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I'm going to have my C8 professionally Ceramic Coated. In the past on my 'waxed' C4 I would use Meguiar's Quik Detailer for those in-between washes wipe downs. What do you guys recommend I start using with the Ceramic Coating? I was thinking of this:
If you use any detail spray with ceramic in it make sure you use really good lighting and buff it all off or you'll get little 'rainbow' spots. I'm not saying don't use it, I'm just saying it requires a little more effort. If you want something a little easier, Chemical Guys Speed Wipe works really well.
Have you asked the detailer you're entrusting the car to? They likely know which products seem to work well with the brand of ceramic coating you're choosing. When I picked up my car, my detailer gave me a bottle of stuff to use.
Have you asked the detailer you're entrusting the car to? They likely know which products seem to work well with the brand of ceramic coating you're choosing. When I picked up my car, my detailer gave me a bottle of stuff to use.
It's going to be a couple months before I even get my C8. Just trying to pre-educate myself.
If you're willing to wash the car yourself, I have been using Wolfgang Uber Rinseless Wash w/ SiO2 and really like it. The added SiO2 adds a bit of additional ceramic protection to the coating every time you wash it. You can also dilute it to a quick detailer / waterless wash concentration level.
If you're doing a regular wash (with hose, buckets) instead of a Rinseless wash, there are a bunch of traditional car soaps that also have SiO2 added (Wolfgang Uber also has one, so does Adams as an example).
At the end of the day, maintaining a coated or PPF+Coated vehicle is really no different than conscientious maintenance of a wax or sealant protected surface…you’ll just be using different bottles (products).
For a wash shampoo use a ‘pure’, Ph balanced shampoo devoid of any waxes, sealants or gloss enhancing polymers. I’ve always kinda been a Gyeon Bathe guy but also occasionally use CarPro Reset or similar shampoo.
Once washed, occasional top-ups using a coating-specific maintenance product will keep the hydrophobic/self-cleaning characteristics of your coating intact and in some cases enhance both the looks and beneficial character of the base coating.
Maintenance products I’ve used, best to ‘not so best’:
1. Kamikaze Overcoat
2. Polish Angel Cosmic Spritz
3. Polish Angel High Gloss Spritz – This is a definite ‘max-gloss’ choice.
4. SPS (Art d' Shine) Graphene Detailer – If’n ya like a bit of slickness, a great choice
5. 22ple Final Coat VS1
6. IGL Premier
7. Feynlab Ceramic Spray Sealant
8. TAC Moonlight/Gyeon CanCoat
9. Gyeon Cure
10. CarPro Reload
11. HydroSilex Recharge
12. Nanolex SiFinish
13. Gtechniq Liquid Crystal C2V3
- Ethos Defy tried October 2020 but no long term opinions yet. Short term, nice stuff.
- NV Nova Jet tried January 2021 so no long term info but easy to use, nice gloss and nice overall feel to surface
Also tried Mothers CMX which was wholly unimpressive and Beadmaker as well but since that’s more of a weak polymer sealant thing known mostly for gloss & slickness with limited other useful functionality for me, not really the same as above stuff.
6, 7 & 8 are really good as standalones.
All matter of opinion, nothing scientific, YMMV.
A note about ‘lists’ that’s, well…worth "noting" :
Lists really can be a bit kinda misleading, it’s not to say C2V3 (last on my list) is a bad product but rather that for my specific needs, it didn’t do what I prefer as well as some others. You can really kinda break it up into 3 groups:
The first group below speak well to my specific needs, that is “Great hydrophobic and self cleaning characteristics w/ ease of use and great aesthetic properties (notably PA High Gloss…most reflective thing I’ve used)”
1. Kamikaze Overcoat
2. Polish Angel Cosmic Spritz
3. Polish Angel High Gloss Spritz
4. SPS Graphene Detailer
5. 22ple VS1 Final Coat
This second group are notable for their longevity/durability, great for stand-alone use, a bit ‘more’ than a coating booster/maintenance product (although could also put Kami Overcoat in this group as it’s some pretty tough stuff as well). Since my cars are all coated, I really don’t often have a need for these as stand-alones or ‘coating-lite’ products.
Gyeon Cancoat for instance, is quite a handy product to have around. Great for door jambs and such and stellar in getting neighbors outta my garage who say “Hey, what can I put on my car…” without having to go thru a whole lotta trouble. Throw them some Eraser, some CanCoat, some towels and they can take care if it themselves and get 6 months of gret candy-gloss, hydrophobic performance. They end up happy as pigs in sh*t and I didn’t have to do much of anything. It's also been very good to me on top of Gtechniq CSL, far preferable to their C2V3 & EXOV4 products for my needs.
This third group, either used as stand-alone’s or as maintenance products, kinda fall into the ‘everything else’ group and the differences between them are slight in my experience. C2V3 falls into the bottom position in this group as it was the poorest for my specific needs; when it rained, the surface needed to be washed because it just had very poor self/cleaning characteristics.
Kamikaze Overcoat, for me, deserves the #1 spot w/ a bullet. It has just otherwordly water behavior. The PA Spritzes are just a touch behind, a bit more ‘bling’ and so fun to use. I’ve found most PA products to have a distinctly delicious appearance. The 22ple VS1 is a more economical product but still one that punches above it’s weight class.
While you can use non-coating compatible products like polymer sealants/drying aids/quick detailers or spray waxes and not ‘hurt’ the coating, they generally won’t help in any way and may be a step backwards given a coatings inherent beneficial properties.
It’s really not very complex to maintain a coated vehicle, probably as simple or even a step or 2 less than a waxed or sealant-protected vehicle; again, you’re just grabbing different bottles whose contents are made for coatings.
Back in 2016 I gave excessive ‘stacking’ of SiO2 products a go ‘cuz, well…more is better, no? I washed my coated car with an SiO2 infused shampoo (Gyeon Bathe+) rinsed with an SiO2 Spray & Rinse product (Gyeon Wetcoat) and then used a maintenance product to wrap it up (Kamikaze Overcoat) and, well, that didn’t go as planned; turned out to be pointless. The limited amount of SiO2 ‘protection’ in the Bathe+ and WetCoat just decreased the longevity of the Overcoat which was on top. Since the Overcoat has otherworldly self cleaning and hydrophobic characteristics, I want that ‘facing the elements’ for as long as possible, an aspect that was being compromised by the ‘lesser’ SiO2 products sandwiched in between the base coating and the Overcoat.
I’ve now gone ‘minimalist’ in the maintenance approach (pure shampoo + occasional maintenance product applications) and it works much better for far longer with less expense/products.
I’m not a professional by any means but I am extremely lazy so I’ve put a lot of time (and $$) into keeping my cars protected and looking good w minimal effort. There’s about 100 ways to skin this cat and this is just what works best for me in my climate with the way I use and maintain my cars (both coated and PPF + Coating); as with anything, YMMV.
Recommendations For Ceramic Coating Cleaning
