Ceramic Coating? Waste of money?

So you guys with PPF....any close up photos of the edges? The local Ford dealership puts their own PPF on their lot cars (not going on mine, that's for sure) and the tolerances of the PPF compared to the panel sizes are plain horrible. There is about 1/2" or more of exposed body panel showing from all panel edges to where the film starts, and the edge seam is incredibly noticeable and holds pollen/dust so you can clearly see where the bra is. They didn't even do the front bumpers (lol) but about 1/3 of the hood and the front of the fenders. It looks like shit. Are the higher quality PPFs better at disguising the edges than that?

I am looking into ceramic coatings just because I don't think I'll have the time to wax mine consistently (honestly will probably just pay for paint correction and apply the DIY Cquartz myself), but I think I want to do PPF on the front bumper.

I don't have any pictures on-hand, but the hood and front fenders on my car have tighter tolerances than those you mentioned. Off the top of my head I'd guess about 1/8 of an inch at the most. The front fascia was installed in pieces (it was computer cut) and you can see where the pieces join together. Not very noticeable unless you're squatting down looking at it from a few feet away.

The edges do tend to show dust, but it's much less noticeable if the body panel tolerances are tighter. In my experience, the dust is more noticeable on horizontal body panels like the quarter hood in your picture rather than on the bumper or even the fenders. Maybe this is due to the airflow pattern when the car is in motion in relation to where the edges are.

It's also worth mentioning that some films have different capabilities like "self-healing", etc. and some have slightly different textures. The XPEL film on my friend's car seems to have more of a slight orange peel effect than the SunTek film on my car. Both films look pretty good and are hard to notice unless you're looking for them from about 5-10 feet away. My best advice is to ask whatever shop you are interested in if you can see examples of their work in person.

On a lighter colored Mustang, I imagine you could notice the clear bra easier. Even on my Magnetic Metallic, its pretty noticeable halfway up my hood. My opinion is that paint chips are even more noticeable and would upset me. So the clear bra, while yeah I can see an edge, is a life saver when it comes to cursing Fords (and all water based paint jobs) paint. As for the ceramic coating, hands down an investment I will always make on every car I have (new cars anyways. Old beaters I dont care about).

Ceramic....Oh Ya!

I did my own CQuartz UK application after wet sanding, polishing, cleaning. Eraser, ...total investment $150 for all products. I have had a Griots DA polisher for quite a few years and that was about $150 then. It is easy to do if you take your time. I went easy on the wetsanding..2,500 then 3,000 then menzurna 300 polish..amazing on its own. I used CQuartz UK formulated for my climate here in a Vancouver, followed by the Reload the next day. My car is always garaged and only driven about 5,000 miles a year. This should last about 3 yrs!!

I notice the "Wax Boys" are, well...."Wax Boys" they love to toil away for hours every 3 weeks or so. I have been there, done that since 89!! Ceramic Coating is the only way to go! ...oh ya, it will not help with car door dings or run away buggies into the side of your car!!

My process was about 3 days of wet sanding, not long days and mostly all the flat areas and everything at kinda eye level ...ie: lower 1/4 of car only polished.

Ceramic Coating was a few hours followed by the Reload application the next day then leaving it in the garage for another day!! It was a great rainy weekend for that!! I will never go back to wax. Deepest shine ever on a Black car and I've had a few!! I follow up with ECH20 a finishing spray once a week. Takes the shine to a whole new level of Deep !!! Check my build video.