Ceramic Coating in the High Point area

Jeppo

Jeppo

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Ok folks, I’m ready. I wanna try to convince @kcult ’s guy to come up to High Point. Anybody in the Triad wanna get in on the action? From Troy’s experience, it seems like we can bargain a bit if we offer multiple cars at once. I’d like to get this done ASAP.
 
Nobody? :(
 
Call Bruce at Carolina Auto Image. He can do on site work. He works with a guy in Durham. He did both of our BMWs and also has worked on @amnesia's cars as well.

CAI – An Individual Approach To Automotive Excellence. – An Individual Approach To Automotive Excellence

Your one stop for vehicle image and care. Cleaning, paint correction, ceramic coatings, clear bra protection, leather care, and more. Carolina Auto Image is your place to contact for your high end vehicle protection.
www.carolinaautoimage.com www.carolinaautoimage.com
 
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If someone brings another clown car, will he offer a 2:1 deal? lol
 
wvsig said:
Call Bruce at Carolina Auto Image. He can do on site work. He works with a guy in Durham. He did both of our BMWs and also has worked on @amnesia's cars as well.

CAI – An Individual Approach To Automotive Excellence. – An Individual Approach To Automotive Excellence

Your one stop for vehicle image and care. Cleaning, paint correction, ceramic coatings, clear bra protection, leather care, and more. Carolina Auto Image is your place to contact for your high end vehicle protection.
www.carolinaautoimage.com www.carolinaautoimage.com
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I highly recommend if you’re getting a bunch of people to do a group deal absolutely call Bruce. He’s coated my bmw and Tesla and has cleaned up my trucks and the corvette k sold.
 
What does this ceramic coating fix, repair, or protect?
 
Looks like the guys you recommend are too distant. So, I’ve been in touch with some locals. They all have packages from “road kill” to “quadruple platinum”. It seems they range from walking briskly past the car with a sealed bottle of the magic elixir to 10,000 coats with 24 hours of curing between each. As far as cost, they’re all over the map.

Do I really need some exotic package that includes treating the grooves in the tire treads? Sign me “Confused”.
 
Jeppo said:
Looks like the guys you recommend are too distant. So, I’ve been in touch with some locals. They all have packages from “road kill” to “quadruple platinum”. It seems they range from walking briskly past the car with a sealed bottle of the magic elixir to 10,000 coats with 24 hours of curing between each. As far as cost, they’re all over the map.

Do I really need some exotic package that includes treating the grooves in the tire treads? Sign me “Confused”.
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No you don’t need the exotic package. I’ll pm you what I paid for mine.
 
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The definition of a ceramic coating, method of application and level of prep work vary greatly. This is why you see such vast difference in pricing. A proper ceramic coating is expensive because it's time-consuming. A true ceramic coating will "lock-in" whatever condition your paint is in so paint correction is highly recommended before coating. This can take the better part of a day alone at a minimum. The actual application of the ceramic coating doesn't take too long, but does require more skill for the longer-lasting coatings. Don't let any dummy put a 10 yr coating on your car! It's doubtful he could even purchase a long-lasting product because almost all respectable manufacturers require proof of experience before they'll sell you such products. All the coatings I've seen take at least 12 hours to cure so don't expect same-day turnaround.

On the other end of the spectrum are the guys selling "ceramic coating" for $50 to $300 range. This is a waste of money because you're most likely getting a spray on sealer with "ceramic technology" or some cheap garbage they bought on amazon for $49. It will not last and they didn't prep the paint properly. Go to walmart and buy a bottle for $17 so you can "coat" all of your cars for cheap.

Lastly, if you get a car ceramic coated you need to know the maintenance requirements for whatever product was applied. It varies by manufacturer. Do not use an automatic carwash. Use PH balanced soap and handwash only. Yearly booster maintenance is often necessary. If you're not told any of this by the installer then you've probably wasted your money on a BS coating.
 
muskrat said:
The definition of a ceramic coating, method of application and level of prep work vary greatly. This is why you see such vast difference in pricing. A proper ceramic coating is expensive because it's time-consuming. A true ceramic coating will "lock-in" whatever condition your paint is in so paint correction is highly recommended before coating. This can take the better part of a day alone at a minimum. The actual application of the ceramic coating doesn't take too long, but does require more skill for the longer-lasting coatings. Don't let any dummy put a 10 yr coating on your car! It's doubtful he could even purchase a long-lasting product because almost all respectable manufacturers require proof of experience before they'll sell you such products. All the coatings I've seen take at least 12 hours to cure so don't expect same-day turnaround.

On the other end of the spectrum are the guys selling "ceramic coating" for $50 to $300 range. This is a waste of money because you're most likely getting a spray on sealer with "ceramic technology" or some cheap garbage they bought on amazon for $49. It will not last and they didn't prep the paint properly. Go to walmart and buy a bottle for $17 so you can "coat" all of your cars for cheap.

Lastly, if you get a car ceramic coated you need to know the maintenance requirements for whatever product was applied. It varies by manufacturer. Do not use an automatic carwash. Use PH balanced soap and handwash only. Yearly booster maintenance is often necessary. If you're not told any of this by the installer then you've probably wasted your money on a BS coating.
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Jeppo said:
Looks like the guys you recommend are too distant. So, I’ve been in touch with some locals. They all have packages from “road kill” to “quadruple platinum”. It seems they range from walking briskly past the car with a sealed bottle of the magic elixir to 10,000 coats with 24 hours of curing between each. As far as cost, they’re all over the map.

Do I really need some exotic package that includes treating the grooves in the tire treads? Sign me “Confused”.
Click to expand...

The info in @muskrat post is pretty spot on. Just like everything there are different levels of quality within the products that call themselves ceramic coating. The biggest brand is Ceramic Pro. They pretty much will sell it to anyone who takes one of their classes. Then there are brands like c quartz, Gtechniq, Modesta etc.... Within each of these brands there are often different level of products. In the end once you are beyond the stuff from Adams and Chemical guys they are preform in similar fashion if they are applied properly.

When I was looking into it what learned is that it is a lot like refinishing a gun. Lots of people do it with different levels or results. 99% of the final outcome is the prep work. Even a new car will come directly from the factory with imperfections in the paint. Some brands are worse than others. The longer a car has been on a dealers lot the more imperfections it will have IMHO. This true of at all levels of cars. If you are going to ceramic coat a car you need to have the paint corrected properly before the coating is applied or all you are doing is coating in the imperfections. So the person putting it on need to know how to properly correct the paint.

The other tell for me was the guy I choose told me more about what the ceramic coat doesn't do than what it does. As @amnesia said the real benefits are Protects paint. Makes washing easy. One of the biggest benefits is wheel cleaning. The brake dust washed right off vs having to scrub it. To me the main one is making it easy to wash. It will not protect the pain from rock chips, bird crap left on the car for a month, hail or other impacts. If you run it through an drive through car wash it the paint will still whirl. If you do not hand wash the car it will eventually show etching etc... It will take a little longer and it is still correctable but you have to still treat the ceramic coating like paint. The only thing that can minimize impact damages is PPF but that is another level of $$$.

I only recommend it if you are going to be diligent washing your car. I wash my car and the wifes car pretty much every 2 weeks. I us a pressure washer and do a foam spray, then a 2 bucket wash and then use a leaf blower to dry it. Nothing dirty ever touches the paint. This prevents the washing process from introducing swirls and scratches into the paint. Most of the time it then gets a wipe down with detailing spray to make it shine. I also touch it up with ceramic spray developed for boats from the same company as my coating every 3 months or so which brings out the gloss. Once a year I take it to my detailer and he does a decontamination wash and tops it off with the same marine coating. If there is bird crap on the car it gets removed quickly. The same with tar etc...

IIRC Jeppo you have a big black SUV. To keep that bad boy clean and looking great will be a commitments. If you are not going to be washing it on the regular I would skip the ceramic coating and use a good high quality sealant that you can apply like way every 6 months. Without the regular up keep the ceramic coating no matter how well it was done won't help you.
 
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