mosesbotbol

Have any of you had your car ceramic coated (instead of a wax)? Do you like it? Would you do it again or recommend it? I am on the fence whether to go this route on my next car. I wash our cars weekly and generally detail them 3x a year. I wonder if I'll like coating and I heard it is very hard to remove or can make the surface rough.

Experiences appreciated.

S2020

I did this. Looks pretty dang good for about a year. Then the paint/coating became scratched - not really the company's fault, I'm just not very careful with my cars. Only had it on for 2.5 years so I can't say it's hard to remove (haven't applied a new coat). However, washing the car is a lot easier, even with the scratches.
the whole thing was labor intensive. Washed car carefully, clay bar, buffing, apply ceramic coat. Took a whole weekend - listened to a couple of books on tape, quite relaxing actually and got a pretty good arm work out. The total cost was about 90. I am cheap so I went that route. Had I chose the professional route, I think the cheapest would have been a little over a grand.
I got some instructions and inspiration from these guys

vader1

Never heard of this. Is it like wax and will wash away if you take it through a commercial car wash or is it supposed to stay on? I'd like to put a nice product on my 328i that will look decent but allow me to go through a wash in about five times in the winter to get the salt off without having to reapply. Any wax/polish product will just dissolve away from the soap.

importluva

Both my cars have CQuartz installed by a shop: the M3 has Professional and the S2k has Classic. It makes cleaning the cars extremely easy, especially the black car. I don't use any wax, instead i mostly use a waterless wash that leaves a nice glossy finish. I think it is worth it for me.

You can't take it through an automatic carwash without consequences. Eventually the coating will fade. You could still get hard water spots on it. So ceramic coating is useful only in certain applications IMO.

BlueTeg

Subscribed. I see a lot of higher local cars are going this direction (Ceramic Pro). The pics look amazing. I too was wondering what, if any, side effects it had in the long run.

panda25

i will be applying carpro cquartz on my black S because i wanted long lasting protection. currently has two coats of chemical guys jet seal. will be applying over that and report back on results.

mosesbotbol

You do not wax the car if it is ceramic coated. The coating can go over the plastic/vinyl trim as well. You'll notice cars with it applied when it's wet out. The ceramic coated cars; the water sheen's off the car like there was no surface tension to the water. Wax; small bubble beading as we are accustomed to. I believe the C Quartz is the brand that is quite high ratings. The coating is applied to a bare, corrected paint surface. I do not believe it is advised to apply ceramic over other coatings or polish.

lovegroova

I had a pro (and ex-S2000 owner) do a full polish and do a gtechniq crystal serum black job on my car. here's a video he took of the results:

The polishing job took a long time because of the rubbish paint that Honda uses.

Washing the car is extremely easy - dirt just falls off it.

Here's some beading pron:

BlueTeg

For those that have applied the ceramic coatings, what happens as it gets to the end of the product life cycle (seems to be 1-3 years depending on the type that you get)?

jeffbrig

I was at a PCA car show a couple of months back, and one of the Turbos in the show had a ceramic coating. Looked great, thought so do the cars with normal wax. Well, the pro detailer that put the coating on that car happened to be there handing out cards and brochures, though I can't remember the name of the coating brand he used. I inquired about price, and it was basically - how much do you want to spend, and how long do you want me to guarantee it. For a year, it might have been $800, for 5+ years it was thousands. I was stunned. I mean, this is S Florida, and it was a Porche club event, but seriously? I'll stick to doing a decent wax as needed.