Ceramic paint protection

[Forg]

Yeah I saw you'd said that, but the yearly inspection won't stop it from just wearing off over time; but on the other hand, re-application takes a lot of effort (ie. no less effort than the first time).
Hence my surprise!
Unless of course the application costs $X, the product lasts Y years, and the inspection costs $X/Y ...

 

[monstar]

are you someone with a can of "Kitten #1" and some old undies, somewhere in between ...

That's no way to speak to a lady!

 

[panhead]

I wouldn’t worry too much about ceramic coatings quickly wearing off as you only have to try and buff a car with a ceramic coat to know how tough it is.

For sure you'll need to reapply every 2 or 3 years if your car lives outside.

What I think most people don’t understand is that ceramic coats suffer from swirls when not washed properly and therefore they lose their crystal clear finish the same way a wax does.

If you are prepared to be serious about your car and look after the paintwork using tried and tested soft cleaning techniques then it is great as it will definitely outlast a wax.

If you are half arsed with cleaning using abrasive products and are not a regular washer you will find that the finish will still swirl and deposits like tree sap and bird poo will still etch a mark into the surface.

I’m on record of having said I’m not into it myself and prefer to wax but I also don’t have any cars that spend much time outside or do many miles and I can live without that type of treatment.

But I have used ceramic coatings in the past and believe they do a good job if cared for and on my daily’s at the time that I had it applied to I also added 2 or 3 layers of high quality carnauba wax over the top to act as the easy to remove sacrificial scuff surface.

This allowed me to protect the surface with the ceramic coat while being able to give the car a light polish and re-wax to bring back an optical perfect shine when needed.

One other plus I like about adding layers of good quality wax (note: cheap wax doesn't usually layer well or at all) is that it gives the paintwork a deep luster that you feel you could walk into in comparison to the clinical look of a ceramic coat on its own but that's just a preference that I like.


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[MikeVY25]

Morning All,
Just had my new VF II SV6 Sportwagon done with Wurzite ceramic. Looks brilliant, had the paint, plastics and wheels done. Wheels were removed and done properly as you can see into the back of them. (same wheels as the black series) Dealer makes it plain there's no "lifetime" Wty as the coating requires re coating at around 7 years. Has 7 year Wty on the job. Dealer was Deluxe Car in Adelaide.
Regards,

 

[LS1SS]

Ok what sort of GOOD wax are you guys using on your cars to keep them better than factory?

 

[SSVREDLINE2014]

Who's the best value for money ceramic detailer in NSW?

 

[SSV 407]

Ok what sort of GOOD wax are you guys using on your cars to keep them better than factory?

No1: Finish Kare 1000P Hi temp paste wax. The most under rated wax of all time.(zas.com.au)
N02: Fusso 99 Ebay I found is the cheapest for this one.
No3: PS21 (zas.com.au)

 

[Voodoo_SV6]

If you end up doing it yourself voodoo, keep us posted on what you used & what you thought about the product. Keen to hear

+1; but on top of this, can you let us know your experience with detailing (eg. are you someone who owns a specific random-orbital buffer 'cos you wax your own cars every 6 months, are you someone with a can of Kitten #1 and some old undies, somewhere in between ... )?

After some more research, I have decided to not worry about the ceramic on this car. It's a brand new VF SV6 I bought in April, has over 25,000kms on it already and has much less swirl in the black paint than the day I took delivery of it. I will keep it for 5 years and sell it for $5 when I'm done. Trying hard not to love it.

My experience with cars and detailing... I used three buckets to wash my cars, first to rinse the crap out of the microfibre mitt, the second to get more crap off the mitt before dipping it in pH neutral car wash that costs me nearly $100 / 4 litres. I have a professional foam lance to no touch wash the cars on the weeks I am not handling then at wash time. I have a random orbital polisher and about 20 different products I can use on the pads, and I once spent 4 full days refinishing my black 200,000km old black Subaru to bring it back to a mirror finish. I love the finish Dodo Juice hand applied wax works on dark cars, but I am at a point where I just couldn't be bothered spending day after day working on a cars paintwork.

Most often these days, I clay my rarely driven HSV every 6 months and apply a good coat of NXT wax, and it looks fantastic as it lives in a garage under a car cover, next to my 52 year old EH which has 90% original acrylic lacquer on it (living under 2 x car covers). I've owned that car for 35 years.

The VF SV6 sits out every night next to my girls VE SV6. I think I will just keep using NXT Wax every three months on each of these.

 

[Forg]

Ta Voodoo_SV6; my reason for asking was to gauge the amount of practice/skill/knowledge before getting a good result, if you were to do it ... you've definitely scared me off, I've only been even two-bucket washing the car since getting the VF 2 years ago.

 

[SuckSqueezeBangBlow]

Ok what sort of GOOD wax are you guys using on your cars to keep them better than factory?

Chemical Guys White Wax