Paint protection/coatings?

For the DIYers in here. Was wondering what people were planning on doing for paint protection for their 3rd gens.

Right now I am leaning towards the Meguiars hybrid paint coating cause it looks super DIY friendly. However, since the Truck and paint will be new I am wondering if I should just jump right into a ceramic coating when I get the truck home.

Also, I have never done a ceramic coat but I know how to watch a youtube video.

 

that's my plan. ceramic the first day! Ive had it on several vehicles and it's worth the money

 

Yes you should do ceramic coating for sure.

At a minimum, get a couple of bottles of ironx removal to remove all the iron from paint, then do the coating installation.

It's not easy, and easy to get smears aka high spots and must do lots of reading and watching YouTube how to apply it. Must have very good lighting so you can see smear spots and fix it right away before it dried up.

I did coating on wife's new GLE and it turned out good, with only couple small smears. My Tundra is good too but had 3-4 high spots that I missed because of bad lights... I'm not super picky about it and did it mostly to protect the paint. I did tons of research on ahead of time, and do have experience with correctly polishing paint and applying car sealants from the past... Follow directions on the particular coating you buy - some of them should not go into plastic surfaces or glass...

I like Autogeek website, used their in house Wolfgang profi coating, they offer lots of how to guides and also sell products at good prices. Here's another good how to by the industry guru Mike Phillips You can also watch a bunch of other YouTube videos and use other products which may be better than autogeek in house brands...

 

If you want to go a little bit deeper... Shine flashlight under angle at the paint to inspect for any swirls or slight scratches. If truck was detailed by the dealer then it's almost guaranteed it has slight swirls already because they re use dirty towels to wipe it...

When buying your new truck, make sure to tell dealer not to detail or wash your truck, and do it correctly yourself to avoid swirls. (research on Autogeek how to wash truck correctly to avoid swirls and scratches)

 

Oh yes, this is a must. Especially dealers that use automatic car washes. I’d rather have a dirty truck than swirly paint.

 

I wouldn't touch that with ceramic until you've thoroughly decontaminated the paint with wash, clay and isopropyl alcohol wipe down. You'll regret not doing it correctly. If you don't do it correctly, you might be back on this forum later telling people that ceramic is dumb and doesn't do anything beneficial,

 

Been impressed with Gyeon Can Coat Evo for a “lite” coating and not expensive. Good product but it’s more of a beader than sheeter of water.

 

I went a little different path with my 2023 Tundra. Found a company in Greensburg, PA that developed sealant made from teflon. From what one of their engineers told me, the sealant is impregnated into the paint and “doesn’t sit on top of the paint” like a coating. Anyway, here’s an excerpt from their website:

Polytetrafluoroethylene is better known by the trade name Teflon. It is used to make non-stick cooking pans, and anything else that needs to be slippery or non-stick. The original PTFE resin was invented by Dupont in 1938.

https://www.tst5k.com/tst-5000-ptfe.php

 

Go check out the detailing threads. But you'll basically need to wash, decon, clay, polish, wipedown to remove last of any oils, then coat. I've used Avalon King on 2 vehicles before. Lasted about 2 years. Recently used cquartz 3.0 and liked it better. Both easy to apply. Next time I use a coating, I'm going to use Undrdog from others experiences and recommendations from here.
Applying coatings isn't bad....its all the prep work. That's the biggest component in coatings.

 

that meguirs stuff looks pretty good, I may give that a try when the time comes. I’ve had good luck with their stuff over the years.

has to be easy at this stage of the game I don’t have long days of detailing in me anymore, lol

 

So far, i've had a ceramic coating put on, by my detailer, after doing a paint correction process, put xpel on all the front fenders/bumpers/about first 18" of the hood, a-pillars, mirrors, door threshold edges, and door handle cups. Then, I went on vacation out of country for 2 weeks, parked it in the yard, (it doesn't fit in my garage ) and the sprinklers came on, wind blew it onto the truck, and sun baked it in (SWFL) waterspots. So, then I used some carpro spotless, and got that off, then washed it with Gyeon Bath+ and Gyeon wet coat with a high pressure washer. This seems to have taken care of the waterspots and brought back the ceramic hydrophobics. I dried it off with a air blower to keep it touchless as much as possible.

 

dude, I’m tired just reading that

 

We've got a lot of "professional" ceramic coating installers in this forum post.

Whatever you do, spend a few hours researching reputable sources how to prep paint and install ceramic coating. If you jump into it without knowing what you're doing, the results will be mediocre.

I like autogeek.net guides and forum for the how-to guides. Their own label products may or may not be better than the rest, but their thorough guides and many Mike Philips videos are professional.

 

As others have said, a full decontamination is in order....even if your plan is to use a sealant as opposed to jumping right into a coating. You will always get the best results with a properly prepared surface. You can buy some time by putting on a quality sealant, such as Jescar Ultra Lock Plus....which should give you about 6 months protection. I just applied Gyeon MOHS EVO on my Tundra....very simple to use and will give you about 2 years worth of protection.

 

It was a long weekend... I did the 1794, then the '11 Tundra that needed a ceramic refresh, with the Gyeon stuff, and then my S5 exterior with a ceramic refresh and the interior I'm beat this morning, glad to be back at work, so I can rest up!

 

Ceramic coating is definitely a time and labor intensive process because of all the prep involved. Assuming the dealer didn't put your new 2023 through the scratch machine to "wash" it, now is the best time to get it ceramic coated before you have significant paint imperfections. It will probably still need some level of polishing. It's something that a DIY guy can do himself with patience. I second all the posts saying do your research and do not skip any steps in the cleaning/prep process as that will set you up for a successful job. You may even be able to find someone local who is competent in detail/ceramic who would do it at a better cost than a "pro shop". There are a ton of kits on the market, so many it is paralysis by analysis in a hurry. I have coated about 10 vehicles using Adam's graphene coating kit, its reasonably priced and for a first-timer they have a lot of good instructional videos that will help you do it right the first time. Good Luck!