Ceramic coating

Hello I have a black Toyota tundra 2022. I am on the fence about Ceramic coating it. Getting prices of 1600 is it worth it? Am I going to be a slave to it???Please give me some advice. thank you in advance.

 

I also have a black truck, it wasn’t by choice but it looks nice. I use to be on top of it. Now I just deal with it and try to avoid making it worse. Ceramic isn’t a cure for paint scratches or swirls. Ceramic just aides in not letting dirt and grime get stuck as easily on the paint. You still have to be careful of your paint and how you wash it. You can swirl/scratch paint that’s ceramic coated. For this reason I decided that it’s not worth it, especially at $1600. I just wash, dry and spray wax, done.

 

Some people love it, but that is some serious $. That kind of $ is tire/suspension upgrade level. Ceramic coats do require upkeep and touchups, so it is not a pay once and done thing.

I have a black truck as well. Key to keeping black looking good is to stay on top of washing it, keep it waxed coated. Use microfiber, never a brush and no car washes.

I use meguairs ultimate and then a top coat of beadmaker. It keeps the truck dark, glossy, protected and beading water for about 4 months.

 

I am not against ceramic coating, but I do a semi coating myself. What I mean is that I pay $12 for Turtle Wax Hyrbid Wet Wax that I use as a drying agent when I wash my truck, and every 6 months spray on the Turtle Wax Hybrid Ceramic. I have been doing this for about 4ish years (ever since they came out with these products). Water falls right off my truck, makes it super easy to clean. My previous truck's paint looked just as new after 2 years as it did from day 1 and it sat in the sun everyday. Again, I think getting ceramic coating is a good idea, some people get super offended when I say the things I just said, but it's just been my method and products used for the last few years and it's work great.

 

I use the Griott's spray on ceramic coating. I get about 12 months worth of beading of water and automatic carwashes. I have not paid for the high dollar ceramic coating, but I am completely satisfied with the Griotts You can find it at O'Reilly if they have one near you. I am rather hard on my paint, so to each his own.

 

I am for it 100%. It makes washing the truck so easy!!

 

While $1600 sounds expensive, what you’re paying for is the paint correction and work involved. With some time, some elbow grease, and a couple hundred dollars for items, you can do all of it yourself with outstanding results.

 

Depends on the installer's rep, services offered, product used. If that price includes paint correction and durability for three years its a good deal.

IMO it is well worth it and adds another layer of durable protection.

 

I have had great luck with DiY coatings. You can follow the same prep process yourself and just do like a ceramic pro or Avalon king coating. People tel me the professional coatings are better and maybe they are, but I have never gotten a great explanation of the chemical differences.

 

Depends on the product line; too many to compare. Generally the "pro" versions have high concentrations (less forgiving but longer durability) of the coating material and different carrier solvents (some require different drying methods like IR lamps). You can get good durability out of consumer grade products that exceeds expectations but its tougher to do out of a daily driven vehicle.

 

IR lamps just introduce additional heat to speed the curing process which theoretically gives less time for contamination and increases the shops throughput. You could absolutely use lamps with the DiY coatings to the same affect. If you know what some of the different carrier solvents are that would be interesting to me. My thoughts are that the differences are vague and IMO does not improve the value that significantly.

I did a quick DiY thread over on LS1tech on my S7 a couple of years ago if OP is interesting in attempting it: https://ls1tech.com/forums/appearance-detailing/1933049-diy-ceramic-coating.html

 

Right but the IR lamps have nothing to do with contaminants or shop throughput otherwise shops would use them for every application which they don't.

With some exceptions you're not always going to visibly see a difference between pro vs consumer, that boils down to correction and prep. The "ingredients" of the different coatings might even be the same just mixed in different ratios. An exception is coatings that contain Ti where these coating trade durability for gloss.

Generally you are paying for durability vs ease of use where the pro stuff can last significantly longer and the consumer stuff is easier to apply and less prone to errors.

Durability typically correlates to higher ceramic content. I say generally because formulations vary across different product lines and prep is a big factor (if not the biggest) as well.

Consumer products tend to have lower ceramic content while pro products tend to have higher content. The ceramic can be difficult to deal with in higher concentrations meaning it is more likely a user messes up the application. Errors can often require paint correction to remove where on a consumer product you can usually go over a spot with another application of the coating.

As far as carriers I don't know the names off the top of my head but they can vary from product line to product line. MSDS sheets are a good place for you to start. You can always ask over on the Auto detailing subreddit if you don't want to research it for yourself.

 

IR lamps help with contaminants because as the coating dries / cures faster with heat so there is less time for contaminants to fall onto the car/truck during the otherwise lengthy cure time. You don't need IR lights, a quick google search will confirm this. From what I have found durability is directly related to prep and to be fair a pro shop is going to do better prep than your average joe. But also what happens when someone messes up during application? the coating is too thick? it dries too slowly? or is the durability somehow impacted in a way that you aren't able to describe? You should be doing multiple coats of a DiY solution no matter what, it's in the instructions.

FWIW I have asked the detailing subreddit and I got a similarly vague response. So maybe there is some secret professional sauce that makes the coating last longer, but at this point you won't catch me paying $1600 for a coating that has a vague differentiation.

 

No. That is completely incorrect. Some professional coatings absolutely do require IR lamps as they will not cure properly without them. A quick Google search would have told you that and answered several other questions you've asked already. There are plenty of comparison and installation videos where you could see first hand there is a difference between coatings. Thats how I know you didn't Google a darn thing.

I get the impression you've only worked with one or two products in very low volume. You'll see more of a difference when you run high volume using various product applications.

The fact of the matter is there are different types of ceramics compounds used for the base of a product, those all behave differently because chemically they are different. Some sheet better, some shine more/glossier, some self clean better, and some stay bonded longer etc. Even within a family of ceramics different ratios of the same chemicals will behave differently. Just by changing ratios you may get better leveling, quicker flashing, no flashing, etc. So I strongly disagree with your claim there is no difference. With some products there is a big difference even within the same brand and product line.

Also don't assume all product follow the same application instruction. Some products allow double coatings and will benefit from it, other products you are wasting time and product double coating as you wont see any difference in durability or gloss.

As far as how you spend your time and money no one cares what you do with it. I'm not trying to convince you otherwise. You asked a question and I answered it based off of my personal experience.

Use the product you like and if you like installing it yourself, good. If you don't think $1600 is worth the service, good. On the other hand someone of higher means or without the equipment, time and know-how may think it is worth it considering you could easily spend half that in products to prep the car and coat a vehicle. This doesn't even account for the person's time and the space necessary to do it. In some areas $1600 could be a steal if they offer correction, prep and a good grade coating especially if you consider that the professional coating manufacturer backs the coating with a warranty (this usually comes with professional installations but requires routine maintenance per the manufacturers directions).

 

I'm getting mine coated next week. Found a guy who works out of his house for now, has an official business, 5 year coating is costing 800. The local shop was going to charge 1500. . . He also warranties his product, free touchups for the 5 year timeframe. As long as 1nce a month I bring it to him to wash it. Pretty sweet deal, was suprises that he warranties it. Going through an auto wash will void that warranty. I would look for a professional individual personally. So glad I found him. ... if you plan on keeping your vehicle, coat it. Atleast that's what I was told.

 

I am impressed with the number of inorganic chemists with detailed knowledge of nano particle SiO2 coatings that speak so confidently on the forum about such complex chemistries.

 

I agree
I’ve been detailing cars since high school and when you pay $1600 bucks it’s all about labor and paint correcting.
I did my 2017 last year and my truck was very well kept but I spent 8 hours on washing (stripping wax) polishing and then ceramic. I used Adam’s Polishes with Graphene. This product when used with a black light you are able to see any areas that got missed or needed touched up.

 

I'm impressed with your ability to type and yet still say nothing.

I think the OP asked if he should get a coating for $1600 but thank you for your contribution.

 

Well, I see where the salty part of your name stems from. Hero is yet to be confirmed though.

 

You still here trolling yet nothing to say that helps the OP out? Please carry on

 

A local collision shop which does very good work based on personal experience from an unfortunate deer incident charges $799 for paint correction and ceramic coating for a new truck. They said they keep it two days. The use a two-step polishing process for paint correction then they ceramic coat. I think they bake it overnight. I'm assuming this is to set the coating? They said their coating is 9H. I know some are now 10H but is that a huge difference?

 

9H, 10H, etc is all a gimmick. That's on the pencil scale, so a rather soft scale at that. They're trying to say it prevents scratching whereas I'll tell you I've used a dozen separate coatings from various companies....not one will prevent contact scratching from the vehicle's environment. There are some self-healing coatings that are God awful expensive and the effect diminished exponentially after only a few months.

$799 sounds cheap for a two stage and coating. My multistage is $1400 alone for correction...not including the coating of a client's choice...and takes a minimum of two days to do (first day is wetsanding/compounding, second is polishing/refining). The price is a lot and I sell a few a year but typically steer folks away from them unless it's a garage queen or weekend car. One steps are where it's at to be honest. A solid mix of paint correction, time savings, and a good price to match ($600 for us for reference on a full size).

I'd be wary of either what they're calling a "two stage" or their quality of correction. There's a lot of bullshit out there with detailers as it's unregulated and let's face it...anyone can do it. Anyone can apply a coating nowadays with what's available to the consumer. The correction is where the money is at.

 

That looks amazing. Well played sir.

 

Did you end up getting it coated?

A quality coating is insanely beneficial for vehicles. Keeps clean longer, optimal protection against the elements, and the main benefit is exponentially easier to clean. Daily driven/work vehicles benefit from them more in my opinion as they need the most protection. The downside is the industry makes coatings out to be the end all, be all to keeping your vehicle pristine. That's a blatant lie. Coated vehicles still need to be cleaned relatively frequently to maintain optimal performance. So don't get a coating thinking you only need to wash the truck twice a year. Likely dogging any coating like that will either kill it or severely diminish how long its rated to last.