Ceramic Coatings and Paint Protection
 

Hey all
So I am going to be the new owner of a slightly used '17 Miami Blue GTS here in the next week or so. First 911. Very excited.

I am extremely interested in getting the paint corrected, and protected with the best possible products.

Have seen a few different options.
I was wondering if people had any experience with any of these, or opinions about different approaches to protecting the beautiful porsche paint.
This will all be done by a professional detailer.

Looking to use the highest quality, best finish, and longest lasting products.
Price isn't too big of an issue as long as the end result is dynamite, and worth it.

I will be having the entire cars paint corrected to remove blemishes, swirls, etc prior to any coating or PPF.

Only considering 1 of 2 approaches.
Would love to hear peoples opinion about which approach is better, easier to maintain, looks best longest. Any Downsides to one or the other.
And if anyone has specific opinions about coating products, ie, Gyeon vs modesta, or xpel vs other PPF, would love to hear those as well.

1. Car coating alone (ceramic, etc) - Cheaper than option #2. Looking at top of the line Gyeon (Mohs+ , Durabead, or Duriflex) and Modesta PD. I have a Ceramic Pro detailer down the street but have seen some mixed reviews of Ceramic Pro.

2. PPF film AND a ceramic coating - More expensive. Seeing that Xpel is a popular choice. Not sure how it looks in person, and if the coating product (Gyeon, Modesta) gets applied before or after the PPF. Does it matter? Will this look just as high polish and glass like as option #1? Any negatives to this? Maintenance issues of doing both PPF and coating?


Would appreciate any first hand opinions, or if any detailers out there have personal experience with a product they'd recommend, that would be awesome.

Cheers

For the PPF we use Suntek and STEK brands. They have proven more optically clear vs. other brands. Coating over the PPF is fine in most cases but there can be compatibility issues with certain setups. Coating PPF is great because it can be susceptible to staining so having a top coat is ideal.

Do the PPF, it is well worth it. I have seen Suntek and Stek in person, at Esoteric actually, and it is more optically clear than the XPEL that I have on my car. The XPEL I have on mine is excellent also and only if you are really looking will I notice a difference.

So I found a local shop that looks like they have a ton of experience with PPF, coatings, paint correction, etc.
They appear to do a lot of the work for local high end dealers (porsche, tesla, ferrari, mclaren)
Their website has photos to some amazing work they've done.

The product and process the owner has recommended for the Miami Blue GTS was full paint correction process, followed by a Suntek PPF, followed by a Gtechniq Crystal Serum Ultra coating, and Gtechniq EXO topcoat.


Based on the examples of his work, I'm 100% doing it.


Will post photos when its done, which wont happen for another month because he's booked that far out.

The questions/concerns about what to use to protect a new car's paint are not new but there are a large amount of products available now and that number grows monthly with cheap Chinese cash-grab products that are attempting to capitalize on the success of quality products and service providers. So due-diligence is in the best interest for anyone looking to buy once and acquire a quality solution that hits the mark.

Really, the number one factor is going to be the folks placing their hands on a car and how they conduct themselves professionally. Everyone has their favorite products so expect them to lean towards a brand. Yes, there are differences among the coatings/PPF and they absolutely are not all created equal. But instead of completely relying on the professional, my advice would be to gather information on brands and the professionals and then do your own research. This will help you make a wise long-term choice and greatly limit the opportunity for buyer's remorse.

If you would like to better understand what causes the most common forms of damage on modern paint and protection options that range from the most simple to the mostest-bestest(yeah...I went there lol), feel free to check out this article I wrote. When discussing the coating option, I named Modesta but one could insert their own coating of choice as a placeholder and still get a wonderful grasp of how all of these technologies work and where they fit. Feel free to fire off any questions and I will do my best to help out. https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/styl...foro/clear.png

What Causes Swirl Marks & Other Defects In Modern Car Paint?

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...5f44ccafd1.jpg

Not a fan of coatings myself for high value cars that are not routinely exposed to the elements. For me, high quality Carnuba wax is my choice as with these cars durability is typically not a concern. So for my 991.2 GT3, No Coatings..... for my daily driver F80 M3 yes to coating. Just my $0.02

Some great info here.

Unlike some 911 owners, I bought the 991.2 GTS to drive the hell out of it.
So its going to be my daily driver for awhile. Which is why I decided to go with a solid PPF and coating.

Curious how it will stand up to the rigors of daily driving.

Anyone with experience on this?

hey whacky. Wondering if you got your car coated and ppf? I am looking to do the same but wanted to see what you thought now that you have had it on yours for a while. Do you have any recent pictures? Lastly and pros and cons to doing it? Thank you.

So I literally just got the car back from the detailer two days ago.
I took a little trip to Antarctica so the cars paint protection got delayed until I came back.

I am lucky to have a detail shop within 30 mins that has excellent reviews and tons of experiece with super high end cars. So I went with their recommendation. Easy to trust them when they had a mclaren 720S, 911 GT3 RS, and tesla on work floor when I dropped it off.

He recommended full paint correction as I bought it used with ~1200 NE winter miles on it. This was something I wanted very much as previous owner/dealership had already had multiple small scratchs, and blemishes. Tisk Tisk.
After full paint correction, we did a Suntek Ultra PPF in track orientation. Full front, bumper, fenders, pillars, rockers and around rear wheels.
Followed by Gtechniq Crystal Serum Ultra base.
Followed by 2 coats Gtechniq EXO on top.
He was supposed to do the wheels as well, but the 991.2 GTS wheels being centerlocking presented him some issues. So until his new wheel guy gets trained by porsche on safe removal (1-2 weeks time) he opted not to do full wheel removal, but coated the external area of the wheels. I will bring it back for full wheel coating as regular porsche brakes build up some dust.

Throw in 70% 3M crystalline windhshield and ceramic tint around rest of windows....the price tag for all this work was one pretty penny.
But pretty is the important word there. Wow. The Miami Blue looks totally different now. More candy. Smooth. A fun, silky blue that lightens and deepens its turquise tones slightly based on light. Its so cool. The photos cannot do this color justice. Its simply amazing after full paint correction.


I cannot speak to lasting effects just yet to the work obviously. Its only been home 2 days. It was sitting in the shop for 4 days after work finished.
I had to pick it up in a typical central FL rainy day.
The rain beaded up like expected for a new expensive ceramic coat. I had concerns about the ceramic coat fully curing, but the detailer said we were completely fine to drive in the rain.
So I did. When I got home, I dried it off with some eagle edgless MF towels with a touch of a drying aid.

Dirt and grim from the 25 mile, rainy, highway drive came right off. Looked ridiculous again.
Will post pics when I can.



As far as the PPF is concerned. They did a great job of wraping the edges. I can't tell its there aside from a few small bubbles here or there which seem to be over small defects or chips that might have been present prior to/and after full paint correction. I can't tell unless I look very hard, which believe me, after paying that kinda money, I looked very hard. The rocker panels make it obvious as well as there is a small indent seam that runs the length of the panel that the ppf cannt wrap fully into. But its not really that obvious to the naked eye.

Either way, I would advise that if you want to go the route of PPF, definitely do it before any deeper scratches, chips, etc. Seems to be a match made in heaven with a ceramic coat. Cost is significant though. I paid $2500 for that track orientation PPF alone. But it has a 10 year warranty. The shop said I can bring it back in 4-5 years or so and have the whole thing replaced free of charge if they find any issues, which they will most likely find some reason to replace it at that point.


As far as the coating, I presently plan on maintaining it well. Currently going to try the Carpro line of products like reset, reload, ech20.
They advised I bring it back every year for a thorough detail and that way they can evaluate the coating and fix issues under their guarantee.
I honestly don't plan on having any issues with the coating. They didnt either. I also plan on doing routine, careful maintainence.


Ultimately, the work I had done was quite expensive (at least to me ~5K is definitely a lot of money). But the car had 1200 winter miles on it, it looks utterly amazing now, and its protected as much, and as well as I can think to have it protected for the time being.

It also seems to drive must faster suddenly. Strange

I will post more of a review as I drive the F-ing piss out of this car, because thats exactly whats gonna happen.


Cheers
W

Thanks Whacky. I took my Cayman to the shop here in SD yesterday. Doing the full front and the ceramic coating. Picking it up Monday. Thanks for sharing the picture and your 911 looks awesome!

Anyone know if the clear bra is safe to apply to headlights. Some posts have said that removal of the clear bra will damage the headlights. Any truth to this?