Ceramic Coating

Who says you have to hand wash your truck?

 

for what it’s worth I’ll be ceramic coating my truck when it arrives. For the winter I will not be hand washing. I found a place that I’m happy with, and will do,a weekl
y,drive,thru.

and honestly come summer I think I have better things to,do than hand wash.

I’ll keep you posted on how it went.

 

I do. Seems if you're going to be using a brush it's kind of a pointless process as the brush will remove the coating long before its due date. Better off with a 6 month sealant.

 

Hell no don’t pay that.

Undrdog pro is under a $100 and is very easy to apply.

 

No chance I’d pay that.

 

If you’re going to use automatic car washes don’t bother with ceramic or even correction. Anything you do is going to be destroyed pretty quick.

 

I agree. Use a good sealer every 3 months and call it a day. Automatic car wash will rip apart all the hard work. The chemicals they use are also not designed for coatings.

bottom line.. what the brushes don’t mess up the chemicals will.

 

Ceramic,coatings,are,chemical,resistant, and,car washes (some) have come along way. Washing in the winter,via car wash is better than not washing

 

That’s honestly the best solution for any of us. Just another few grand.

 

I have NEVER used a brush on any of my vehicles, that is just me. I go to the spray washer (now I am thinking that is what you mean hand wash) because I always do the undercarriage. Don't even need soap and takes no time to 'rinse' it

 

Just recently started doing rinseless on the truck. Still perfecting the process. Why do you ask?

 

Same. I’m on my last bottle of Spiked Punch. RIP @War Machine knows my pain.

 

Any Griots product is PH balanced.

I live in Canada. I throw a ceramic coat on just prior to winter . I have an Electric ( for this sole purpose ) pressure washer in my garage and just pull up, roll the hose outside, hit the on switch and rinse it off, kinda like going to a car wash for free. Back in, looks like it was hand washed. Love Ceramic. do this weekly

 

I recommend a full decon to get rid of the evidence.

 

OK maybe I missed it above and please don't shoot me for asking, but has anyone tried Cerakote's ceramic paint sealant?

I have not but have tried their other trim coat and lens defogger, both of which are Extraordinary in duration of effect and just plain how good they look. Thanks.

 

Most people's dislike of coatings coming from improper education on what they do and do not do, as in the industry overembellishing their benefits (as well as the garbage detail industry overcharging for what it is). If I told you the house I was selling you would never need a new roof, never need siding fixed, and the gutters would never need to be cleaned and it cost 1million dollars...and 10 years down the road all of those things turn out to not be true with multiple repairs being needed...you'd say owning a house isn't worth it too. On the flip side if the house was 500k and I told you the aforementioned things will need fixing down the road but the quality of products used will make future repairs less frequent, then youd be more inclined to be in favor of house ownership.

I talk more people out of coatings than I can talk them into because I'm honest about what they are AND what they aren't.

As previously said, they do need maintenance. Some more than others. And your paint will still receive damage over the life of the coating. However, that damage is mostly superficial (within reason) and can be more easily amended due to the coating. It's not an end all be all product. Rather it's a "let's make an effort to keep this looking as best as possible so that when we have the opportunity to make it look its best again comes around, the amount of work/time/money involved to do so is drastically lessened." And for your average person who will not wash their vehicle themselves and may not like car washes for obvious reasons, the math makes sense. Get a "3 to 5" year coating from me (with a quick enhancement polish to make the price more interesting for the example) for $1000 for a pickup truck. I see it twice a year to maintain it at a discounted $100/service rate since I coated it and know my procedures and coating are effective. $1600 total after 3 years. Or you don't get it coated and I do your exterior quarterly at $145/service base rate for 3 years to receive the same "duration" of protection seeing as most sealants are effective up until about the 3 month mark. $1740 total for what is 100% for all intensive purposes less protection. A sealant does not have nearly the chemical resistance of any quality coating. Damage received by a sealant protected vehicle vs a coating protected vehicle is most often much more severe require more intensive solutions to fixing (Ex. Hard water etchings from a sprinkler will often need at minimum a compound/polish and sometimes wet sanding to remove from normal vehicles whereas I have yet to be able to remove water spots from a vehicle I've coated with nothing more than a waterspot remover).

The math works out when you put it in equal terms (for some people!). All depends on their work ethic, spare time, income, and desire to have a clean vehicle.

 

I've not used their coating....which, btw, is not a 'true coating'. It's more of a ceramic infused spray sealant. Scott H on Youtube did a coating durability test, and it did not fare well, if I recall correctly. Properly maintained, I could see maybe getting a year out of a product of this type....but not having used it, I really could not say for certain.

 

Looking for tips, lol. Do you add any apc in your rinseless? I'm about to start trying rinseless when my truck isn't very dirty (heavy dust). Winter is basically impossible to hand wash here.

 

Excellent write up Cody!

 

I’ve done a ton of them over the years. I use Optimum No Rinse and it works great. I see you have a black Tundra so be very cautious.
Make sure there’s absolutely nothing solid on the paint ahead of time. Use a ton of towels. I fold mine twice and flip after every swipe. That will give you 8 surfaces per towel to work with. I never let any surface of the towels touch the paint twice.

 

Thanks. Do you think you get as clean a wash with rinseless?
I did buy a diy sponge and thought I'd go that route. If there is much of any thing on the truck figured I'd do prespray at a coin-op first then an onr presoak followed by contact but if it's just dusty skip the coin-op. Pretty much impossible doing any hand washing in winter where I live.

 

What specific coating and what specific services are they offering as part of the install? Also what condition is your vehicle's paint? It really depends on what your time is worth and if you have the materials, equipment, and skill to do the install.

If they are providing all the services described before plus warranty, ~$2K could be a fair price in a main metro area. You can always negotiate down if your paint is immaculate (probably isn't though).

Problem for coating warranties is they usually require some level of decon, correction and polish and maintenance (usually quarterly is a minimum) for a manufacturer to honor a warranty. This really only applies if you can keep up with the prescribed maintenance which it sounds like you can't. Also if the coating isn't a 3 to 5+ year coating look elsewhere. I realize these factors may not matter for everybody.

Another option to consider is to reach out to your preferred coating manufacturer, some have a preferred installer network. Some folks aren't publicly listed or advertised at the level that the big shops advertise with. Some of the smaller shops are hungry for work and install out of their garage. I would avoid a mobile installer unless they work out of your garage; some have mobile paint booths they can set up that are sealed to the environment but can be hit or miss.

Good luck.

 

In my experience being involved in the industry, coating "warranties" are absolute junk. Unless it's an in house warranty by the detailer personally (and guided by their own stipulations), any "nationally warrantied" coating you need to be wary of. Those warranties are always third-party based by a handful of companies. Do the research and you'll find overwhelmingly dissatisfied customers with said warranty customers (check BBB). Denied claims, lack of proof of damages, etc all plague those review boards. I would never let a business' "coating warranty" be a selling point for me. It's like the game disc warranties Gamestop used to offer for an extra $10 at purchase time...never used and when you did, they'd claim it wasn't replaceable for xyz reasons. All a warranty does is give you the false illusion of added value and an inflated purchase point.

 

Fair enough. I could see how these are exploited for denial especially for smaller nonrepeat customers that are doing one off installs. Always good to hear different experiences.

 

No, not as clean. I’ve always done it in between regular washes. You can get the paint pretty clean, but all the little nooks and crannies need to be sprayed out.

 

Well said. I've felt this way about coating 'warranties' for a while.