Ceramic coating in Suffolk area
- Thread starter GrinnyGrl
- Start date
The prep on my car was two days to correct the factory fresh induced swirls. I had ppf applied as well (prep is the same) and the ppf ceramic coated. Took a week for that process but 3 days for a real proper ceramic coating with drying time and proper paint correction before.
That is top end, anything less would be about a day with a night to cure the coating.
That is top end, anything less would be about a day with a night to cure the coating.
Jollygiant
Member
GrinnyGrl said:
Buy a Gtechniq or Autoglym kit and do it yourself for at least 1/4 of the price.
Just make sure you do it after using a clay mit and good few coats of polish.
Jollygiant said:
Not great advise, you need to do a proper decontamination wash and then a stage 1 machine polish then washed again to get the paint ready for the ppf or ceramic coating.
Dawn, if you can afford it get at least the bonnet and bumper PPF`ed it will protect the paint work going ceramic coating only makes the car easier to clean.
My Z4 had the front end and the top of the boot covered in ppf the rest of the car was ceramic coated it took a week (car dropped off from the dealer untouched on the Tuesday after Easter and i picked her up on the following Monday the detailer worked on her on Saturday morning and the Monday before I picked the car up.
Good detailers dont need to advertise.
Jollygiant
Member
tweeky687 said:
You don't HAVE to do a stage 1 polish as clay bar/ mitting it is good enough.
But it all depends on your budget I suppose and if you happy spending £1000 plus on it, you do you.
Me I'll do mine over a weekend and spend about £70 and it last as long as your expensive job.
tomscott
Lifer
Depends how old the paint is and what condition.
Pointless sealing in scratches and imperfections. It's not like wax that you can remove with clay; getting the ceramic coating off is difficult, and the coating isn't a magic bullet for paint imperfections, although it will help. This is why it's expensive to get a pro to do it.
As PVR says paint out the factory isnt great, orange peel, swirls and imperfections and time in the elements, amazing how much rubbish the paint will have on it that you cant see. So important to prep properly.
Depends how savvy you are. To do it yourself you need to be clued up to get the best results and although 2 days of prep for a pro took me nearly a week to prep my Z4M because its nearly 20 years old and the paint is hard and i didnt have 8 hours at a time to focus. Ideally, it needed wet sanding to get the best finish.
Depends on your expectations. To me as awesome as ceramic coating is I think the hybrid ceramic waxes are better and much much cheaper for older cars but require more maintenance.
From a ppf perspective, the cost of it is high, again depends if the car is a pcp, lease or do you own it or will you own it. If the latter deffo if not, I wouldn't bother, a lot of money to protect the car for someone else.
Pointless sealing in scratches and imperfections. It's not like wax that you can remove with clay; getting the ceramic coating off is difficult, and the coating isn't a magic bullet for paint imperfections, although it will help. This is why it's expensive to get a pro to do it.
As PVR says paint out the factory isnt great, orange peel, swirls and imperfections and time in the elements, amazing how much rubbish the paint will have on it that you cant see. So important to prep properly.
Depends how savvy you are. To do it yourself you need to be clued up to get the best results and although 2 days of prep for a pro took me nearly a week to prep my Z4M because its nearly 20 years old and the paint is hard and i didnt have 8 hours at a time to focus. Ideally, it needed wet sanding to get the best finish.
Depends on your expectations. To me as awesome as ceramic coating is I think the hybrid ceramic waxes are better and much much cheaper for older cars but require more maintenance.
From a ppf perspective, the cost of it is high, again depends if the car is a pcp, lease or do you own it or will you own it. If the latter deffo if not, I wouldn't bother, a lot of money to protect the car for someone else.
Jollygiant said:
Jollygiant said:
Sorry, but I have to say it's definitely not a good idea. Clay bar/mit will introduce huge amount of marring if not swril which at least need the finish stage of polish to sort out before any coating being applied if you want the good outcome.
Then, depending on which Gtechniq product you referred to, their CSL product can be difficult to apply if the env is not well controlled. If you referred to those spary-on wash-off/wipe off type product (as you also put AutoGlym next to Gtechniq), then it's just a spary sealent with minimum amount of silica material which isn't ceramic coating.
I did ceramic coating to my Z4 myself using Gyeon's evo line (specifically, mohs evo with cancoat on top). Before the coating, I did full wash, decon, followed by single stage machine polishing then pannel wipe twice. It's done over Aug bank holiday weekend in 2021 after I picked up the car so it's about 3 days of work if DIY. After going through the whole process of what a pro detailer will do for new car ceramic coating, I would say their quote of about £1k for Z4 isn't too much. Therefore, either don't do it at all and just use some spary wax/sealent, or do it properly (regardless of DIY or find a pro to do it)
tomscott said:
4 years after applied ceramic coating to two of my BMWs and current one comes with full PPF, I would say if anyone are okay with £4k-5k upfront cost and plan to keep the car for 4-5 or more years, then full car PPF is the better way to go for. On the other hand, if anyone don't plan to keep the car too long or don't want to spend that much money but still want the paint to look good, then I would just carefully wash the car (not machine wash, or roadside hand car wash) then spary the ceramic wax/sealent. The product I will go for is Gyeon Wet Coat.
Ceramic coating, for me, is a bit redundant after experienced both coated car and ppf car. It can not provide the same level of protection of PPF, but the maintanance of coated car is just too much overhead, or it will degrade pretty quickly and it will be more complex to rectify paint issue introduced after coating before re-apply. I still wash my G31 myself or by pro detailer, and I still do the annual maintanance wash and top-up with CanCoat 4 years since it's coated, not mentioning water spot issue which makes dark car looks horrible. On the other hand, each time I'm on a road trip with the ppf car, I just let whatever car wash shop I can find near hotel to wash it when it's dirty so that it will look great again. Even I know, sometimes I can even see, swirl/scratch is unavoidable, it's never an issue as soon as the surface is heated. It's just so much more convenient.
Jollygiant
Member
q96169we said:
Like I said you do you and I'll do me.
Enjoy your 5k hydrophobicness when it rains and I'll enjoy my £70 one.
Jollygiant said:
Yep, your car, do it your way, as long as the outcome meet your expectation and within your budget. At the end of the day, there are so many people out there that never wash their car at all and you rearly hear any premature paint degradation nowadays.
However, from a advice perspective, I will still state that either not apply ceramic coating, or do it properly. In my opinion, wash, clay, then apply ceramic coating is not a good idea.
Also, just to say that I didn't pay £5k for the ppf on my current car. Previous owner did that.