Ceramic coatings

[Marcus]

Anyone have experience, good, bad or indifferent, with the new so-called ceramic paint protective systems (exterior finish). Some even advertise "never wax again"...... An automatic question mark in my mind.
Maybe Brent or one of the other restorers who have refinished an automobile?

[Slowmotoring]

I had the ceramic coating applied to my truck when it was new two years ago. It has held up well and does shine very nicely when its clean. The water doesnt bead like it would with wax but the shine seems similar.

[BRENT in 10-uh-C]

Originally Posted by Marcus

Anyone have experience, good, bad or indifferent, with the new so-called ceramic paint protective systems (exterior finish). Some even advertise "never wax again"...... An automatic question mark in my mind.
Maybe Brent or one of the other restorers who have refinished an automobile?

I apologize, but I am not going to be much help on this because I have never used any of those ceramic coatings. I know the top-level detail shops promote those finishes, but I have never even had them do it on my modern vehicles.

[Marcus]

No apologies, Brent and thanks Slowmotoring - this exactly the information for which I am searching.

[jbwthree]

I have some experience. I had my daily driver professionally coated with a product that is advertised to last 4-5 years. It does require some refreshing periodically but I am on year 3 and it is still working great, far superior to wax albeit more expensive. My car is a dark gray metallic and the shine and depth is unbelievable after a routine wash. It also provides better protection than wax from environmental contaminants.

I decided to try my hand at applying a coating on our 10 year old jeep and I also got great results. There were many stages to the process to get it right: wash, spray on iron removal, clay bar, machine polish, spray cleaner to remove residuals and then the easiest part was applying the ceramic coating. Some coatings are not very forgiving and can leave hard to remove streaks if you’re not careful when applying. The product I used was a $30 no name from Amazon and it applied very nicely but I don’t expect it to last as long as the professional coating. A full days work but very gratifying. I have researched higher quality and longer lasting products that are still under $100 and plan to do our other daily driver and my Model A in the spring. Lots and lots of info out there on YouTube.


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[rotorwrench]

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This sounds more like a sales advertising description to me. As most folks know, real kiln fired ceramic coating by definition is not something that can be easily applied to a surface. Most of the modern products using this description are temporary wax like applications that build a "ceramic like" finish. If it lasts a long time after application then there isn't anything wrong with that but using the term ceramic is kind of misleading.

[jbwthree]

Originally Posted by rotorwrench

This sounds more like a sales advertising description to me. As most folks know, real kiln fired ceramic coating by definition is not something that can be easily applied to a surface. Most of the modern products using this description are temporary wax like applications that build a "ceramic like" finish. If it lasts a long time after application then there isn't anything wrong with that but using the term ceramic is kind of misleading.

The “active ingredient” in these coatings is usually Silicon Carbide or Silicon Dioxide so the description is appropriate. These coatings are formulated for greater adhesion to a properly prepared finish and will generally outperform wax. As with any product, there are good ones and not so good ones and preparation is key so results will vary.


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[eagle]

I put some on my Harley, unbelievably smooth and shine. Went on easy, need to make sure it's very clean. Takes longer to buff out than wax but worth the effort in my experience.
Mine was about $150 for 8oz. I didn't pay for it though, someone got my credit card number somehow and ordered a bunch of stuff online, several of the companies were smart enough to send the items to the address on the credit card. My credit card company refunded me for the fraudulent charges and so I was left with the items. I called one of the suppliers and they didn't want the items back as they also had been reimbursed for them. Shouldn't have been too hard to find the idiot who did it, no idea what happened there, if they even bothered to prosecute.

[Marcus]

Again - thank you all for the assistance: I have a couple of "high end" vehicles that the professional detailers want to coat for me, and several others than I want to try for myself. This brackets the issue nicely; I'll report back in the Spring on my success and/or failure.
Merry Christmas, y'all!!

[rotorwrench]

Originally Posted by jbwthree

The “active ingredient” in these coatings is usually Silicon Carbide or Silicon Dioxide so the description is appropriate. These coatings are formulated for greater adhesion to a properly prepared finish and will generally outperform wax. As with any product, there are good ones and not so good ones and preparation is key so results will vary.

The definition of "ceramic" is "Made from clay and hardened by heat." Now I'd like to know how that fits into a surface preparation that doesn't fit that definition?

Detroit Diesel/Allison used to ceramic coat the burner cans on the the back end of their series 250 turbine engines. The stuff was a very good coating but would eventually crack and fall off just like it did on many pots and pans that used to be coated with it. It didn't last intact forever but it wasn't some wax like surface preparation either.

[eagle]

Check this out. https://www.thedrive.com/cleaning-de...eramic-coating

[Flathead]

Remember the ceramic coated exhaust pipes on Ramblers?