Ceramic Coating lifespan

[Todd C]

I swore I never would again...Buuuuut I bought a black truck! 2019 Limited. She is beautiful....when clean. I actually got it used and have had it for only a couple of weeks. The previous owner was clearly not as much of a snob about car paint as I am. Nothing is crazy bad about the paint but there is some micro scratches in the clear coat and I am not terribly happy with the wax that is on the truck. So, before I pull the DA out and spend hours doing paint correction and waxing (oh yeah, it's also July in Atlanta) I am looking into ceramic coatings.

I know this is an expensive process and wanted to get any feedback from you guys about your experience with it, how durable it is, how long will it last and do you think it is worth it.

There is a detailer that I trust that does it. They offer two versions. A hybrid and a pure ceramic option. They claim the pure ceramic will last 9 years and the hybid 12-18 months. With my experience in detailing I have a hard time believing 12-18 months and 9 years sounds completely far fetched. Can anyone shed any light as to the reality of this claim?

 

[Graygoose]

I had my 2018 Charger done, guy guaranteed it for 5 years.
If you have a shop do a true paint correction, its worth every penny.

 

[Todd C]

Graygoose - The Charger looks great! I have an 09 Challenger (that is black as well and the reason I swore off black cars). The Challenger is not a daily driver though, so traditional detailing isn't an issue.

Yes they do a paint correction which is included in the price. What do you have to do to maintain the coating? Just for a point of reference as to the durability of it....would you drive your Charger through a car wash?

 

[Graygoose]

I would a brush free, never one with brushes.
If its that dirty, they always get hand washed.
The time cleaning the car/truck was much faster. You could almost drive thru a rain storm, and it was pretty dang clean afterwards. Water ran off.
The wheels on the Charger, after they were coated, I'd hand wash them, and sue a leaf blower to dry, done....No more in depth cleaning.

 

[ramportin1]

Dont think because you got ceramic on your black paint your now set for auto washes and you'll be fine, because you'll end up very upset

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[AdamsPolishes]

You can expect to get up to 2 years out of our Ceramic coating, especially if you apply a coat of Boost on occasionally.

https://adamspolishes.com/collections/ceramic-paint-coating-9h

 

[Todd C]

I was really only kidding about the driving through a car wash. There are a lot of things that are out there so just trying to separate fact from fiction as far as real world expectation.

 

[Pull Ya]

Different coatings claim different longevity. As has been said you can lengthen that amount of time by using a "boost" that is recommended by the coating manufacture. It also depends on how often you wash your truck, and if it is garage kept and what the environment is like where you live. Some coatings can be "topped" with a sacrificial layer of polish, a sealant or wax. This will help protect the coating somewhat. Normal maintenance still needs to be done and a coating does not mean the finish is "scratch proof". I would recommend either using a quality rinseless wash or the 2 bucket method when washing after a coating.
Jay

 

[ramportin1]

I was really only kidding about the driving through a car wash. There are a lot of things that are out there so just trying to separate fact from fiction as far as real world expectation.

Here is my personal experience with two top brand ceramic coated vehicles vs the paint sealants I've been using for years.

Paint sealant: the best shine, easily strips off, one I use has lasted me 16 months while daily driven and parked outside 24/7 (waxing every two months,) cheap, offers fairly good protection, extremely slick finish and very hydrophobic.

Ceramic: The best protection outside of vinyl, can still look really good depending on what type and who did it (not as good as a quality sealant), lasts the longest.

Now here's the thing I would just simply advise you to do if you decide ceramic. Go to whoever your looking at doing it and check out there finished cars, heck do it multiple days in a row lol, I say this because I'd say a good 90% of detailing shops focus on quantity not quality, they claim and will tell you that they do a VERY THOROUGH paint correction before ceramic, but all they are going to do is clay and a janky 2 in 1 polish (the vast majority of shops only do this.) Reason being the vast majority of people dont even know what swirls are let alone care about them as long as there car shines. EVERY single ceramic coating I have personally seen "professionally" ceramic coated was done with terrible condition paint, swirls covering 100% of the paint and its stuff you can absolutely correct if you wanted to, but time is money and ALMOST every shop won't spend that kind of time on one vehicle even though you are paying for exactly that. I've seen it countless times, and I even had it done to me its sitting in my driveway right now lol absolute top rated detailing shop in all of oregon thousands of reviews and they are like 4.8 stars or something. I picked the owner's brain to make sure I felt like this guy was good, made him look at my paint and showed him the SUPER light swirling and said allllllll this will be 100% corrected right and he assured me. Anyway long story short nope they did literally 0 correcting and put a 9H coating over the swirls which I ended up getting paid by the shop $600 for it because I went straight back to the owner and threatened to sue so he said full refund + $600 because he knew they did no correcting.

ANYWAYS lol sorry for the novel, just make sure the people doing it are good and honest is my point because out of the like 15 or so people I personally know with professionally done ceramic coatings came back with bad uncorrected paint.
Also my ceramic is straight crap, lost about 60% of its hydrophobic effects after like 1 month, not even close to as slick as quality sealants, definitely still scratches pretty easy just from dirt and requires more frequent maintenance with some kind of SIO2 infused enhancer.

These are just my opinions and/or facts from what I have seen and dealt with and I'm not saying ceramic sucks, not by any means, it's just not for me and I've been very unimpressed and most shops (not all) are liars.


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[ramportin1]

Damn that was a long message [emoji23] my bad [emoji1689]

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[Todd C]

Thanks ramportin1. That is the kind of feedback I'm looking for. I had a long talk with the shop owner yesterday. He was stressing the exact same thing about the paint correction. I'll take your advice about checking out some of his finished cars when I go by there.

@Pull Ya. I'll inquire about the sacraficial coat of wax/sealant with the product they use.

 

[Todd C]

Dropped the truck off yesterday to get done. Pic's to follow

 

[ramportin1]

How long did they say it would take?

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[Pull Ya]

Most require the truck remain inside overnight for proper bonding.
Jay

 

[Todd C]

Dropped it off yesterday. Should be ready tomorrow afternoon. Yes, they have some lights that they will keep it under for curing/bonding

 

[Pull Ya]

Looking forward to seeing the final results----
Jay

 

[ramportin1]

Yeah I was just curious what there turn around time was [emoji1689]

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[Todd C]

Picked up the truck this afternoon. Looks really good. They did a fantastic job on paint correction. As I originally posted, the previous owner certainly wasn't a paint snob and there was a good amount of micro scratching and I literally can't find any now. Super slick finish. Really happy. We will see on durability.

 

[Todd C]

The spots you might be able to see in the up close pic of the hood is not dust. That is the metal flake in the paint

 

[Pull Ya]

That looks great Todd!!!!! What coating did you decide on?
Jay