Looking at the ceramic coatings on Amazon...ironically every single one of them is rated at 4.5 stars. That is just so strange, lol.

 

I used Exoforma and it works great. The trick is to get the car buffed and fluffed before applying it. Also, they will try to sell you prep spray and special wash.
The nice thing about the spray is that you can mist it like a detail spray for touch ups.
I also used Avalong King on my truck. The problem with that is they want it to cure for 48 hours and avoid water for a week. Not practical for a daily driver.

Both wok very well IMO

 

Yes but the biggest question facing these do it yourself ceramic coats is....do they last?

 

Someone help me here. The whole "ceramic" thing zoomed past me when I wasn't looking.

Spraying your car with "ceramic" is an alternative to the hard work of waxing it?

Is "ceramic" just a buzzword? Do these sprays contain any COMMON ingredient that actually has anything to do with "ceramics?"

Wikipedia: A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature

 

I’ve been using Meguiars ceramic wax for a year or two. Not real expensive, beads water like mad and seems to last awhile.

 

I use Torque. Goes on easy but only lasts about a year. Downside is the spray bozzle clogs up and becomes useless after one use.

 

The stuff I use lasted over a year , and my car (C-5) sets outside under a cover and gets driven a lot. Still beads up nicely and dirt doesnt stick.

 

I did Feynlab Lite over two years ago on my '66. Since it's a hobby car it's inside and covered virtually all the time. I did a lot of research before picking Feynlab and don't regret the choice, but in that time period many other near-pro products have come out. My C2 still beads like the day I put it on and feels amazing. I drop in the General Corvette Topics/Car Care Discussion sub-forum occasionally out of curiosity and boredom. Loki, Budgetplan, and others are pros or car care addicts that offer a ton of experience. For our valuable classics I'd be inclined to use a product not typically available at O'Rielly's, i.e. Feynlabs, Geyon, and others. These near-pro products come in very small little glass or metal bottles. Nothing like you see at Walmart. I put 2 coats on my '66 from a several ounce bottle. The good stuff is almost like smearing a very fine machine oil on the surface and you do about a 2'x2' application then repeat. I also ceramic coated our wake boat last Spring with similar stuff and it's amazing.

But I also bought some of the highly recommended Turtle Wax Hybrid Solution ceramic for my wife's new DD. Yes, Turtle Wax.... VERY easy to apply and also amazing bead. Google reviews of Hybrid Solutions and in the Car Care sub-forum. I was reluctant to believe Turtle Was was better than my Meguire's or Adam's favorites.... Anyway this product market is now very competitive.

The Feynlabs Lite took me about 6 hrs to do the first coat. Much of that was learning. Second coat about half that time. My finish was basically new. I applied after giving the paint about 6 months to fully cure. For our very valuable, collectable cars I'd be inclined to go with the near-pro stuff. For my DD truck or something I'll be trading in 3-4 years..... the Hybrid Solutions is pretty amazing. This ceramic coating technology is NOT snake oil. Use Advanced Search in Car Care and you'll learn a lot. Cheers. Ask away if you have more questions.

 

Yes they last. I did my car last summer and it still looks good. However, every once in a while I will mist and wipe it.

 

Lotsacubes - if you liked the Turtle Wax ceramic I would encourage you to give the Meguiars a try sometime. I started out with Meguiars ceramic and when I used it up I thought I would try the Turtle Wax ceramic since it was a couple dollars cheaper at Walmart. Tried the Turtle Wax once but was unimpressed compared to Meguiars and it’s sat on the back of my shelf since.

 

Dan, was it the Hybrids Solution TW product. I think it’s relatively new. Will try the Meguires. Like their products.

 

I have been waiting to see some long term effects of this stuff. When it first hit the market detailers were/are getting big money for this stuff. My fear was that it was snake oil AND concerned about the log term effect on paint. How many here remember the big lawsuit over that Polyglycoat stuff from the 70s & 80s that eventually ruined a lot of paint jobs.
I think the “ceramic” name is just a gimmick as indicated by another poster referring to the definition.

 

I use TLC/AMP(The Last Coat) and love it. Easily applied.

 

I was always a Meguairs NXT 2.0 guy (and still have it in the arsenal) but I have changed.

Turtle wax seal and shine works great and it’s a heck of a lot easier than waxing. Now if you really want to enhance the shine buy some Bead Maker. It’s my understanding 2 guys in PA make it and it’s about $35 a gallon. It really adds shine. Just be careful that you don’t stack it to many times.

After wash and prep I spray Seal and Shine 2x on car and then spray the Bead Maker on pretty heavy.

If you do this on a daily driver and wash your car every few weeks you can really use the Bead Maker like detail spray after you wash. Not so much on a garage queen because it will stack and start to have that smeared look.

 

I'm using the Meguiars Ceramic Liquid Wax and pretty happy with it but I'm open to trying another too as it puts down a very thin coating. My car just sits in the garage most days so any of them will last on it. On my DD Cayenne I'm just using the spray on after a wash Meguiars hybrid ceramic wax and it's amazing. The car sits out under trees and this stuff works. Highly recommend it.

 

Bud, maybe the nozzle clogging is a good sign that the stuff actually works!

 

That sounds like a professional solution, congrats you saved a bunch of $ by doing it yourself. By the way, it seems Turtle Wax products have incredibly improved over the recent years. They are so under-rated.

 

All trying to grab your money
Borrow a bottle from your friends and test it for yourself.
Buy whacha like.

A well polished paint job and some detailer after a bath, thats all ya need..

 

This is the wax Meguiars ceramic wax I've used.

I also use their wash and wax version in a blue bottle. I usually give it a light spritz with it after washing the car and before drying.

 

​​​​​​Quartz/Glass/Ceramic Coatings

There's a whole bunch of 'ceramic' products out there that are easy to use and effective, from things you can buy at the local store all the way up to pro-only ceramics...and a whole lotta stuff in between. Lotsa different terminologies, hype and ‘kinda, sorta, the same’ ways of looking at it.

Nice blog post that explains some of the differing terminologies: https://www.feynlab.com/coating-chem...ual-chemistry/

Generally they fall into 2 or 3 categories:

1. Ceramic infused sealants that come squirting outta a spray bottle. Things like the Turtle Wax line, Adam's Spray 'coatings' and such. Easy to use, can work well and not quite as durable as true coatings. Also in this group are products that possibly started out being marketed as coating maintenance products but have moved into use as standalone ceramic sealants, things like CarPro Reload among others. In a general sense these are around 5% ceramic (SiO2) content.

2. True ceramic coatings, i.e. 'glass bottle coatings' that require more prep and attention to apply. Prep is key to optimum results and longevity and usually involves decontamination (clay bar, Iron & Tar removers and such) and some level of machine polishing. Certainly not beyond the abilities of a DIY-er but a bit of an investment in time and tools. Kinda rewarding if one is inclined to indulge and fantastic results can be had. Ceramic content of these true coatings can be 65% on up. Greater ceramic content, greater longevity and resistance to chemical/environmental contamination.

There's kinda an in between group, sorta 'coating lite' products, items like Gyeon CanCoat, CarPro Cquartz Lite & Feynlab Ceramic Lite. Very easy to apply, 6 months to a year of great looks, ceramic behavior and protection. These are thought to have 10-15% ceramic content and are a great way to giving the 'coating lifestyle' a try before going all-in w a true coating.

As for 'glass bottle' coatings, there's a wide variety of excellent consumer-avaliable products, some top level choices that rival (and sometimes exceed) the performance of some mid-level pro-only offerings. Likely 85% of folks who try a coating will be 100% satisfied with 90% of mainstream consumer offerings from mfgs like CarPro, Gyeon, Gtechniq and many others.

If you're looking for that extra 10-15% of goodness, there are some (IMO) truly exceptional products avaliable to consumers & hobbyists...it just depends how deep ya wanna go. I spent 4 years trying a ridiculous (in wifes opinion but then again she has seemingly 100 shoes for her 2 ft so...) amount of coatings looking for my 'best' but it was fun. I keep all my notes here on what i tried, how it turned out and info to ponder if curious about ceramics: https://budgetplan1.wordpress.com/gl...amic-coatings/

Ceramics can do a lot of nice things but certainly no silver bullet of universal wants and needs, just depends in what you're looking for.

No universal right or wrong answer w regards to wax, sealant, coating or PPF, rather just what meets your particular automotive desires.

As for ‘true’ ceramic coatings, i.e. ‘glass bottle coatings’, some more info below:

While these are often marketed as ‘scratch resistant’, with spiffy phrases like “Diamond-Infused 10h Hardness” it’s largely an irrelevant if not outright false claim. While the coating you put on your paint may indeed be technically ‘harder’ than your clear coat the reality is that it’s such an infinitesimal difference as to be practically meaningless. The hardest coating in all the kingdom will still be measurably softer than your fingernail.

Some more info from professionals regarding coatings and scratch resistance:


– Video Link:


What coatings do offer is great resistance to environmental contamination and excellent self-cleaning characteristics. While they are no silver bullet, “Never gonna wash my car again” solution, the best of them can indeed keep your car cleaner with less effort. And less effort means less touching of the paint which means less chance for marking up that paint. Additionally, they can provide some protection from ‘environmental incidents’ (aka ‘Bird Bombs’) which could otherwise permanently etch the surface.

Additionally, while coatings are not scratch proof, there are a few coatings that offer some ‘limited self-healing’ characteristics. Kamikaze Zipang is one that I have on 2 of our cars. Again, it’s very important to read carefully and understand the limitations of such technology. I’ve tried 20-25 coatings over the past 3 years, looking for one that offered the best protection and self-cleaning characteristics I could find, mostly with black paint in mind. Kamikaze was the best suited to my needs/desires in that area. From the US Vendors Website:

“With Zipang Coat, the chemistry provides even higher levels of gloss and brilliance than their ISM / ISM Pro coatings, and it offers semi self-healing characteristics, meaning that the appearance of small swirls or imperfections in the coating surface will reduce when exposed to heat. “

Note the words “REDUCE” as opposed to “ELIMINATE” as it’s an important distinction to consider when setting expectations. Although totally amateurish and done with a cell phone camera, a flashlight held in my mouth and a heat gun, a few paragraphs down in the notes I kept about my Zipang experience are some pics that illustrate this on a very minor level: Link: https://budgetplan1.wordpress.com/gl...atings/#ZIPANG

Here’s a video where a professional explains it better than I ever could:

Video Link:
A few other vids from a pro explaining various other considerations of coatings:

1. Video Link: 2. Video Link: