DIY product) we did the application in a normal household garage using the basic tools of car detailing.

To start we put our feet into the warm waters of the Atlantic ocean as we plan to do the same thing when we arrive at the Pacific Ocean. We started in a typical Florida super-low cell storm to flooded roads and multiple end to end car crashes all around us to early hour pushing through Alabama where sleepless drivers suffering from micro-sleeping leave the dead straight freeways and roll over (we have seen this every time we do this drive).

On sunrise we arrive on the Texas, Louisiana border where we have a good look at the X5’s condition. It’s turning into the real Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde with the drivers side soiled but no where near the condition of the passenger side which was sporting the typical overnight driving look with splattered bugs and dirty road spray. We pushed on to west Houston for a lunch break and to resupply before hitting the every boring drive to San Antonio to visit the Alamo and get a few key photos. From San Antonio we hit the hill country and then into the central and west Texas desert, stopping overnight at Fort Stockton for a bit of shut eye.

Morning came and the heat was already waiting for the next leg to El Paso by mid afternoon for a refuel, lunch and then push onto Tucson Arizona to our USA Head Office location for a good look at what the drive has dished up so far. Next day we loaded up and continued starting about 1pm for the more rustic part of the drive via Phoenix AZ and then into the High desert plains to Thousand palms for a camp out beneath the stars and a typical cowboy campfire meal.

Next morning we pushed to get to the Pacific by Midday where we symbolically put our feet into the much cooler water of the Pacific ocean.

Looking at the X5 BMW there was a stark difference between each side of the car so it was an excellent test bed for analysing the results and in this case ultimately improving Hyperseal and Shield120 and the Long life tire shine.

We carry out many tests all over the world all the time. Some of these we will blog about from time to time.