Need schooling on ceramic coatings

Thanks !!!
I'm a Air winger myself I was stationed at MCAS El Toro with MWSG 37 . It's been 35yrs since I was active duty and still get my high n tight haircut every 2weeks

 

I used Mckees 37 coating on mine about 6 months ago. Super easy on/off application. I used blackfire sio2 after every hand wash for upkeep. I haven't hand washed the truck since November and the beading still persists like a champ. I guiltily have gone through a couple automated washes and it still holds up fine.

I do want to strip, polish and re coat this spring. Not sure if ill go ceramic this spring and summer aside from a wheel coating, i like trying and using new products too much when the weather is nice.

I will definitely re coat for winter months though.

 

I ordered some and will give it a go this weekend.

 

Baby steps, today I applied some cq quartz uk 3.0 to the hood of my T4R Pro.

 

Have 2.0 on my truck. Like it a lot.

 

Did some maintenance to my 1yr old ceramic coating a few weeks ago . Tried Mothers CMX , did 3 applications (coats) and this is the results !!

 

They just came out with a Lite version of Cquartz. Application seems same, durability is less but you get a larger bottle to work with.

 

I don't understand the logic behind the light version. It's work to do this. And a lot of work if you are going to do it right. Why not come out with a "two coats in one application" version instead of light?

 

You will need more than a clay bar. Don't talk to that guy again.
Ceramics add so much gloss and depth to your paint that any scratches will become more obvious, only VERY micro scratches will be hidden. Even on a right off the delivery truck, white vehicle I would recommend a light polish. Will help the ceramic coating bond better too.

It should be a fairly easy task to polish out a new truck yourself with a DA polisher. Buy a porter cable polisher kit that comes with the pads and you'll be glad you did.

I polished out mine the first time to a mirror finish over a weekend when it was 6 months old. Then it took me a day to put 2 coats of CQuartz original on the truck.

My maintenance was rinse off truck when needed. Hand wash with Carpro Reset once a month wipe dry with Carpro reload. That's it. Carpro recommends 3 months for reload but with this colour truck... nope this black shows everything.

Very few micro scratches accumulated on the truck over a year, and on this truck you can see a fly fart from 20 paces.

This year I'm going Gloss crazy, and have polished down the truck again with Carpro Essence then covered in 3 more coats of Carpro CQuartz 3.0 and one coat of Carpro Gliss then added Reload the next day.

One thing exposed ceramic coatings don't like is Hard Water spots. So you want to add a "top coat" i.e. Reload to them. I added Gliss to my truck to make Reload optional but on this colour Black you HAVE to be paranoid. LOL



Carpro CQuartz, GTech and any of the other major brands are all good.
It's easier than you think to do it yourself. Comparable to sealing your truck.
I'm even hearing good reviews on the 9H Mr Fix stuff that is going for $10 a bottle.
(never apply in sunlight, outside on a nice day in the shade is fine, I find that 15degC to 22deg C (60-75F) are the sweet spots for easiest temps for coatings. 25+ deg c and you have to do smaller areas so the coating does not dry too much before buffing.

At 15deg C on Sunday I could do 1/2 of a door/panel in one pass with the CQuatz UK 3.0, not just the 2x2 area that they recommend. Gliss flashes too fast so you have to keep it in a 2x2 area or less if it gets warmer or windier out.

Steps I followed when the truck was new;

Wash the truck at the coin op
Spray the truck down with a tar remover
Hand Wash with Carpro reset
Spray down the truck with Iron Remover
Rinse truck
Clay Bar
Hand Wash with carpro reset.
Wipe down with 50% Iso Alch and Deionised water.
Polish down entire truck with McGuire's ultimate polish and an Orange (medium) Chemical Guys pad.
Wipe down with 50% Iso Alch and Deionised water.
Apply 2 coats of Cquartz original (1.5 hrs between coats).
Apply reload the next day.
It took me a hard working weekend to get that done.

Since the truck did so well in the year with just the two coats (and I off roaded too) I thought I'd really commit to the Ceramic coating system and brought the truck "to the next level"

Wash the truck at the coin op
Spray the truck down with a tar remover
Hand Wash with Carpro reset
Spray down the truck with Iron Remover
Hand Wash with Carpro reset
Polish down with Carpro Essence and Rupes Fine pad. ( I have a Rupes Bigfoot DA polisher now)
3 coats of Carpro CQuartz UK 3.0 (1.5 hrs between coats)
1 coat Carpro Gliss (4 hrs after CQuartz)
1 coat of Carpro Reload next morning (optional with Gliss but it's supposed to rain all this week so better to be safe than sorry)
was a hard working weekend again.

Most important steps for longevity is the decontamination of the paint (including the oxide coating that builds up on bare paint) before you apply.
It will make a scratched up car shiny, but polishing then coating will give it the "holy sh%t that's shiny" look.
Maintenance, wash it with a PH neutral non-wax/conditioning soap when it gets real dirty. Apply the top coat every 3 months as it does help protect from water spots and bugs/bird crap.

Ceramic coatings are not magic, no automatic car washes with brushes or snow brushes to scrape off your truck.
But daily dirt and crap just rinses off and it is much harder to scratch but not scratch proof.

Parked my truck beside a brand new black Pro on the dealer's lot. Brand new Black truck looked like crap compared to my '17 truck with 1 year old ceramic coating. More micro scratches that showed up in the sun easily compared to mine. Lol car salesman asked me what wax I used on my truck LOL.


So if you are going to go with a "Pro" they are going to have to look and touch your truck to give you an idea on how much polishing they will have to do.
Any "pro" that does not list their decontamination steps (washing, tar removal, iron removal, clay bar (may be optional) then washing again) before polishing, RUN away.

Almost ALL the the coatings say to not let water stand on the coating for 24hrs and no soap/washes for a week (still leveling and curing during that first week).

No reason to go with a Pro though it IS easy to do yourself.

 

I think because people are so afraid from the marketing hype that Ceramics are this permanent armor that will never come off. Yeah I agree it's like alcohol free beer. Pointless.

Microfiber pad and any compound will take it off very effectively while polishing up the area.
Lol no sanding required. No damage to your clearcoat either.
Ceramics are not permanent like they would like you to believe.

I've seen more damage from clear-bra or PPF's being removed to the paint than after a ceramic has been removed.