Ceramic Coating

[dash]

After 6 weeks waiting I finally managed to bag a couple of days at Ceramic Coating Solutions to get the ‘business’ done on my Excel. I’ve used their services on my last 2 cars and wow, as always, what a difference!! We agreed on IGL Elixir this time for its extra gloss over the more expensive IGL Kenzo, but not far off the same protection. 
All the swirls were carefully machine polished out of the paintwork (especially noticeable on the boot spoiler) and then sealed with the ceramic coating. 
It makes the car much easier to wash, protects against new swirls which usually appear during washing/drying, less risk of stains and water spotting, and looks great. Should be good for a couple of years before a maintenance treatment is required.
Not cheap, but I thought a worthwhile treat for my new car 😉

[Roy124]

How much?

[dash]

£400 (ouch !!), but protects the paint for at least 2 years and maintenance treatments are half that price. IGL is a premium product, so I guess you pay for the research and the results.

[Roy124]

Thank you.

[Ralph H]

Just been quoted £500 for Toyota protect ceramic coating on my new Yaris order. When I refused it suddenly went down to £299 ! 

[dash]

2 minutes ago, Ralph H said:

Just been quoted £500 for Toyota protect ceramic coating on my new Yaris order. When I refused it suddenly went down to £299 ! 

I'd advise an expert do the coating as opposed to a dealer. An expert will machine polish the paintwork prior to applying the coating whereas Toyota will probably just slap it on top of existing swirls and marring and will use an inferior product.

[TonyHSD]

Strongly agreed above dealer valeting services. I personally wouldn’t  let them wash my car not adding any protection. Even if they use best products on the market their employees aren’t the very best and not very motivated. 
 

[bathtub tom]

I just use a good polish and wax. Takes time and effort, but pays off in time spent washing in the future. Particularly for brake dust on the wheels!

[SouperChris]

Paint coating: implying that paint isn't good enough for£££

[anchorman]

6 hours ago, SouperChris said:

Paint coating: implying that paint isn't good enough for£££

You really don’t have any idea about cars do you Christopher.   

[Roy124]

56 minutes ago, anchorman said:

You really don’t have any idea about cars do you Christopher.   

Harsh.

Chris makes a good point.  If ceramic coating is a good idea (and I think it is), why is it not done at factory?

It is like underseal.   Cars used to be sold with a minimal spray of paint underneath.  Someone came up with underseal.   Some products were good.  Some products were well applied*.  

What happened?  Cars now have factory applied underseal.

*I had underseal applied to my Ford Anglia.   I was a little miffed when it was applied around the sills until they explained why.

I had my next car undersealed too.  After the wings were changed (warranty) I decided to have a look.  Red oxide and dots of underseal so it felt like it was done.

[Paul john]

I have always had ceramic coat on my toyotas as todays ‘modern’ paints are a little more fragile than previous cellulose based paint. Especially when going through an automated car wash.

my latest car has pearlescent paint and the effect of adding the ceramic coat makes the car less ‘satin look’ but much more shiny. 

[Corolly Poly]

I have a coating and have no doubt that they will protect the paint to  some extent but they need to be applied properly and looking after them seems to be far more effort than standard wash and occasional polish of a non coated car. Unless you are prepared to put the time and effort (or pay for regular valeting) to look after it properly and avoid swirling or it being worn away I think they are more aggro than they are worth. They do look shiny when properly looked after but my car is not a show car and is dirty more often than it is clean so I see no benefit there. I didn't pay for mine and on balance I would still have preferred not to have it.

[SouperChris]

2 hours ago, anchorman said:

You really don’t have any idea about cars do you Christopher.   

I really don't understand you

[Cyker]

Generally ceramic coatings should be mostly maintenance free - The whole point of them is they're much harder than wax and don't abrade just from being rained on like wax does; The only thing you have to be mindful of is they are razor thin coatings so any physical contact from e.g. scrubbing, polishing etc. should be minimized, but this is true normally anyway as if you don't have the coating then you're wearing into the clear-coat layer.

If it's a good coating, you can normally get away with foam lancing then jet washing the car as the dirt shouldn't be able to stick on hard enough to require e.g. use of a clay bar.

Alas reality and FRIGGIN BIRDS mean that isn't always the case and some gentle agitation is sometimes require to remove more stubborn dirt deposits...

If you like to clean the car regularly, a good wax is much better IMHO; I feel ceramic coatings are more for lazy people like me who cba to clean their car every week because it gets covered in **** again almost immediately...!

 

[Corolly Poly]

4 minutes ago, Cyker said:

Generally ceramic coatings should be mostly maintenance free - The whole point of them is they're much harder than wax and don't abrade just from being rained on like wax does; The only thing you have to be mindful of is they are razor thin coatings so any physical contact from e.g. scrubbing, polishing etc. should be minimized, but this is true normally anyway as if you don't have the coating then you're wearing into the clear-coat layer.

If it's a good coating, you can normally get away with foam lancing then jet washing the car as the dirt shouldn't be able to stick on hard enough to require e.g. use of a clay bar.

Alas reality and FRIGGIN BIRDS mean that isn't always the case and some gentle agitation is sometimes require to remove more stubborn dirt deposits...

If you like to clean the car regularly, a good wax is much better IMHO; I feel ceramic coatings are more for lazy people like me who cba to clean their car every week because it gets covered in **** again almost immediately...!

 

I've tried just jet washing but unless you dry off quickly it seems much more prone to water marks than my previous non-coated cars, even with a water softener. And you can't just fetch them off easily with a bit of polish because that removes the ceramic coating. I appreciate that for some they are worth it but for me never again. Although I hate cleaning my car and I might see how the coating fares with just being being professionally valeted every 8 weeks or so😁

[Roy124]

11 minutes ago, Corolly Poly said:

 Although I hate cleaning my car and I might see how the coating fares with just being being professionally violated every 8 weeks or so

Fixed it 😀

I do love dyslexia 

I think the water mark issue is lessened if you chose a cool cloudy day.  I know the joke, wash your car to make it rain.  

[Roy124]

21 minutes ago, SouperChris said:

I really don't understand you

Don't worry,  it's just Don's way.

[SouperChris]

1 minute ago, Roy124 said:

Don't worry,  it's just Don's way.

It seems it's Don's way, or the highway

[Corolly Poly]

2 minutes ago, Roy124 said:

Fixed it 😀

I do love dyslexia 

He's a decent bloke who I know and I don't think he would touch anything inappropriately

[Cyker]

Ahh I hadn't considered the hard water issue... ironically one of the problems with ceramic coats is water tends to bead up on it, so where normally you'd get an even layer of imperceptible water film, it tends to be concentrated into more noticeable blobs where the water droplets formed.

I get this very noticeably on my windscreen because of the silicone wipers - The whole car will be dry except the swept part of windscreen, which will still have droplets of water on it, and if I don't wipe them off with the wipers, it just leaves dots of residue when they do finally evaporate!

I'm told one way to mitigate the problem is to dry the car with a leaf blower but not sure how practical that is  

[Roy124]

24 minutes ago, Cyker said:

I'm told one way to mitigate the problem is to dry the car with a leaf blower but not sure how practical that is  

I would be scared of hitting the car with mine.

I got some double side microfiber cloths, 1ft x 2ft from Temu.  At first I wasn't sure but when used on the large water droplets soon got saturated and I was amazed how much water it held.

The droplets left now were very small and the second cloth removed those.  Well pleased.

If you think you can manage a bigger cloth they do them up to bonnet size too😀.  I do find with a 1x2 you need to avoid touching the ground.

 

[ColinB]

I've had 3 of my last 4 cars ceramic coated and I could definitely notice the difference on how easy they are to clean - the next one is also being done. I use a spray foam followed by a spray on rinse, drying with a couple of microfiber clothes - one on its own seem to not fully dry the car - and this definitely mustn't be done on a sunny day, otherwise it does leave water marks. 

I've also heard that it's best to dry the car with some form of blower, as I don't have anything suitable I suppose I could always use my hairdryer 🤔

[Corolly Poly]

7 minutes ago, ColinB said:

I've had 3 of my last 4 cars ceramic coated and I could definitely notice the difference on how easy they are to clean - the next one is also being done. I use a spray foam followed by a spray on rinse, drying with a couple of microfiber clothes - one on its own seem to not fully dry the car - and this definitely mustn't be done on a sunny day, otherwise it does leave water marks. 

I've also heard that it's best to dry the car with some form of blower, as I don't have anything suitable I suppose I could always use my hairdryer 🤔

Hence my comment about requiring a fair bit of care to look after properly.  Eastern European hand-wash 6 times a year (guaranteed to destroy a ceramic coating) and a once a year polish is more my style.  Horses for courses I guess. 

[MikeSh]

50 minutes ago, ColinB said:

I suppose I could always use my hairdryer

I have had something similar to this for years following a tip on a car detailing website: 

Pet Hair Dryer (eBay link)

Much easier to use than a leaf blower, especially getting the water out of mirrors and door handles - we know how annoying that can be, and less likely to bash the car. (I don't use the heat though, just cold blow with the conical nozzle.)

There are loads on Amazon and eBay.