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Hi all. I recently purchased a new Z06 and have been considering how to best protect and preserve the finish as best possible. Its black so, that probably complicates things.
Anyway, this is not a daily drive but it will also not be a garage queen. We have more than our share of debris on our roads here due to never ending construction and traction materials spread during the winter that never seems to go away. So, I have decided to get a PPF, xpel to be precise, applied. I will likely do the entire car.
I am also considering having it ceramic coated at the same time but I am still unsure about that. It is rather expensive and I'm not yet convinced it is worth that much to me personally. Sure, it doesn't need to be re-applied as often as wax but, it is not permanent either. Also, I really don't mind waxing the car rather often.
So, when it is time to re-apply, what is involved with a ceramic coating? The xpel installer I will likely use applies Gyeon Quartz Q2.
What can I expect later on with a coating? What will it start to look like when it is getting to the time when it needs to be reapplied?
If I coat it, am I stuck with re-coating later or can I wax it down the road (so to speak) when the coating starts to wear off?
How is the shine of such a coating compared to a high quality wax? Again, I don't mind waxing the car often so the maintanance aspect of a coating is not that big of a deal to me. However, if it looks a lot better, especially on black, it might be worth it to me.
Other insights?
Thanks in advance for the help.
Last edited by Black18Z06; 06-27-2018 at 10:58 AM.
Reason: Clarity
A lot depends on the color of the car. For light colors such as silver/white and such I'd pass on the coating. Since it's not a daily driver you could also save the money and use a product such as CQuartz, CarPro Reload and Blackfire Crystal Seal. Results won't last as long as getting it professionally done. Persoanlly I'd rather reapply the CarPro Reload every 4-5 months than pay upwards of $2,000 to have it done (which is what I do). I love driving the car but also get enjoyment taking care of it as well.
As long as you enjoy waxing on a regular basis forget the coating. You won't need it. As an aside. A friend of mine has a black C7 and only washes it every few months. It looks magnificent! It makes me wonder why I bother to detail mine so much. The clear coats on cars today are really good.
If you do the whole car in Xpel just go over that with Rejex once a year... really you don't even need to do that but bugs and dirt will come off XPEL easier with Rejex..
Hi all. I recently purchased a new Z06 and have been considering how to best protect and preserve the finish as best possible. Its black so, that probably complicates things.
Anyway, this is not a daily drive but it will also not be a garage queen. We have more than our share of debris on our roads here due to never ending construction and traction materials spread during the winter that never seems to go away. So, I have decided to get a PPF, xpel to be precise, applied. I will likely do the entire car.
I am also considering having it ceramic coated at the same time but I am still unsure about that. It is rather expensive and I'm not yet convinced it is worth that much to me personally. Sure, it doesn't need to be re-applied as often as wax but, it is not permanent either. Also, I really don't mind waxing the car rather often.
So, when it is time to re-apply, what is involved with a ceramic coating? The xpel installer I will likely use applies Gyeon Quartz Q2.
What can I expect later on with a coating? What will it start to look like when it is getting to the time when it needs to be reapplied?
If I coat it, am I stuck with re-coating later or can I wax it down the road (so to speak) when the coating starts to wear off?
How is the shine of such a coating compared to a high quality wax? Again, I don't mind waxing the car often so the maintanance aspect of a coating is not that big of a deal to me. However, if it looks a lot better, especially on black, it might be worth it to me.
If the ceramic coating installer is legit, they'll do massive paint correction before applying. I have a 5yr Sapphire V1. The always shine is ridiculous even dirty and I don't have to wax. I do massage my C7 with a bit-o-detailer (cuz I can't help myself), but that's about it.
I just made the decision to try ceramic on my WGG GS. I decided to use Gtechniq Crystal Serum Light with EVOv4 and apply it myself. I’ve heard good things but for now I’ll just do it on this car. If it goes well I’ll use it on my Macan later. But I’ll stick with Zaino Z1 and Z8 for my classic, which is a very dark blue and requires more swirl correction from time to time, which would be more difficult with the coating.
I had my Z06 completely wrapped with SunTek Film at Auto SuperShield in Boca Raton FL for about $6K. I knew I wanted to protect my new Z06 last May when it arrived, but I didn't know what was the best film as they all sounded good. Pepe, who runs the shop told me he prefers the Suntek film as he thinks over time it holds up the best. He told me he could start to see a slight yellowing and orange peel develop in the other films after close to 10 years. I've had it on a year and it's so nice to not see paint chips and swirls in the paint. I recently went 8 months without washing the car as I didn't get caught in the rain. I have 5K miles on it and all I do is use spray wax or detailer to clean the finish. If you did that without the protective film the cars paint would be a disaster. It's not cheap, but the peace of mind is priceless. I've heard the ceramic coating do make it easier to clean the film of stuff that gets "stuck" on the film and the photos I've seen make the film appear shinier. My first Corvette was a black one and trying to keep that car clean with out scratching the paint was a nightmare.
The photo shows Pepe rolling on the floor as he coats a classic Testarossa, to show me how protective these films are he took a wire brush to the front fender of that car. It scratched the film pretty good, he then took a heat gun and aimed it at the scratches, the film healed itself. He told me the sun will do the same, I was SOLD! He also told me I didn't need to do anything to maintain the film, he said I could wax the car if it made me feel good, but it won't really shine any brighter. I still do but it's mostly as I said to get dust or tree sap off the film.
Pepe of Auto Supershield.
The photos below are from the waiting room, I show these because Pepe takes a photo of every car he does, I just want you to understand the experience he has and why I listened to him.
I had my Z06 completely wrapped with SunTek Film at Auto SuperShield in Boca Raton FL for about $6K. I knew I wanted to protect my new Z06 last May when it arrived, but I didn't know what was the best film as they all sounded good. Pepe, who runs the shop told me he prefers the Suntek film as he thinks over time it holds up the best. He told me he could start to see a slight yellowing and orange peel develop in the other films after close to 10 years. I've had it on a year and it's so nice to not see paint chips and swirls in the paint. I recently went 8 months without washing the car as I didn't get caught in the rain. I have 5K miles on it and all I do is use spray wax or detailer to clean the finish. If you did that without the protective film the cars paint would be a disaster. It's not cheap, but the peace of mind is priceless. I've heard the ceramic coating do make it easier to clean the film of stuff that gets "stuck" on the film and the photos I've seen make the film appear shinier. My first Corvette was a black one and trying to keep that car clean with out scratching the paint was a nightmare.
The photo shows Pepe rolling on the floor as he coats a classic Testarossa, to show me how protective these films are he took a wire brush to the front fender of that car. It scratched the film pretty good, he then took a heat gun and aimed it at the scratches, the film healed itself. He told me the sun will do the same, I was SOLD! He also told me I didn't need to do anything to maintain the film, he said I could wax the car if it made me feel good, but it won't really shine any brighter. I still do but it's mostly as I said to get dust or tree sap off the film.
Pepe of Auto Supershield.
The photos below are from the waiting room, I show these because Pepe takes a photo of every car he does, I just want you to understand the experience he has and why I listened to him.
I had my Black C7Z done with the suntek ppf and a ceramic coat on top of it
In Video No. 16 "Wax vs. Sealant," the founder discusses choosing between paint sealants and waxes. After watching that one you might be able to make a more informed decision based on your usage and extent of exposure of your car to the elements.
Shine, extra hydrophobic properties. They are compatible.
Coating is more hydrophobic than sealant. They are compatible, but if you put the sealant over the coating you just get the properties of the sealant, though you do get the protection of the coating. IMO you just need the coating.
I had my Z06 completely wrapped with SunTek Film at Auto SuperShield in Boca Raton FL for about $6K. I knew I wanted to protect my new Z06 last May when it arrived, but I didn't know what was the best film as they all sounded good. Pepe, who runs the shop told me he prefers the Suntek film as he thinks over time it holds up the best. He told me he could start to see a slight yellowing and orange peel develop in the other films after close to 10 years. I've had it on a year and it's so nice to not see paint chips and swirls in the paint. I recently went 8 months without washing the car as I didn't get caught in the rain. I have 5K miles on it and all I do is use spray wax or detailer to clean the finish. If you did that without the protective film the cars paint would be a disaster. It's not cheap, but the peace of mind is priceless. I've heard the ceramic coating do make it easier to clean the film of stuff that gets "stuck" on the film and the photos I've seen make the film appear shinier. My first Corvette was a black one and trying to keep that car clean with out scratching the paint was a nightmare.
The photo shows Pepe rolling on the floor as he coats a classic Testarossa, to show me how protective these films are he took a wire brush to the front fender of that car. It scratched the film pretty good, he then took a heat gun and aimed it at the scratches, the film healed itself. He told me the sun will do the same, I was SOLD! He also told me I didn't need to do anything to maintain the film, he said I could wax the car if it made me feel good, but it won't really shine any brighter. I still do but it's mostly as I said to get dust or tree sap off the film.
Pepe of Auto Supershield.
The photos below are from the waiting room, I show these because Pepe takes a photo of every car he does, I just want you to understand the experience he has and why I listened to him.
Yep, $6k is the quote I got to do the whole car. It's not cheap for sure but I think it is well worth the peace of mind it will bring when I can drive it and not worry about it (so much).
In Video No. 16 "Wax vs. Sealant," the founder discusses choosing between paint sealants and waxes. After watching that one you might be able to make a more informed decision based on your usage and extent of exposure of your car to the elements.
I had Suntek on the entire car for $4,500, perfect install and then I use spray wax every couple of months cause I can't resist. I have an AB GS and when I'm done that car looks awesome. The PPF makes the paint look like it's coated with glass.
FWIW, I stopped by the shop this afternoon to check the place out and talk to the guys before making a decision. I also wanted to ask them some of these questions. They confirmed to me that when the ceramic coating needs to be replaced, what is left of the old coating needs to be stripped before applying the new coat. The only way to do that is to mechanically polish off the old coating. Apparently, this is a somewhat touchy process because they need to polish enough to remove all of the old coating but not too much to abraid the PPF. So, it seems like a job for a professional, IMHO. The point being, this would become a recurring expense on some period, depending on how long the coating lasts. However, the installer did suggest that if I was undecided, I could use a quality sealant or wax that is compatible with the PPF and later, if I decided to go with the ceramic coating, we could do it then. After all, it is relatively easy to strip a layer of wax and clay the PPF to get it ready for the ceramic. This seems like a reasonable approach to me. They also suggested that for a lightly driven vehicle this would probably be enough since the point is just to keep bird s#!t, bug guts, and other grime from sticking to the PPF and make it easier to clean off.
Finally, I found the shop to be very clean and extremely well-organized. The installers and staff that I met were all very friendly and helpful. The in-process projects that I saw there (Ferrari California and Porsche GT3) looked great. They were obviously taking an extreme amount of care with these vehicles and were putting a lot of effort and attention into getting the jobs done right. The results, so far as I saw, were excellent. They also showed me the machine, which looked like a large format plotter, that they use to cut the sheets according to programs for each vehicle which eliminates the need to cut the sheets in place, i.e., no razor blades on the car. Needless to say, I was impressed. So, I scheduled my install for a couple of weeks from now. I left the decision on ceramic coating up in the air for now but, based on my discussion with them, I am leaning towards not doing it, at least not right away.
06-27-2018, 10:13 AM
Ceramic coat or wax on PPF?
