Ceramic coating, yay or nay?

[MF2020]

Having not embarked on the ceramic coating option myself, I do feel like darker trucks will benefit from this more than lighter trucks. It seems that dirt rolls off much easier, therefore they look cleaner longer, and the shine is very impressive. If I owned a black truck, I would definitely get ceramic coating, but I am still on the fence about getting it on my silver truck. Having said that, there is a protection benefit to ceramic coating as well. And from what I understand, our paint is not the best in the first place.

MY truck is black and I just had the ceramic coating professionally applied and it is absolutely amazing how deep the shine is now and also how much easier it is to keep it that way. There is no comparison to a simple wax job. I am looking forward to seeing how well this performs as time goes on since I live in Upstate NY in the foothills of the Adirondack Mountains where the climate is super harsh in the winter. Love the look but will it last? We will see...

 

[4x4Rebel]

Turtle wax ceramic is really good stuff. I will tell you that I have had better luck as of late with the new formula of seal and shine. It's fantastic stuff and can go on everything.

Do you have an opinion on Turtle Wax's Ceramic Spray? And what do you consider regular maintenance; just washing, or doing decon/clay barring?

 

[Rambeaux]

I've thought about going the professional ceramic route, but I use the mother's cmx spray. I've tried the griot's garage 3 in 1 ceramic spray as well. The griot's just didn't seem to last as long as the cmx to me (I exclusively use nothing but griot's garage car products. The cmx is the only "not griot's" product I use). I applied 1 layer & it lasted over a month, could have easily gone longer but I applied a 2nd layer after I washed it the other day. I want at least 3 layers of the stuff on my truck. Ceramic makes getting bugs off a lot easier too. I would at least do the spray types if nothing else. I'd suggest the CMX or turtle wax's ceramic. I'll try the griot's garage on something else & see if it was something I did that made it not seem to last as long. Some people on YT seem to have better results. The pic is the day after I washed & applied 2nd coat of cmx after the 1st coat had been on there for over a month.

 

[RT75]

MY truck is black and I just had the ceramic coating professionally applied and it is absolutely amazing how deep the shine is now and also how much easier it is to keep it that way. There is no comparison to a simple wax job. I am looking forward to seeing how well this performs as time goes on since I live in Upstate NY in the foothills of the Adirondack Mountains where the climate is super harsh in the winter. Love the look but will it last? We will see...

What coating did you use. Just got a black Rebel and am having trouble deciding who to go with. Thanks

 

[Patriotmobiledetail]

What coating did you use. Just got a black Rebel and am having trouble deciding who to go with. Thanks

Most coatings..name brand...cquartz adams qtechniq liquid armor
All great the PREP work.is what is important..even more so.
And the maintenance and proper car is exponentially more important to maintain the coating.

 

[RT75]

Most coatings..name brand...cquartz adams qtechniq liquid armor
All great the PREP work.is what is important..even more so.
And the maintenance and proper car is exponentially more important to maintain the coating.

Totally agree! Thanks

 

[1guyandtools]

Never done it, but my curiosity is calling. Would love to hear pros and cons.

2019 Big Horn , Patriot Blue

Thx.

Nay, save the money. Hand wash, mist & shine is more satisfying than handing someone else your money. it looks great for years.

 

[RT75]

I am looking into IGL certified detailer this weekend. Lets see what they have say. Its kind of hard to argue with some of these pics with the coating on imho.

 

[Gozar]

For me it was easily worth it. $699 for a Lifetime package truck and wheels, refresh every year (with paint correction) included.
Of course it helps to be friends with the owner.....

 

[Patriotmobiledetail]

Nay, save the money. Hand wash, mist & shine is more satisfying than handing someone else your money. it looks great for years.

Lol. Thats your prerogative.
I just laugh how us car truck guys won't bat an eye to spend 5k on wheels and a lift bit can't dish 800 to 1k for a coating.
The two most expensive things on your truck are the motor and the paint
Mist and shine is fine but no way it is better than a professional grade ceramic coating

 

[Patriotmobiledetail]

For me it was easily worth it. $699 for a Lifetime package truck and wheels, refresh every year (with paint correction) included.
Of course it helps to be friends with the owner.....

700 for lifetime is a good deal.
But I could never do that every year for free id be out of business lol

 

[Neurobit]

This is my opinion after using professionally getting ceramic coating applied on 2 cars including the truck.

You still have to maintain them, regularly, put toppers on them, can’t use clay (highly debatable topic abut most agree to stick to chemical decon). Do they give some extra pop? Yeah. Is it worth 1200-1500 USD? No in my opinion. On my truck the coating failed, either due to me not maintaining properly OR put in wrong, whatever the case may be, recently I applied 2 coats of turtle wax ceramic spray coating, washed every week in summer with a topper , I see same results. Winter up here I try to wash it as much as I can but inside the garage without a floor drain you can only do so much. In spring I will do the routine maintenance of chemical decon and may be clay if needed and it’s all good. I have personally decided not to spend the obnoxious amount of money on coatings anymore. Every 2 years or so, I will either do a single stage compound/polish and get the so called consumer version of coating installed by me, or get someone to do the polish and do the coating myself.

Your mileage may vary.

^^^ This ^^^

Agree fully. Save your cash and use a ceramic spray coating like Turtle Wax once a month. It will literally give you the same results and protection, which is basically better water repellency.

Cheers,

 

[bill-e]

Anybody try Meguiar's Hybrid Ceramic Spray? I realize it isn't really a ceramic but application is just spray and rinse and the beading looks like the pics in this thread. Easy to use as the final rinse after every wash.

 

[Patriotmobiledetail]

Ceramic spray coating is a gimmick.
I'm telling you this unequivocally.
Im.not saying you are wrong in thinking that. If thats what you think is sufficient thats ok.
But calling a turtle wax or any over the counter spray the same as a true ceramic glass nanocoating is not correct.
A dead giveaway of a true coating is the packaging.
I'm not familiar w all "quick.ceramic " spray stuff but the ones I have seen are ALL in plastic bottles
Ceramic coatings come in glass bottles, usually frosted and tinted or some combination thereof.
Why? Because a true 9H coatinh has a solvent carrier along w the silicon.dioxide component.
Solvents don't do well in.plastic. the frosted and tinted glass further prevents degradation of the solution.
This is all fact.
Comparing a quick ceramic spray coating to.a true 9h coating is like comparing a real.medical.doctor to dr.pepper.

 

[badpewterz]

Anybody try Meguiar's Hybrid Ceramic Spray? I realize it isn't really a ceramic but application is just spray and rinse and the beading looks like the pics in this thread. Easy to use as the final rinse after every wash.

i have
1. its not a true coating (we know this aspect)
2. it is NOT spray and rinse. initial coat spray while wet, massage in with one towel, dry/buff with clean dry towel. it can be streaky on darker colors but used sparingly its not terrible.
3. it looks good and will last a few months
4. you can top it but i would NEVER spray and rinse it huge waste of product
if you want a true spray and rinse look at mckees37 hydro blue/ hydro blue pro BUT do not even think of using in sunlight
i have used all this with good results but they do not replace a true ceramic. if its just a was and protect fine but if im outing HOURS of correction in im using a real coating to seal it in then just maintain it

 

[bill-e]

badpewterz, thanks for the reply.

I'm not worried about wasting a little product. It's cheap enough and I think the ease of just spraying it to spread is great for us old folk who really don't want to spend hours cleaning out trucks.

I followed Meguiar's directions and didn't perform the initial base coat because I had just waxed it the week before with TW Black Liquid Wax and it was beading fine. So since then I've washed the truck twice and sprayed on the Hybrid Ceramic wax and while I'd like it to be a deeper shine what I am most interested in is protecting the paint from a tree/bird droppings perspective and I hope this accomplishes that.

If my wife is in a decent mood today I may try your #2 above technique that I also saw on Youtube where the guy wiped it on, let it craze and then buffed it off. His shine on a black truck looked very deep but that could all be in the lighting.

I will look into those other coatings that you mentioned, thanks.

What I would really like to have is a 20 something young lady come and wash my truck every week.

 

[shrubs2000]

I am looking into IGL certified detailer this weekend. Lets see what they have say. Its kind of hard to argue with some of these pics with the coating on imho.

Mine was coated in Mar of this year with IGL. The pics are from my washing last weekend.

 

[bill-e]

I have the black with flake in it and I don't think it looks as deep as colors without the flake. I guess it masks minor dust and scratches though???

 

[RT75]

Looks awsome, anything you would recommend with IHL

Mine was coated in Mar of this year with IGL. The pics are from my washing last weekend.
[/QUOTE

Mine was coated in Mar of this year with IGL. The pics are from my washing last weekend.

Looks awsome! Anything you would reccomend with IGL.

 

[bill-e]

So my truck hasn't been washed in a week. We've had dew and frost and a little drizzle plus lots of pollen, dust and tree droppings. It actually looks pretty good, so much so that I'm not going to wash it as I had planned today. The truck was built in Jan 2020 so it's about 9 months old though I've had it for a month an a half w/1650 miles.

I'm using the Meguiar's Hybrid Ceramic spray as the final rinse.