Does anyone have any feedback back on high quality ceramic coating?
The concept sounds great but I'm a little hesitant because my truck frequently gets covered in mud.
I live down several miles of dirt road and use the truck off road daily on the ranch.

If the truck is totally covered in mud, can I really expect to be able to do a quick spray spray off and reveal an immaculate polish underneath?

Need some real world feedback.
I covet everyone that can keep their truck so slick and clean for so long so easily lol

thanks!

 

Today's ceramic is the next chemical generation of wax, with a great marketing agent. What we used to call certain procedures, like cutting and buffing, or wet sanding, is now paint correction. Ceramic looks fine, but I have no luck getting it to last any longer than any other product. You can pay a hefty laziness tax to have someone else smear it on and wipe it off, with the process shrouded in mystery, or do it yourself. It is not magic.

 

Well stated....note taken....

 

Having had 2 vehicles go thru Paint Correction plus Ceramic Coating I can say it has helped keep the vehicles looking new and a breeze to keep clean. The key is the "paint correction" to remove any existing scratches/swirl marks from the paint before sealing it in a ceramic coating. I have a white vehicle and a black vehicle and I get both paint corrected every 2 years and resealed. I like my vehicle looking clean and like they came out of a showroom. I guess its up to each owner how much they want to invest in keeping their vehicles looking new and clean. Just my 2 cents..

 

I can tell this statement is true by simply looking at the black bottles with gold lettering!

 

The finish of these trucks is paint covered with a cured clear coat. The clear coat gives the paint significant resistance to light scratches, staining, oxidation, etc. It also enhances the gloss of the paint

Many of us additionally polish and wax the clear coat. The polish and wax is an additional sacrificial wear layer that cleans and protects the clear coat, adds gloss. The current trend is a belief that ceramic (also an additional sacrificial wear layer) does this significantly better than polish/wax. It may.

But I have detailed cars, trucks, and boats for decades. I've seen a lot of fads come and go that have offered revolutionary performance. My experience is some produces are a little easier to work with than others and some products seem to provided a little better performance than others, but I have seen nothing revolutionary. I have limited experience with ceramic, but nothing about it appears revolutionary to me.

 

It’s like a longer lasting wax more or less.

No, if it’s covered in mud it won’t rinse off spotless. It will be better than without the coating but your still going to have to hand wash it sometimes.

 

"Paint correction" is a new term and honestly it sounds pretty stupid. Only thing you are doing is removing your clear coat. I chose the $15 bottle of Turtle wax vs the $3k I was quoted for a professional to ceramic coat it. I've watched some ceramic coating testing on YouTube and they don't last long. I'm pretty sure any coating you put on your vehicle offers no UV protection.

 

I’ve used several and the most durable off the shelf product for me has been chemical guys hydro slick. Pretty hard to buff off but it really lasts a good long time. I blow my vehicles dry with a leaf blower and the water rolls right off.

Once water becomes harder to blow off i reapply.

As others stated, it’s just a more durable and longer lasting wax.

i like it and it does make things come clean a little easier.

 

Interesting to read the comments! A quality ceramic coating is better than a quality sealant, and a quality sealant is better than a quality wax. What does better mean? It does a better job of protecting your paint. Protecting your paint? From what? UV rays, micro abrasions, and pollutants.
Ceramics will protect longer than sealants, and sealants longer than waxes.
Ceramic coatings are not maintenance free. You still have to wash your truck. Most ceramics have a recommended maintenance regimen, most often a drying aid you spray on after washing, before drying.
As mentioned, waxes, sealants, and ceramics are a sacrificial barrier to protect your clear coat and/or paint. A good wax will last 3-6 months, a good sealant 6-12, and a good ceramic 12-36 months.
Labor is expensive, and to properly prepare a vehicle has several steps that take time to do properly: wash, decontamination, repair (if needed), compound (if needed), polish, wax or coat. Correcting the paint removes the scratches, swirls, and surface contaminated from the clear coat. Most of the time, the vehicle is rewashed between steps.
Most of us will be perfectly happy using an all-in-one product once a year or so. Especially for daily drivers.

 

If its a new truck off the lot just claybar it and do it yourself.

I have had really good results with it. Cleans up quicker and has a deep shine and no spider webbing.

My only Caveat with it is on work vehicles that you may want to buff pin stripe scratches out of occasionally. You also shouldn’t use drive through carwashes. That is really the only downsides because you should expect this stuff to last 1-5 years if you believe what they are sellin, so why buff it.

 

I like the latest generation of ceramic, and the continuing progression of technology. I just know hype and exaggeration also.

 

I had my 2022 F350 Dually done right after I purchased it. I can tell you that I love the coating. The truck stays cleaner and is much easier to clean then my 2013 F150 that does not have it. During Rain also, the water just beads and runs off the hood and windshield much better. Even my son noticed it recently and asked me why. It is not perfect though. To get off tough bugs you still need to pressure wash them, or wash them with soap and a sponge. It is expensive. I think I paid about 2K to a local car detailing shop to do it. I would do it again though if that helps.

 

A lot depends on the Coating material itself. Off the shelf DIY coating is more carrier than coating so that it gives the person applying it more time to buff the coating in. Thats the difference between a $50 bottle of DIY coating and a $300 bottle of professional coating. Professional coating contains at least 3-4 times as much product vs carrier and dries extremely fast, so you must know exactly how much to apply and how much time to buff it in. A good pro coating can last up to 10 years with proper maintenance. The product is actually glass. If you ever tried putting some on a microfiber towel and let it cure, you will find it gets extremely hard, but brittle, like a thin layer of glass. The only way to fully remove the coating is with a polisher.

OTC DIY Coatings can last about a year, maybe more before they need to be reapplied as they wear off with rain and washings, but if you reapply a SiO2 spray after every washing, that protection stays put for as long as you continue to wash the paint.

Wash type ceramics, that apply a coating when you wash it, only work for a month or so, maybe longer depending on how dirty it gets or how much rain has happened. Spray on, rinse off types you have to be careful with, if done right, provide a good level of protection and long term beading, but if not rinsed properly can lead to streaks and spotting that can only be removed with a polishing.

I have used several different types of "ceramic" coatings, from tiny bottles and microsuede applicators, to the spray on/wipe off kind, to the wash soap with a foam cannon types, and the one that lasts the longest is the stuff out of the tiny bottle. I have had it last 4 years with very little care to the paint. I have used the Armor All Ceramic car wash, and have had mixed results, one time it dried before I could fully rinse and it made a noticeable mess to the paint that required polishing with the DA. I applied the tiny bottle stuff to my F450 when I first got it doing the entire cab, but NOT the bed. When I wash the truck now, I can see a huge difference between the cab and bed, the latter just holds onto the water while the cab has very little water remaining. Once dried, there is also a noticeable difference, the truck is Agate black and the bed looks faded compared to the cab mainly due to the high level of gloss the Ceramic provides, even after 2 years.

The latest now is Graphene coatings. Supposedly an even harder coating to protect against light scratches.

As far as scratch protection, it DOES work. When I got the 2018 F-150 brand new the first thing I did was polish and coat it front to back. About a year later I hit a low hanging branch that was in shade, and it put a scrape from the windshield to the back of the topper on the passenger side. The "scratch" literally wiped off the paint, not a mark on it. The plastic panels between the doors though, I had to take plastic polish to remove the scratches, and there was still a slight hint of the scratches, but the paint was still perfectly smooth. Had I not coated the paint, it would have left marks that would have required a polishing to remove. I had NOT coated the topper, which did require polishing. So, yes, a good ceramic coating does protect the paint.

 

Ceramic coating if not perfectly applied can look like it’s stained.

i have it on my black truck and the coating looks inconsistent…and is a PIA to remove.


im sticking to regular wax going forward.