My at home Ceramic Coating Application

So I decided I didn’t want to spend 2k on a ceramic coating application done professionally. I decided I would figure it out for myself. This is my 2nd ceramic application on one of my personal vehicles.

My total cost was less than 500$ thanks to Black Friday deals. This was including the dual action polisher.

I AM NOT A PROFESSIONAL. Everything I did here was was found in “how to videos” on the internet. Specifically autogeek.com. Where I found some good Black Friday deals on all products I purchased. The following was what I had to add to my garage

Porter cable dual action polisher
Car Pro IronX
Meguiar clay kit
Car Pro TarX
SONAX Cutmax
SONAX Polish
CQUARTz 70ML bottle
CQUARTZ APPLICATION blocks and micro suede towels
Bout 100$ in polishing and compounding foam pads from a local professional detailer.

The local guy gave me all the confidence I needed to tempt this on my own. It is a fairly easy process, just exceptionally time consuming.

First step I took was to remove the vinyl on the door seams that came from the factory 2 years ago. Pretty straight foward with a hair dryer



With a little heat to soften it up it just peels Off. Also, wasn’t really impressed with the “protection” it supposedly gives.

Whatever hit that went right through. Next step is to hit tar and adhesive with TARex



Worked like a charm. I used a paper towel to wipe. I’ve had bad experience with dyed microfiber towels and leaving their color after a tar remover. I simply followed instructions on bottle.

Next step was IRONX. This product came highly recommend to removed metal bits from the clear coat. I wet the truck and sprayed it on panel by panel. Giving it 5 min roughly. It turns purple when reacting with metal. You can do this in 1/3 sections as long as your in a cool environment with shade




Stuff smells like ass BTW



Paint chip I wasnt going to bother fixing. You can see the product reacting with the rust from the surface of the chip.


Sometime you miss a spot. Simply re apply and wipe.



Time to wash. Two bucket method. Meguiars yellow wash was what I used. Any car wash soap should do the trick. 2 bucket wash cuts down the chance to get swirl marks from washing. I usually give a good rinse to take away big shit. Light wash with a brush to hit medium shit. And a hand scrub to hit small shit that’s stubborn, like bug residue. You have to get this paint as perfect as possible before you put the coating on, otherwise your gonna be looking at it for a while




All clean. Dry really well using microfiber towels. I’ll usually go with one for all the big water droplets and a second for small streaks. Dry the vehicle in the garage to prevent any dust from adhesion after washing.

Prep garage or shed for truck sitting in there for a few days. I have lizzards that sometimes drop their shit from the celing on to my vehicles so I took the extra precautions



Blanket nailed into wood. Simple fix.
Next step is to clay bar. Probably the most important step. Locate all those little heavy spots and gently use the clay to remove them.


At this point you should consider paint correction. Depending on your preference, you can clean the paint up tans fill in the chips or wet sand the big scratches. I opted for neither since I have very few chips and white hides most stuff anyway. The chips I have I just went over them with the ceramic. The goal was to learn how to preserve what paint I have, I’ll try wet sanding and chip fills another day.


This kinda stuff is not noticeable until you really look for it. Another reason why superwhite is the best

Time for a break. Enough beers for now

8 hours total with the wash, IronX, tarX, drying and clay bar.

Next step is COMPOUND!!!! But first, TAPE EVERYTHING YOU DONT WANT COMPOUND ON UP. Stuff can make a mess.



Using a DUAL ACTION POLISHER, and a specific compound pad spread your product of choice on and rub in with nitrile gloves.


Then put some dots on and go to town.



Depending on your paint you may have to do multiple pass and wipes to get rid of swirl marks. Or use multiple compounds and mabye sanding. For my purpose, I just ran over it once. It did a good job in my eyes. I can still see scratches and shit, but it’s so small that nobody is going to notice.


Work in small sections. I spent roughly a minute working that section. If you don’t see residue while your using the machine then you might need to add more. The idea is to keep moving and keep the heat down. You can damage your paint if this is done improperly. BUT.... considering I’ve never done this before, I think you be fine. Start on the roof or the tailgate, once you got the learning curve down, hit the rest.

Wipe down each area after.


This is the best example of a compounded section vs a non compounded section. The compound will give your paint a slight haze. But don’t worry. The polish will brighten it up. The hazy part has been compounded. The left is untouched and the right is compounded. Sorry these shots were hard to get so close.

Next up is polish. Using a polishing pad, go through the same motions as the compound. This will bring that paint back to a nice shine.


Now time for ceramic. This may seem like the scary part, but trust me it’s quite easy. I used CQUARTZ. It’s roughly 75$ for 70ml. This should be enough to to the painted surfaces of a CrewMax. Possibly the rims and some plastic trim.


Sorry, I was lazy and didn’t take a photo of the bottle.




APPLICATION: swap out your blocks regularly. I used 4 blocks and 6 micro suede towels. If the micro suede gets dirty you can just flip it to the clean side.


Work small sections. I recommend 1ft by 1ft areas at first. If you get comfy with application then you can do bigger areas. But keep in mind, you’ll need more liquid on the block.

At first the application looks oily and foggy. After 1-5 minutes it clears up and is ready to be wiped off. Don’t sweat leaving it on. I left a spot on my roof for 20min to see if it hardened and IT DIDNT!!!!! It took a little extra buffing but the haze and residue came off!!!!

The instructions say 1-5 min should do it for that section your working. For the 50ish degrees outside, it took about 2.5- 3 min for my flashtime. When you go to wipe, you’ll feel resistance. This means the product is ready to come off. If you don’t feel resistance and your on point with the flash time, don’t sweat. I had a 30-45 second variation sometimes with this application.



Fan also helped with air circulation. It followed the spots I was working.




Weatherstripping is dirty. Avoid direct contact. If you find yourself in this situation, just turn the towel over. And be cautious around the black parts. If you see black residue in the application, just wipe off and re apply.

I had instances where I found leftover adhesive from the door protection films mixed in with the coating. This stuff is pretty forgiving. Just remove stuff that might get caught and wipe over the area you wiped the contamination from. It should be fine.


Shit looks slick as hell right now. I can’t wait to see it outside. It feels super smooth too!

At this point I’ve spent roughly a full 36 hours on this. This is why it costs so much to have it done professionally. But if you got the time, go for it!!!!!! I’ve learned an incredible amount from this, especially a respect for detailers and their craft. I will post more pics when the coating has cured in a few days and when I’m ready to take it out the garage. They say at least 48 hours no water. Some places say a few hours is fine to drive in, just avoid water.

Will report further!





White is pretty tough to get to have a mirror like surface, but I think it turned out pretty well

 

Outstanding write up Paul! Thanks for doing this. Definitely a huge goal for me. I’ve been sitting on a few bottles of CQuartz for months now, just not confident in my paint correction abilities. I’m seriously leaning toward having someone else do the prep work for me.

I actually got a quote from a guy running a Christmas special for $500.00, including applying CQuartz. That’s such a good deal, I may just have him do all of it.

 

Great job!

 

Great write up!

 

I appreciate all your hard work and sharing your experience with us. I can see lots of hours of manual labor but I am sure the results will be worth it. get yourself some Bead Maker and go over that ceramic coating and they say it will really pop! I highly suggest using the microfiber towels from The Rag Company. they make a huge difference IMO and you can get them on Amazon.

$21 The Rag Company - Eagle Edgeless 500 (4-Pack) Professional Korean 70/30 Blend Super Plush Microfiber Detailing Towels, 500GSM, 16in x 16in, Blue

https://www.amazon.com/RAG-COMPANY-...1545230036&sr=8-3&keywords=eagle+500+edgeless

 

Honestly if I didn’t enjoy doing that kinda stuff I would definitely be paying someone. It’s a big task. If you had two people who knew what they were doing you could cut it down to a single day.

 

Yea the quality of micro fiber cloths is key. I’ve had luck with Wally World ones but this time they left a lot of fine threads all over the truck. I’m sure they’ll wash off though. I’m gonna try that stuff for sure. My other truck has reload on it and I haven’t had it on enough to test longevity.

I just washed my other truck that has had CQUARTz on it for about two weeks for the first time. And I tell you what that was the easiest wash I’ve ever had to do. Mostly everything just blows right off with water. If not that a quick scrub and it’s clean. Very satisfied so far, I really want to test how long the coating actually lasts based on my single layer application.

 

Updated with a few photos after sittin in garage for 4 days

 

Wow Paul great job. Very inspiring that's for sure.

 

Stellar job and write up!

 

Looks amazing bro!!

 

Thanks man!!!!!

 

Amazing write up and truck looks beautiful! What’s the longevity of the product?

 

They say two years. I will keep updates on cleaning and maintaining, etc etc

 

Nice work both on the truck and the very informative write up