When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
As a detailer, I've been using ceramic coatings for ~10 years now. One of the greatest products ever invented for detailing and ease of maintenance. You can correct scratches, but you have to polish the coating off and then reapply it to the affected areas - pretty much the same thing you have to do with a wax. To make sure you don't induce scratches into the coating, you will probably have to alter your washing method. I have always used a touch-free method that involves spraying the car with a foam cannon, letting it sit for a few minutes, and then rinsing off and drying with a leaf blower. Since there is no physical contact with the paint, no surface scratches are induced. Below is a '94 GTS with Gtechniq Crystal Serum Light and topped with Gtechniq Liquid Crystal. As you can see, the coating adds a high level of gloss, but the factor that really determines how well the coating will adhere and how nice it will look is the quality of the paint correction done prior to application. A thorough job will likely take multiple days and at least two steps of intensive polishing.
"To make sure you don't induce scratches into the coating, you will probably have to alter your washing method. I have always used a touch-free method that involves spraying the car with a foam cannon"
Agreed, if you use a car in such a way it's never truly dirty.
And nothing, including you, ever touches it..for all they marketing of "ceramic", it's unusually fragile from any abrasive contact...a finger can be abrasive, FWIW.
I tried (which was probably the problem) ceramic coating on my Charger with mixed results. The rear end is still holding up well. It's no miracle coating that repels water and dirt in my experience though. The hood on the other hand would get bad waterspots etched into the coating anytime rain or anything touched it, didn't happen anywhere else on the car. The only way to get them off was polishing them off. I put wax over the ceramic coating and it stopped the problem for now.
Thanks for the tip Randy! I called this morning to make an appointment. Not sure I'll go the ceramic route, but I'm hoping for some paint correction, buffing and carnuba.
I tried (which was probably the problem) ceramic coating on my Charger with mixed results. The rear end is still holding up well. It's no miracle coating that repels water and dirt in my experience though. The hood on the other hand would get bad waterspots etched into the coating anytime rain or anything touched it, didn't happen anywhere else on the car. The only way to get them off was polishing them off. I put wax over the ceramic coating and it stopped the problem for now.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder! I'd rather drive a delam'd 928 (did this for 2 years back when I DD them) than a slick Corolla any day!
No..but if you ceramic coat it, you can burn lighter fluid on it without damage! (Always a fun scam test to watch)
I remember wandering through the old Orange County weekend swap-meet, where a vendor regularly flashed lighter fluid on a test hood sitting on his table. He'd then add a coating or some sort of miracle wax and show how there was no damage. After the multiple hand polishes and wax layers, the black hood looked stunning. But in the end it was a hood that was waxed a hundred times a week. It should have looked good. Oh, the lighter fluid... it burns cold enough to flash it from your flat hand so long as there is still liquid to evaporate. On the hood, it would have done a lot more damage to the wax if he hadn't lit it.
Nothing like a fire though to ooooh and aaaah the crowd.
I had a professional detailer use Cquartz Pro on my car with excellent results. Now that being said, he spent 20 hours compounding/buffing/polishing out all the scratches and micro scratches first and then another 20 doing 4 coats. One thing about the ceramics, they are not all created equal. It also depends on how many coats and top coats the detailer does as well....
I remember wandering through the old Orange County weekend swap-meet, where a vendor regularly flashed lighter fluid on a test hood sitting on his table. He'd then add a coating or some sort of miracle wax and show how there was no damage. After the multiple hand polishes and wax layers, the black hood looked stunning. But in the end it was a hood that was waxed a hundred times a week. It should have looked good. Oh, the lighter fluid... it burns cold enough to flash it from your flat hand so long as there is still liquid to evaporate. On the hood, it would have done a lot more damage to the wax if he hadn't lit it.
Nothing like a fire though to ooooh and aaaah the crowd.
"cold burn"
It's actually a thing..and aided well by materials that require evaporation to be able to burn at all, which removes heat from the surface it evaporates on.
10-03-2019, 12:52 AM
The Beauty of Paint Correction and Ceramic Coating
