Ceramic coating choice

[hifiaudio2]

Hoping to order an all black limited soon, and researching ceramic coatings. Is Avalon king Armor Shield ix a great choice? I've never done any coating before, nor any real "prep" work like clay barring a brand new truck. Is that necessary?

Sounds like this is an all day affair as well to prep and apply....but having a pro detail and apply is very expensive, yes?

 

[theonlyMcG]

Hoping to order an all black limited soon, and researching ceramic coatings. Is Avalon king Armor Shield ix a great choice? I've never done any coating before, nor any real "prep" work like clay barring a brand new truck. Is that necessary?

Sounds like this is an all day affair as well to prep and apply....but having a pro detail and apply is very expensive, yes?

I don't know anything about the Avalon King stuff so I can't help you there. I just took delivery today and it is going straight to a guy I have in town who works with GTechniq products. I am having it professionally done because a) I want it done right and b) I have a six month old son so spending all day doing paint correction and coating isn't in the cards for me.

I am getting the full paint correction/GTechniq/Glassparancy application done for about $1200. Says it will take about 3 days total.

Hope that helps. If you search for ceramic coatings you will find all sorts of threads on it.

 

[Fmrchvy]

Adams has a great spray-on ceramic coating that is so easy to apply and from my experience, has been very durable. I’ve used other products in the past and this one seems to work just as well.

 

[19TXLimited]

I have used ceramic pro on my previous Black Camaro which was an amazing coating. Shop I used was able to do claybar, stage 1 correction which was plenty especially considering the car was a year old by the time I took it to have one applied. As for the Ram...the dealer built in a "ceramic" coating that they would not take out of the sale...$600...I'll leave it at that as I am not at all pleased or impressed with it.

I personally would make sure you find a reputable shop in your area and have them take care of prep, polish and application. All shops should clay bar, then polish either a 1 or 2 stage correction and then apply coating. Seems this is normally a 1-3 day process depending on the level of correction and the life of the coating. Coatings that will only last 1-2 years normally seem to be a 1 day process, 3-5 a 2 day process and lifetime coatings can take 3 or more days.

If you are in Katy or Sugarland TX check out Siramic Detail. David (Katy Location) is very knowledgeable and works with high end vehicles. They also have a discount if the car is within a few months of purchase.

 

[jb772]

I compounded, polished, and ceramic coated all 5 of my previous vehicles and have been detailing for years now - with that being said; I almost always recommend having a professional to do it because if you screw up it can cost you WAY more than what it would cost to have just paid to have it done in the first place. If you compound to fast or hard in one spot you risk damaging the clear coat and if you let the ceramic coat flash for to long before wiping off, you risk having tons of high spots which most often require sanding to get completely off. I have never heard of any of the brands you stated in the first post - I use gTechniq (my first choice) and CarPro (my second choice) products. They work extremely well and the final product always amazes me.

 

[z0n3]

I can’t speak to Avalon king but I’d try and avoid any Chinese products for your ceramic coating. Stick to products like cquartz, gtechniq etc. I did my truck with gtechniq crystal serum light after decontaminate wash, clay bar, iron x and compound/polish and it turned out great. In total it took me about 20hours of work to prep and coat my truck. I’d recommend doing all the steps to decontaminate and clay bar your truck before ceramic coating it. Even with a new truck you can still have swirls from dealership washes and contaminates in there. It’s best to get it prepped the best you can because when you coat it with ceramic it’s locking whatever condition the paint is in under the coating for years.

 

[dsn112]

Prep is 95% of what you are paying a detailer for. All new vehicles need clayed, regardless of coating or not. People think because it's new it's fine, but new cars are as contaminated as any other car, sometimes more if they were on a train at all.

You need to follow that clay with atleast a fine polish, then go over the car with a polish remover to make sure the oils are all gone. If you don't have the paint ready for ceramic it won't adhere properly and you will be wasting your efforts.

As far as brand, stick to a good one, as they aren't that expensive. Cquartz, IGL, GtTechnique, Gyeon, Optimum. Opti coat and gyeon are my go to.

If you are questioning any of these steps either pay someone, or don't do a true coating.

 

[hifiaudio2]

I don't know anything about the Avalon King stuff so I can't help you there. I just took delivery today and it is going straight to a guy I have in town who works with GTechniq products. I am having it professionally done because a) I want it done right and b) I have a six month old son so spending all day doing paint correction and coating isn't in the cards for me.

I am getting the full paint correction/GTechniq/Glassparancy application done for about $1200. Says it will take about 3 days total.

Hope that helps. If you search for ceramic coatings you will find all sorts of threads on it.

How hard was it to get that $1,200 price? On the GTechniq site the estimator seems to indicate that before you add a single thing like better formula or whatever it's basically $1200 on a full size truck. is that tight extremely conservative with the estimate? Also, how does one know they are getting a quality paint correction job done? And thanks everybody for the answers so far -very helpful.

 

[SacRebel]

Ceramic Pro and CarPro CQuartz are going to be your premium products. Bit of advice, make sure they're using those actual products and submit the warranty to the manufacturer that they are required to do.

 

[theonlyMcG]

How hard was it to get that $1,200 price? On the GTechniq site the estimator seems to indicate that before you add a single thing like better formula or whatever it's basically $1200 on a full size truck. is that tight extremely conservative with the estimate? Also, how does one know they are getting a quality paint correction job done? And thanks everybody for the answers so far -very helpful.

That is what he quoted me. He seemed pretty confident in that based on it being brand new. Everyone in town says he does good work so I am going with that. I had the dealer not wash at all as part of there prep so hopefully there is a little less correction that will need to be done.

He already told me about having to come in every 2-3 months for the maintenance on the glassparancy which is part of the deal with the warranty and is included in the price.

 

[hifiaudio2]

Is glassparency known to be better than the gtechnic glass product?

 

[rrroscoe]

Mine went right to my detail shop. Paint correction, 3 layers of ceramic pro - $1200. Had the same thing done to my 2015 Charger Hellcat- it is still smooth as glass today.
Everything gets coated. Wheels, trim, plastic, running boards.
I enjoy cleaning and detailing my vehicles, this makes it so much easier.

 

[19TXLimited]

How hard was it to get that $1,200 price? On the GTechniq site the estimator seems to indicate that before you add a single thing like better formula or whatever it's basically $1200 on a full size truck. is that tight extremely conservative with the estimate? Also, how does one know they are getting a quality paint correction job done? And thanks everybody for the answers so far -very helpful.

Siramic down here almost always has a new car/truck special of $600 for a 1-2 year coating and about $1200 for a 3 year. Goes up over $2k for lifetime but the 3 and lifetime include a 2 stage paint correction in the price.