Ceramic Pro for Real?

JRoman said:

Thanks for your comments but do you mind to go deeper on this? I have been toying with the idea here for a while now of using a self-applied coating. Based on the longevity of yours and the time it took to apply, would you recommend WG or any other particular products? Any other details/hints would be appreciate.

TIA.

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There are step by step instructions in a lot of places but I will give you my routine.

Items needed:
1.) Clay Bar
2.) Detail spray or water with a little soap in it.
3.) D/A polisher. I use Griots, some like Porter Cable and some like the Flex. PC is the cheapest and Flex is most expensive. You can do this by hand but I use my buffer/polisher all the time as I have multiple cars.Well worth the 200.00 bucks in my opinion.
4.) Paint correction kit. I use a Mequires kit. Best I have used to date
5.) Ceramic coating
6.) If you want a real high shine, you can use wax after the ceramic coating.
7.) GOOD microfiber towels. Not the ones you get a BJ's or Costco

1.) Wash the car thoroughly.
2.) Do not bother drying the car.
3.) Do one panel at a time. Spray it down with the detail spray.
4.) Kneed the clay bar in your hands until it softens a bit.
5.) Make the clay bar flat so it can cover the larger area.
6.) Wipe the clay bar over the paint. The panel MUST be wet or you can damage your paint. DO NOT rub the clay bar. If you feel any resistance, the panel is not wet enough. You can keep spraying the panel as you go.Let it glide over the paint.
7.) Do the entire painted surface of the car with the clay bar. Keep folding it over and kneed it is as you go.
8.) If you accidentally drop the clay bar, throw it away and use a new clay bar. Anything that gets on the clay will scratch your paint.
9.) Wash the car once you have finished with the clay bar.
10.) You can dry your car but I typically don't if doing paint correction.
11.) Follow the instructions that come with the paint correction kit.
12.) Do one 2' x 2' area at a time.
13.) Wipe off the hazed paint correction. Do not wait too long. It should haze over but if you wait too long it will be a bit*h to get off.
14.) Go over all the painted surfaces with some detail spray. Use bright lights to find any spots of the paint correction/polish. This step is critical as once you use the ceramic coating that will need to come off if you missed a spot and went over it with the coating.
15.) Apply the ceramic coating as directed.
16) most ceramic coatings come off very easily. Work on small areas and wipe the hazed coating off.
17.) OPTIONAL: Add you favorite wax

I still wash and wax my cars regularly but the ceramic coating will last between 18-24 months. The more your car is in the weather, the more often you'll need to repeat the above procedure.

This is just my procedure. I'm sure everyone has a different way to do this. Some prefer just to take it to a detail shop. I sent a car to one once. It was a black car and they wrecked the paint but using a rotary and burned through the clear in spots. They also left thousands of micro scratches in the paint. This was a very reputable shop that got great reviews.

I opted for a ceramic coating (Ceramic Pro), professionally applied. Paint correction, clay bar, polish and 3 coats of the ceramic for the whole car, except the wheels. Process took 2.5 days to allow proper drying time between coats, and was done indoors in a sealed room to prevent the intrusion of dust/debris. $1300.00 for the three coat process. An effective coating requires the proper preparation and application, so you have to decide how valuable your time is if you want to go this route.

The value for me was a high degree of scratch resistance and the elimination of any need for waxing / polishing. The scratch resistance is real, though it will not provide the same level of protection as a thick film against direct high speed debris impacts you might suffer on the road. But, there's scratch resistance on the entire car, which works for keys, fingernails, little Fido's claws, metal parts on clothing, etc.

It's not typical to get a PPF on your doors, mirror backs, trunk lid, roof, etc. You can, but it will be $$$. So, in deciding what was most important to me, in addition to addressing the very weak factory clear coat and thin paint, I opted for ceramic over PPF. I do not like to wash and wax and almost any contact anywhere on the car was bound to leave a mark. Marks do aggravate me, more so than dirt. And, the coating should provide some level of UV protection, which is relatively low priority since the car is garage kept.

After two track days and daily driving for many months, I'm happy to say that the car still looks as good as when the coating was first applied. With three coats and a rejuvinator 1x year (applied like a spray on wax), I'm told that I can get 8-10 years of service life from the application. Time will tell if that's true.

If you're going to keep the car for several years, then a full body coat can make sense. If you're likely to flip the car in 1-3 years, then maybe PPF over the high impact areas makes more sense. If you enjoy claying, waxing and polishing--or paying people to do that regularly--then maybe a ceramic coat is not valuable.

Sprintamx said:

I opted for a ceramic coating (Ceramic Pro), professionally applied. Paint correction, clay bar, polish and 3 coats of the ceramic for the whole car, except the wheels. Process took 2.5 days to allow proper drying time between coats, and was done indoors in a sealed room to prevent the intrusion of dust/debris. $1300.00 for the three coat process. An effective coating requires the proper preparation and application, so you have to decide how valuable your time is if you want to go this route.

The value for me was a high degree of scratch resistance and the elimination of any need for waxing / polishing. The scratch resistance is real, though it will not provide the same level of protection as a thick film against direct high speed debris impacts you might suffer on the road. But, there's scratch resistance on the entire car, which works for keys, fingernails, little Fido's claws, metal parts on clothing, etc.

It's not typical to get a PPF on your doors, mirror backs, trunk lid, roof, etc. You can, but it will be $$$. So, in deciding what was most important to me, in addition to addressing the very weak factory clear coat and thin paint, I opted for ceramic over PPF. I do not like to wash and wax and almost any contact anywhere on the car was bound to leave a mark. Marks do aggravate me, more so than dirt. And, the coating should provide some level of UV protection, which is relatively low priority since the car is garage kept.

After two track days and daily driving for many months, I'm happy to say that the car still looks as good as when the coating was first applied. With three coats and a rejuvinator 1x year (applied like a spray on wax), I'm told that I can get 8-10 years of service life from the application. Time will tell if that's true.

If you're going to keep the car for several years, then a full body coat can make sense. If you're likely to flip the car in 1-3 years, then maybe PPF over the high impact areas makes more sense. If you enjoy claying, waxing and polishing--or paying people to do that regularly--then maybe a ceramic coat is not valuable.

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You are right. I find detailing to be enjoyable and it's about my only quiet time and I find it relaxing. I did put PPF on my GT350 as I intend to keep it forever. That said, I still use a ceramic coating on top. Many PPF installers will also offer this service when you get it installed.

If you'd rather pay, that is fine. I only suggest you see other cars they did. They can really fu*k up your paint if they use a 17 year old kid with a rotary.

BTW, NEVER use a D/A or rotary on PPF. You will screw it up big time.

Thanks [MENTION=24389]Mike02z[/MENTION] for the tips!!

Now I need to find someone local that knows how to wash and apply it, to teach me.

lemers said:

Now I need to find someone local that knows how to wash and apply it, to teach me.

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I'd say stop over but looks like you're not within driving distance

Mike02z said:

I'd say stop over but looks like you're not within driving distance

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Well my car if only a few hours away from Holland, Neitherlands.

lemers said:

Well my car if only a few hours away from Holland, Neitherlands.

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:lol:

I was thinking of doing this on my 350 ended up getting the whole front of the car ( hood, bumper, fenders) plus side windows and rear quarter panel done with Xpel Ultimate self healing clear bra.

My head is spinning on all the paint wax polymer sealant clear film product threads so I'm just going to ask here; where is the best place to buy the highest quality 3m style clear bra kits these days?

I have worked with the films quite a bit on planes and done a few cars and so I am happy to screw it up myself on a Saturday than schedule and pay someone else.

Seems the last kit I got had a couple different thicknesses depending on the flexibility required. Anyone research this or have a favorite supplier ?

Ceramic Pro has been great in my GT350. Its so essy to wash and clean, no waxxing for hours afterwards. My significant other was so happy to support me and her comment was "if it helps you woend kess time cleaning and waxxing, tis worth every penny."

i did mine myself soon as i got it home from the dealer .. clayed it washed it with dawn and bought the c quartz uk kit. came with eraser spray. reload and c quartz,and applicators .. it very easy to do if your not paint correcting.. mine was flawless so... asked the dealer to not even wash it..

have a few picks of after i did the car

im going to erase it and do another coat before winter

robwlf said:

i did mine myself soon as i got it home from the dealer .. clayed it washed it with dawn and bought the c quartz uk kit. came with eraser spray. reload and c quartz,and applicators .. it very easy to do if your not paint correcting.. mine was flawless so... asked the dealer to not even wash it..

have a few picks of after i did the car

im going to erase it and do another coat before winter

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Looks good.

Pays to have detailer friends. Corrected and coated my GT for $500.

ryant601 said:

Pays to have detailer friends. Corrected and coated my GT for $500.

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$500 is pretty reasonable. Considering the bottle will cost you $80-100 to do yourself. At that point it's not much more.

But Im sorry, IMO the people paying a detailer $1200-1500+ at $75-100/hour of actual time spent are insane IMO; or believing it took them 30 hours to do the process. Dry time doesnt count as work time as nothing is being done; so it doesnt matter if it took 2 days total.

So with material costs and say even 15 hours of labor, this process should not cost over $1,000 absolutely max. There is no reason it should take more than 15 working hours (and that is pretty generous amount of time) to wash, clay, polish a car, and wipe on some coating. Not on an S550 that cannot possibly be more than 2 years old only beginning to be sold 2 years ago to the public. It should NOT need heavy correction like a daily driver from 2001.

1 hour max to wash, 1 hour max to clay, 5 hours MAX to compound/polish (personal experience too), and 2 hours max to wipe down and apply the coating. Another 1 hour per layer if multiples. Any more time they are milking your wallet to justify high fees.

And if it's a shop and they have someone doing the work for them then they are paying them $10-12/hour (average detailer hourly- google it). The rest is in the owner's pocket as profit.

Reasonable to me for the job would be about $750; paying more is just getting ripped off. And that's still $50/hour for 13 hours plus a generous $100 in materials (they get the coating less than retail cost to us obviously; tack on some cleaning agents and compound/polish which may total $10-20 for your car).

OBVIOUSLY if detailers werent getting wealthy off this fad at high profit rates, they wouldnt be offering the service.