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Yes points well taken in video. Looks like poor dealer prep. I also cringe when the dealer wants to give me a free car wash. Sure it's mostly touchless but the suction tubes to dry it off can come in contact. What is noticeable is that the Bentley paint is mirror-like. No poor light-lines or ripples across curves. For such a curvy shape the 911 is horrible on some of the external surfaces. Mostly it's noticeable by the driver or passenger (look down the sides from the external mirrors for example). That said I saw a new Ferrari 488 (I think) in black with just awful orange-peal paint. Embarrassing really for cars >$100K.
Car looks great. Love the silver. Just wondering, if the ceramic coatings present a problem, seems like I would have seen some painters mentioning it when repairing damage to a car. Have never used myself, so have no experience.
Yes points well taken in video. Looks like poor dealer prep. I also cringe when the dealer wants to give me a free car wash. Sure it's mostly touchless but the suction tubes to dry it off can come in contact. What is noticeable is that the Bentley paint is mirror-like. No poor light-lines or ripples across curves. For such a curvy shape the 911 is horrible on some of the external surfaces. Mostly it's noticeable by the driver or passenger (look down the sides from the external mirrors for example). That said I saw a new Ferrari 488 (I think) in black with just awful orange-peal paint. Embarrassing really for cars >$100K.
I've seen some scary stuff featuring Ferrari paint. Just awful for the price point.
I'll take a look at what you mentioned. To be honest, I expect to see orange peel in any factory paint. It kinda is what it is and I've also read they purposely leave the orange peel in the paint. Could have even been something I saw from Kevin Brown. As long as it's swirl free, I can ignore the orange peel. Not worth wet sanding, thinning out the clear and risking all kinds of repercussions.
I had a 2017 C7 that literally had paint drips! Talk about awful factory job paint! And they claim the new facility is better. I'm not buying it 🙄
Paint Correction. Ceramic Coating, blah-blah. I hear these terms bantered about all the time and as far as I'm concerning its 90% marketing or diva nonsense. I've been cleaning and waxing cars for over 50 years now, and pretty much know if you want to do it right, wash it, get the dirt off (clay bar), put on a coat of polish and then a decent topcoat of your choice, mostly wax. And if you maintain your car, you don't have to clay it very often.
So here comes an offer from Rennlist to buy a bottle of Armour Shield IX by Avalon King at $ 25 off. What the heck, I'll try it to see what its all about, the ultimate Ceramic Coating, right? Arrives in the mail a few days later and the packaging alone on this tiny bottle of product must account for ten bucks of the price, along with the very dramatic instruction guidelines. I guess Millennials enjoy an "opening experience" that us older guys could care less about. All that fancy packaging and directions went right in the trash. Lord. Fill up the landfill.
My Porsche gets Swissvax, so I'm going to use this unicorn juice on my Audi E-Tron and see how it does because there's 3x the sheet metal on that car vs the 991 and I don't want to hand wax the big Audi. Open up the bottle of this "Ceramic Coating" and it smells just like Rain-X, which is a polymer product that's been around since 1972 and its a hydrophobic silicone polymer. I do my "Paint Correction" or as us old farts say it - polish the car with $ 15 bottle Meguiar's to get off contaminants and put a bit of oil back into the finish.. Then I apply the hyper-expensive Amour Shield product and.....it goes on just like Rain-X, too. If it walks like a duck, and quacks like duck....it's probably a DUCK.
It looks nice when I'm done. Much easier than hand-waxing a high content Carnuba. But the Swissvax on my 991 has more depth of shine.
I like to use these polymer products on my commercial trucks and the larger SUV's I drive. They last longer for vehicles that sit outside, but they;re nothing magic or particularly impressive. For sure I will never buy another bottle of this Avalon King stuff, its way over-priced. There are plenty of these products out there for far less money. Don't get caught up in the hype.of "Ceramic Coating" and "Paint Correction", its all mostly bull**** as far as I'm concerned.
I would respectfully disagree. Paint needs correcting as soon as the vehicle is delivered. The car gets to sit by a railroad track when leaving the factory, with lots of steel dust that needs to be removed. Also, there may be may small things that could happen during transit. I got my car with all the protective sheeting still attached to do the prep myself and not the dealer. It took me a lot of time to make the paint smooth as glass. Way better than what it looked like when it left the factory. Doing a good wash, clay bar, polishing the paint with different grades of compounding and different polishing pads is more complex and effective than a simple polish. It is a real paint correction.
Now, did it last? I did this 2 years ago. Since then, the car has won 7 consecutive first places in quarterly Concours d'elegance from our local Porsche PCA chapter, and 2 Judges Awards for best across all categories. The last 2 with full perfect scores. The exterior has always received a perfect score.
I have not done anything else to the paint other than wash it for the last 2 years, and after 13,000 miles still looks like in these pictures.
So, was it worth it? You bet it was!
With proper care, the exterior and interior still looks like new. Well, in my opinion, it looks better than new.
Fun story #1: When I sold my previous Porsche, a Macan GTS which was 1 year old, I got a buyer that flew from Wisconsin to get it. He asked about the condition of the car. Since we were closing the deal at the dealership, I offered to give him $500 of the price of the car for EVERY CAR at the dealership's showroom with paint in better condition than my 1 year old Macan... He didn't get a single dollar, and he was very happy paying the asking price in full.
Fun story #2: I bought my daughter a white Jeep when she turned 16. I did a full detailing on it knowing that the jeep would live a hard life, being driven by a teenager, parked outside all the time, and never washed. Well, 3 years later, we wanted to sell the car. You can imagine what the paint looked like after being neglected for 3 years. Took the car to one dealer as it was, to see how much they offered in that condition, and they said $16K. I drove back home and I did the same prep process as I had done 3 years ago, and when we brought it to another dealer, they were amazed at the condition. He asked if the car had been used at all... And got $22K for it.
Today I was finally able to do my long anticipated first full detailing on my Carrera T after having the front protected with PPF.
By now the paint should be at least 60 days old, and ready for a light polish and paint correction, and of course get the Ceramic coating.
I haven't done Ceramic in the past (nor PPF either), but I'very familiar with applying a good sealant (Wolfgang Deep Gloss Paint Sealant), followed with Carnauba (Wolfgang Fuzion) for great results.
But this time I wanted to do a Ceramic coating, and given my good experience with Wolfgang products, I decided to try their Uber Ceramic Coating.
I'm glad that someone on RL posted a flash sale on Autogeek not too long ago, so I was able to get restocked with plenty of supplies at 25% off
I started with a good wash (2-bucket method) and foam gun. By the way, one thing I noticed was how EASY it was to clean the Carrera S wheels on the T. First of all, they were filthy, but you could not tell just by looking at them because the Titanium color is almost exactly the same color as the brake dust. Used Sonax Full Effect for the first time and was pleasantly surprised at how effective and easy it was to use. Cleaning the wheels was a breeze, even more when compared to cleaning my Spyder RS black wheels on my former Macan GTS. I would say it took me about the same time to do all 4 wheels as it used to take me to do just one on the Macan. Go figure!
After drying the car at 120 MPH... or should I say with a 120 MPH blower, it was time to prep with clay bar, followed by a polish with a light cutting white foam pad, and then finally removed all traces of the polish with Wolfgang's Perfekt Finish Paint Prep instead of the traditional water/alcohol mix.
I was a little concerned about DIY the ceramic coating, specially after reading some horror stories, but no risk no reward, right?
I'm happy to say that the whole process was waaaaaay easier and simpler than I expected. Actually almost too easy. I guess the secret is to do a good surface prep, and be patient and do small sections at a time.
One thing that I did want to test before doing the whole car was to do a small part covered with Xpel. So I tried the mirrors, thinking that if I messed them up, it would not be too expensive to cover them again, compared with other larger panels. After trying the Ceramic coating on the first mirror, I was fully convinced I needed to do the whole car, PPF'd or or not. Including the windshield and glass sunroof. Only thing I didn't do was the lightweight glass. Just in case
So, after 8 hours since I started this morning, I was extremely happy with the results.
The shine and reflections on the paint are out of this world.
To give you an idea of what the roof looks like, just see the picture below. It is almost like the car is INVISIBLE and all you see are the reflections of the garage on the paint!!!!
This is an un-altered and un-edited photo from my iphone. All of the images you see are reflections of the wall and ceiling of my garage on the shape of the roof of the car:
And the hood, also reflecting the open garage door:
Had to get to every nook and cranny:
And all done for now:
So, after all that work, very happy with the results. Now I should be able to follow with the Carnauba Fuzion next week, after the Ceramic is fully cured...
Cheers!
Looks awesome! The only thing that is scary about such posts is that bunch of guys (including myself) would try to jump in with DIY ceramic coating and ruin their cars
I won't use ceramic coating. I'm happy with a sealant instead. If something happens and you need to polish out a small scratch, it's a pita getting thru the ceramic. If u screw up the application and leave haze, it's either there for the long haul, or again, cutting thru it to reapply (if you don't catch it in time, obviously). No thanks.
A reflection of my phone in the paint after correction.
Next to white, silver has to be one of the most forgiving colors, even close up the eye doesn't pickup swirl marks or imperfections like it does with a black car. The OP time and talent would really show on a black or dark colored car.
I won't use ceramic coating. I'm happy with a sealant instead. If something happens and you need to polish out a small scratch, it's a pita getting thru the ceramic. If u screw up the application and leave haze, it's either there for the long haul, or again, cutting thru it to reapply (if you don't catch it in time, obviously). No thanks.
I'm in your camp no ceramic ever for me, I like my factory clear coat the way it is from the factory. I'm happy to apply a good sealant once or twice a year.
What was used on the wheels? Love the Carrera S wheels, close to GT3 wheels, open... Will your approach work on A1 black for GTSs?
What towels were used? Need that mirror look on A1 Black! Outstanding work...
07-09-2020 | 08:38 PM
