Ceramic Coating

[Thrustyjust]

I havent used wax's on my cars for a long time now and think that they are a bit old school. The modern alternatives are a lot better and easier to apply . Putting waxes of cars in the sun and they do wear thin pretty quickly. For me, using a water repellant and a quick detailer after a wash works better. Its a personal choice with the amount of available products on the market and yes, i still have waxes in boxes, which I keep chucking out for drying up, but its less of a mess using synthetic products that seem to last well, even in the heat of the sun. Saying that, there is nothing better than wiping a newly waxed car to reveal a shine underneath

 

[Tinker15]

That’s exactly it’s key benefit. It’s been marketed in such a way to make you think it can only be used when your paint has had a 2 day refinement....

You seem to have some strange ideas on why people choose ceramic coatings over wax but be that as it may. I do however agree that some prices quoted appear to have lost touch with reality. I had my E89 machine polished and ceramic coated by a company about 20 miles from where I live. The total including cleaning the interior £110. It was a bit more when he did our XF.

 

[Jaw]

No one with a very expensive classic car would ceramic coat it.

That doesn't make any sense to me.. Many do.. How many car decisions do owners of classics or prestige cars really make with a voice of ''oh but if I drive it into a wall/trolley/bollard then....'' (and even in that case it can be remedied by expanding the area that your sanding / machining locally and an inexpensive touch up with the coating..)

I think people look at ceramic coating in the wrong way.....surely these are better used for a daily driver that you just want to keep mostly clean. The industry has fooled everyone into thinking your paintwork needs 20 hours of machine polishing before you apply it....what a load of rubbish.

If you love your car, enjoy the ownership process and will weekly wash by hand and care for it then it makes more sense to use waxes and glazes. You can strip these of, try a different product and keep your costs much lower....and if you get a scratch or ding, you'll probably want to sort that asap. You'll then need to firstly strip the coating to ensure consistency of finish and then spend loads reapplying the coating. No one with a very expensive classic car would ceramic coat it.

However, if you only want your car to be clean as quickly as possible so it's presentable (and not bothered by scratches of dings) then it makes much more sense to apply a ceramic coating. Am I wrong...?

It's all relative.. Do you need extensive polishing to apply a coating? No..

Does a quick polish and decontamination help? certainly does.

Is the result from A going to be better than B? Certainly will.

Where you draw the line depends very much on your car, what it is to you, how old it is, how you'll use it and so on..

If you want it for ease of cleaning, then you're probably not bothered if it has a few scratches - and you probably don't need to spend on a high performing treatment anyway.

If you're the type who wants it coated so it always looks fresh, then having all of the defects remedied before coating is a no-brainer. I've held off doing some of my cars for this exact reason - I don't have the time to do it right at the moment..

It makes as much sense for an expensive car as it does a daily driver, how much you spend in the process is the difference between the two.. horses for courses..

 

[Z4M-2006]

That’s exactly it’s key benefit. It’s been marketed in such a way to make you think it can only be used when your paint has had a 2 day refinement....

You seem to have some strange ideas on why people choose ceramic coatings over wax but be that as it may. I do however agree that some prices quoted appear to have lost touch with reality. I had my E89 machine polished and ceramic coated by a company about 20 miles from where I live. The total including cleaning the interior £110. It was a bit more when he did our XF.

Car looks lovely,but i find it really hard to see how that can be achieved..

After products used that wouldnt even crack minimum wage never mind overheads.

 

[Angelus666]

Anyone who's ever machine polished a car would say you would do well to get it properly cut and refined in just one day....so I'd be very dubious on the machine polishing part for £110 all in job. If that's what they 'normally' charge they've got to be mowing that paint down with some super aggressive compound for a quick one hour polish. Whack on a cheap Chinese coating and you're done.

Now, I'm not saying that's a bad thing...I actually think that's what these coatings are actually best for. For people are into detailing surely you want to be able to try different waxes, glazes and sealants to get different results. The moment you put on a coating you can throw away pretty much every detailing product you have.

 

[Z4M-2006]

I would guess you call me an enthusiastic amateur when it come to detailing, i have probably machine polished 50-60 cars.

I always do them so that they are the best they can be and fully paint corrected. Refined and polished then waxed/coated to customers choice.
Im probably a lot slower than a pro,but its never took me under 20 hours to complete a car,and 30+ for a black sapphire bmw once that looked like it was washed with a house brick.

I usually use around £40-£50 materials on each car and it usually works out that i get about £10 an hour...Luckily i do it more for pleasure than to make a living.

 

[Z4M-2006]

 

[Angelus666]

Nice work there! Is there a huge difference working on modern BMW paint compared to the Rolls Royce...? What pad/compound combo do you need for something like that?

 

[Zoomer]

The Zed coupe looks absolutely fabulous

 

[Z4M-2006]

Modern BMW paint is hard and quite brittle, I always use a microfibre cutting pad as my go to pad for most things German.

I think you mean the Lagonda , I always use a lake country orange mild cut foam pad on the older stuff including the MG tourer pictured .

As for compound, after loads of messing with various products over the years I now just use Megs ultimate compound..
It’s very easy and has the desired effect across a broad band of paint and pad combo’s.I like the way it breaks down to oil base and has zero fling ..

 

[Tinker15]

Car looks lovely,but i find it really hard to see how that can be achieved..

After products used that wouldnt even crack minimum wage never mind overheads.

His overheads are low as he works out of a second hand car place (it isn’t posh by any means) where he fettles the cars for sale. He uses Ultimaxx products https://ultimaxxceramics.com/ There is a video at https://photos.app.goo.gl/bWj8AfiafPak7X456 after he had just finished working on the car. After saying that his charges are very reasonable but this is Yorkshire and we are tight. As the saying goes a Yorkshireman is a Scotsman with all the generosity squeezed out of him!

Whatever the car looks very good and I’m very happy with the work he has done on both our cars.

 

[Z4M-2006]

Absolutley,and thats the important thing.

As long as your happy.


Im only over the hill from you,about 25 mins away. You dont need to tell me how tight a Yorkshire folk are

 

[Tinker15]

Absolutley,and thats the important thing.

As long as your happy.


Im only over the hill from you,about 25 mins away. You dont need to tell me how tight a Yorkshire folk are

Some good driving roads in you part of the world. I regularly drive over Glossop way and to the Lantern Pike Inn at Little Hayfield. I'm at our French home at present but will be flying back in the middle of June and driving back in the Z4 for a couple of months. One of the reasons for getting the car done was that over here the water is incredibly hard and avoiding water spots is not easy. I'm hoping it helps if I'm careful.

The man I used https://ueni.com/en-gb/b/enhanced-shine-tactics-detailing is now an accredited Ultimaxx detailer and his prices have gone up since he did mine. Still good value though.

 

[Flyingfifer]

About 10 hours from start to finish?

Thats a really short time, my detailer had the car for 3 days, the reason being the coating needs to cure for a good day or two for the best results and the paint needs to be prepped and decontaminated prior to the application.

 

[Tinker15]

If you read the info on some of the newer ceramic coatings they dry in 30 minutes and the car can get wet after 4 hours. If the car wasn’t in too bad a state to start off with then I guess 10 hours is possible.

 

[Flyingfifer]

If you read the info on some of the newer ceramic coatings they dry in 30 minutes and the car can get wet after 4 hours. If the car wasn’t in too bad a state to start off with then I guess 10 hours is possible.

Ahhh thats alot better, this days to dry malarky was a bit inconvenient

 

[boatyhacker]

If you read the info on some of the newer ceramic coatings they dry in 30 minutes and the car can get wet after 4 hours. If the car wasn’t in too bad a state to start off with then I guess 10 hours is possible.

It was pretty good. There were very few defects really.

The instruction I received was to refrain from washing it for a week, but not to worry about rain or anything else. Being jet black it was looking pretty gnarly today but I gave it a pretty quick wash (snow foam, rinse, two bucket wash, rinse, towel dry) and the gloss has come right back to where it was after the treatment last week.

So far so good!

 

[cani]

Really nice! Just need to keep it in tip top condition now to get the most out of it! I use a top up coat that sits over the top and helps the hydrophobicity (Gyeon Cure).

Mine coated with Siramik SC15 (I think) and topped up with Gyeon Cure.

Not sure how to reply to a post so hope this works. I am drooling over the shine on your Deep Sea Blue (I have the same color). Hope the one I just bought comes out looking halfway as nice when I get it detailed.

 

[Beeacon]

Not sure how to reply to a post so hope this works. I am drooling over the shine on your Deep Sea Blue (I have the same color). Hope the one I just bought comes out looking halfway as nice when I get it detailed.

Thank you very much Cani, the colour really comes out lovely for a 10 year old car!
If you're new to detailing then I'd recommend having a watch of some detailing videos on YouTube to get an idea of what methods to use and what stuff to get once you get it detailed. Personally I like the videos by PanTheOrganizer because he links all the stuff he uses, though the videos by Ammo are very good too.

Link to my method of cleaning below (by no means perfect, just works for me and I've only been doing it for a year so I'm sure it will change over time):
https://z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1629566#p1629566

Best of luck with your new Deep Sea Blue!

Cheers,
Beeacon.