Paul018

I’m coming up on about three years with a ceramic coat on my Jet Black Metallic Cab S and starting to show signs of wear.
I miss not having that relationship you have when you wax a car. I am looking at a couple of high end waxes to use.
Call me crazy but I seriously thinking of ditching the ceramic for a high end wax.
Any comments will be most appreciated.

737gdog

I routinely wax my T to both protect it and hone my karate skills. Anyone? Honestly, I love a boutique carnauba wax but stopped using them about 14 years ago. Tried a high end wax about a year ago and what a pita vs. my wowa sealants. Done with wax.

toph4242

Automotive Paint has become so soft that this concept of keeping cars clean revolves around either Not physically touching the paint when cleaning, or doing so in a way that has so much lubrication you reduce the risk of creating imperfections. I think the Wax process just involves so much elbow grease between apply and removing the wax where you are applying pressure to the paint that the industry moved away from it because its pretty hard to avoid messing up the paint under the wax coating.

I personally don't love ceramic either, its never provided the shine I expected... It does really help with the "Touchless" maintenance washes after the fact though...
Have you ever looked at AMMO productsl... Larry who owns the company has an entire Youtube channel DEDICATED to OCD levels of cleaning and detailing cars and he has a wonderful line of cleaning products, ceramic coatings and other things that I think are a good in between ceramic and wax... Check out his youtube channel and website below!

https://www.youtube.com/@AMMO-NYC/featured
https://ammonyc.com/

dhirm5

My detailer stopped using wax years ago. On my current car he did a ceramic treatment on my car which makes his wash job basically a rinse job + interior. I'm not sure what he did on prior, but wax def wasn't involved. Certainly not the kind I remember using; wipe on, wait for fog, wipe off.

PorscheSince2013

Waxes are obsolete. Get it recoated with ceramic. I hope to never wax a car again. 3 years with ceramic vs. 8 weeks with wax...

Keadog

Full PPF with ceramic over. Not that **** anymore. I’ve been driving it the last week pretty dusty but it hasn’t gone above freezing this week until this afternoon and I don’t have an indoor wash setup.

Dudewithout992

Consider rejuvinating the aged ceramic coating with a ceramic booster, preferably the same brand as the original ceramic coating. I appled GTechniq Crystal Serum Light and Exo V4 as the original ceramic coating and apply their their booster called C2 V3 quarterly. As stated, the less you touch the paint, the better it will look. I like the look and feel of painted metal thus am not a ppf fan.

PHX

I have been a car detailing pro-am geek since 1985 when I got my first Datsun (nissan for you younger peeps LOL).

Yes, there are people that still use wax. My own viewpoint is that paints in the last 5 to 8 years have gotten worse (or better, depending on how you look at it) and technology within car protection/coating products has gotten much better and as a bonus, cars are easier to clean. If I had an older vehicle, yes I would still use wax and religiously (re)wax it every 6 months or so. All of my vehicles are 2020 or newer and have responded incredibly well to the ceramic coating (CSL/EXO) and I have enjoyed the ease of washing them versus a waxed car.

I do think wax provides a deeper "walk in to the paint" glow and deep vibrance that ceramic does not provide. I also think ceramic provides a slick almost glass like shine that is hard to beat.

Dark paints versus light paints versus the time you want to spend versus the look you want to have.

To me, it is all great...go spend time with your car and get some therapy. (or have someone else do it, for the crowd who wants to do that)

tomtomtomtom

Wax all the time...enjoy seeing, smelling and feeling the shine....such a small car, it's so easy to do.

Bobby 911

PPF head to toe.

blackland

Chemical Guys Ceramic every 6 months whether it need it or not.

phila12180

As with just about everything else here to each his own. There probably is no right or wrong answer for wax or ceramic coat it is whatever you like. For me it is sealant and wax all the way, I enjoy the process and time spent doing it. I use Jescar Ultra Lock + followed by Colonite 845 Insulator Wax. When done the surface is silky smooth and an awesome shine.

shrimp money

I used to love the coconut smell of Zymol.

voiceprint1

Blackfire midnight sun and P21S are my fav waxes, I prefer the look of carnauba over the odd light diffraction of ceramic coatings which always catch my eye.

dixonk

I still wax my cars. I use Adam’s Patriot Wax. I don’t mind the process and it applies easy and wipes off easy. I am probably going to bite the bullet and have it ceramic coated this spring as my available time on hand is getting shorter and shorter.

I had a detailer come to the house and ceramic coat my Raptor before and it left a bad taste because he did a horrible job with the high spots and missed spots. I sold the truck just a few months later and never really had the chance to do a wash to see how much easier it makes the process.