nuge design

These vids are pretty informative if you haven't seen them:

Guards_Red_991

The film is soft, and ceramic is not. It is like hard frosting on a cake, makes no sense.

Washing? If you car is properly waxed washing is a breeze. If you introduce swirls when waxing, then you should not be waxing. I have never waxed a car and left swirl marks behind.

Bob Z.

Do what you want but the vast majority who do PPF have a ceramic coating applied over it. I am hoping a pro shop will chime in and back me up here since some people just don't want to listen.

Guards_Red_991

The reality is that PPF does not need to be coated. Does it hurt coating it? Who knows... If you have the money and makes you feel better, then go for it.

Do what makes you happy.

MJG911

I paid 5500 to have the entire car PPF'd and about $30 for a bottle of Hydrosilex. Not worth paying several hundred to protect a plastic wrapper when the DIY cheap stuff works just as well, only not as long. (About 6 months on the daily so far and still shedding the water).

Bob Z.

I meant for a shop to tell the uneducated why it is a good idea and not just that it should be done - I did not get what I have today by wasting it on snake oil yesterday. And if you want to wax your car numerous times over the next several years go for it, and I bet my paint will look much better after several years than yours with 10 times less effort.

Guards_Red_991

I love waxing... It is soothing and makes me mindful. I can spend hours taking care of my cars.

LOL at snake oil comment, first time I hear it; had to Google it.

CaymanSinAR

I'm kinda in the same boat. I like the time spent washing and detailing my car. I enjoy trying different products and methods.

For anyone else's vehicle I recommend ceramic 100%. My wife has a Macan set for delivery at the end of October. It will get full PPF and ceramic just because I don't have enough time to dote on her car as much as I dote on mine.

Bob Z.

Ha! Up until this car I used to wax everyone and over time I would get little swirls, etc. but when I picked up my ordered 911 I took it right to the PPF Shop and had him do it all and I will never wax again after what I have seen and how it performs.

Esoteric_Detail

Actually, this is incorrect. PPF needs to have some form of UV protection per the manufacturers' warranties. They each carry a 10 year warranty against yellowing, fading, delaminating, etc., and part of that warranty requires a protectant to be applied. Coatings are simply the longest lasting form of that UV protection, while waxes and sealants are completely sufficient, too.

This is not true. Coatings, while hard in their nature, are not thick enough to prevent the "soft" PPF from self-healing when it endures some form of scratch or swirl. We've tested this and observed that you can still scratch the film through the coating, and that you can still self-heal the film with heat or hot water. In applying coatings on top of the film, you are are harnessing the coating's ability to make cleaning the car very easy; you give up the coating's ability to prevent scratches, because the PPF is going to be far better at this in the first place.

Coatings, when layered to their max, only add up to around 2-3 microns (0.12 mils/thousandths of an inch). PPF is 8 mils thick (~200 microns thick). That means that the max amount of coating on top of the PPF would only equate to 2% of the total protection on the car. For reference, a layer of wax or sealant is so thin that it isn't measurable.

Yes! Whether you want to wax, seal, or coat your car's PPF, it's up to you. Most people are opting for coatings because they simply last the longest, and put down the most amount of material on the surface of the PPF/paint.

Exactly right- do what you enjoy and what you have time for! We have a lot of customers who like the ease of clean up and relative lack of maintenance that comes with coatings. Others enjoy waxing their cars once a month. It's personal preference, but the foundation is the same: keep your car protected while making it look its best.

Swirls and scratches almost always come from how the car is being washed and dried. If you are not washing and drying the car properly, they will appear no matter what kind of protection you use on the car. With PPF on the car, you have a HUGE amount of leeway that you could never get with a wax, sealant, or coating.

Bob Z.

Thanks, I rest my case.

911boy

Just my opinion. I really enjoy cleaning and waxing my car and i get it corrected once a year so Ceramic isn't for me.

911boy

If you're washing with zero water you are introducing swirls...........

Bob Z.

It does not sound like you have a clue what Opti-Rinse is.

911boy

Where does the dirt go once you wipe it off? You don't loosen dirt and spray heavy stuff off before Opti? If it was swirl proof then every detailer in the world would be using it because its so much easier/tidier etc. To each his own. I'm not here to argue.