Any Downside of ceramic coating?

Hey Gorram,

To give all the background: bought the truck in end of June. I hand washed it once with double bucket method. Also went through touch free 2 times. I paid $1,500 for 5year ceramic coating. He did body, windows and wheel faces. The package comes with a stage 1 paint correction. When I met him he said that should be good. I told him if he thinks it need more than that for paint correction to do it so it’s perfect (didn’t mind paying). I picked the truck up Friday (7/9) from being coated. When I got home I noticed all the lines when under my garage lights. So I have not even washed it yet for the first time since the coating (he said to wait a week). So all these lines came on it from the shop who did the work. Hope that helps. Thanks!

 

So it sounds like for 5 years that would be a professional grade coating used. Not sure what they cost but I would expect $200+ compared to various $50 consumer grade coatings that are good for more like 2 years. It's hard to say that a 1 step correction should have fixed those marks, likely it would have assuming they aren't from after the polishing. The main thing the 1 step is coating prep, it's the best guarantee of cleaning the paint up to beyond all other prep.

Are you having to chase these scratches down with the light at the perfect angle to see? These scratches can't be avoided completely going forward, at some point you have to touch the paint. As the thread title says, that would be a downside of a long term coating. But you also can't continually polish a 2021 paint job like you could one years ago.

 

its a professionally certified shop. So I’m assuming a decent grade coating. I totally expect to get some more scratched and swirls on there from here on out when I wash it. I just didn’t expect it to come from the shop covered in them. From a distance it looks perfect! Once under my garage lights I noticed all the lines. Some you need to be at the right angle to see, but it’s pretty obvious one you are close to the truck. Maybe I expected more?? I could just be being picky.. but like I said there are lines all over the truck. The hood is all spider lines as I look over it. Not sure if this is a “it is what it is” scenario or if the guy didn’t do a good enough job, or should have done the stage 2 correction. I don’t want to be that jerk that goes in there complaining when there is nothing that could have been done. But I also just paid$1,500 soooo… not to sure where to go from here.

 

Are you sure they weren't there before? If it's covered in them then it would be fair to say that the one step correction could have been bumped up in cut level. But I guess it depends on what they say the correction level should be for the package you got. Maybe for them full correction is a $2500 job. With $1500 they use a fine polish that gives more gloss than correction and don't chase down every imperfection. If they used a more aggressive first step you'd have less swirls but also more haze because of the lack of refinement.

It's worth asking them, have them look at the worst spots and ask if they are satisfied.

 

I don’t remember there being that many. But they could have been. I know dealers do not take care of paint and run it through car washes to keep them clean on the lot. I guess I expected the lines and swirls to be removed somewhat with the paint correction. I attached their paint correction claims from the site. If the stage 2 would of done better, I gladly would have paid for it. A few hundred more. I told the guy that I would be ok with that. I’m not sure if he didn’t see the swirls? Which makes me question their whole process..

 

So it boils down to whose impression of 50% correction was achieved. Even with months of dealer washes and even if you had if for months of washes I would think you'd be handing them an already 50% imperfection free vehicle. That makes me think their one step service is their best guess at which polish to use, and they run that over the whole surface without constant inspection. It's not a matter of them seeing the swirls, at 50% he knows there are going to be swirls. If he keeps chasing it then you're into the second package or several more hundred beyond what you offered to bump the budget to.

By the look of it you've got some dark paint. Hopefully they've sold you a proper coating and you can maintain it and enjoy the benefits from the coating from here out. It probably looks amazing sitting outside.

 

For sure. From what I gather it would have been an extra $250 to get stage 2. I would of been fine with it. I have the black paint. Didn’t want black but there were few options when I was looking to buy. It looks amazing outside! I will post a pic once I can do the first wash. So here are quick snaps of the lines on the hood. No hunting for the lines or anything. Pretty visible. Guess I’ll go to the guy tomorrow and inquire. If nothing can be done then I’ll just look at it from afar haha. Thanks for you input man, appreciated!

 

A regular buff should have taken out those long lines. At worse case they would look to be blended. Looks like they didn’t touch it. I didn’t see the truck before the coating. It may have been 10x’s worse.

It’s not my money but I’d bring it back.

 

Thanks Bob. Yea I am going too. It could of been worse. But I got it end of June and hand washed it only once and touch free twice. I know the Toyota paint is thinner than a sticky note, so the cleanings the dealer did before I bought it could have roughed it up. I wonder how much worse it was before I brought it? Who knows… seems a bit too swirly and scratched for just getting it done IMO. Thanks for your input!

 

gotcha. I misread your post. Yeah definitely take the truck back. At a minimum they should of called and said we need to do the next step of correction. Then let you give go ahead.

 

Agreed. Thanks Ace!

 

The only downside I can think of (besides price) is that it forms waterspots so much easier. I have no idea why, it makes no sense to me because so much less water stays on the truck now (although could have to do with the water forming beads instead of laying flat) . Before I coated it, there was hardly any waterspots. Now that it’s coated, spots form like it’s going out of style. I have to keep her clean so I can wipe it down every time it rains (does every place have hard rainwater?)

Last thing. Has more to do with your application process. A side effect of the shininess Is that it'll make any clearcoat scratches alot more noticeable

 

Yea I notice that also. Just purchased an air dryer for after washes. It’s actually a pet one, but works great with the ceramic coating and didn’t cost me $400-500 like the others. Helps with the spots big time, especially with a black truck (Why did I get black??? Oh yea there were two choices, silver or black in my whole region!)

 

leaf blowers also work well especially if you're coated. Water just slides right off the paint. Amazon'd a plug-in Ryobi one for $30

 

Thought about that. Just have to make sure it’s filtered so you don’t “sand blast” your truck. If I look at my black paint wrong, there is a scratch

 

I haven’t noticed that on the consumer coatings I have used. Although I have read about that issue with the graphene coatings. Curious what brand you saw the issue with water spotting. So far I have used Optimum, Carpro, and Cquartz with no real water spotting.

 

So far my cars have had JaxWax Graphene (probably has the least waterspotting if any difference), and IGL Kenzo. Have noticed it on a friends' car that had cquartz as well. Could be your rainwater isn't hard enough to spot in general or?

 

This is not correct. Ceramic coatings do not have the thickness or mass to protect your actual clearcoat. Most swirls and scratches you get on the ceramic are actually going through into the paint. I’ve been doing this full time professionaly for 12+ years and no coating we’ve tried even gives a measurable difference in paint thickness reading after install. Even the 3+ layer products don’t register on the paint thickness gauge. Ceramics are WOWO wipe-on wipe-off or “level” as some call it but by the time you level them, there’s not much mass left of whatever product remains on the paint. You can coat a full vehicle with 30ml of product easy and 90% of that gets leveled off. Do the math, there’s just not enough there to protect the actual paint from physical damage. We always sell the coating as a means to make washing easier. PPF is for actual protection from physical damage but that’s an entire different ball game.