Coatings worthwhile?

[Brian N]

Lately I have been wondering if coatings are really worth the hassle. After coating my own personal cars I’m not sure if it’s worth the hassle any longer. Been experimenting with other options.

Sure the beading and protection can last a number of years. However to me there are a number of downsides.

1. Application
While this has become easier over the years. Flashing times have become less complicated and so forth. It’s still a tedious process to make sure not to get high spots. Along with prepping the car to a near pristine condition to allow for proper bonding.

2. Maintenance
Yes beading makes the car easier to clean. However it requires a entire line of specialized products that are coating safe. (Washes. Wheel cleaners. Quick Detailers.) Otherwise you just mask those beading characteristics. Not to mention most coatings require top ups on a monthly or basis.

3. Swirls
With coatings you just have to deal with swirls on the paint. Doesn’t matter how careful you wash after a year you are gonna have some degree of swirling. Coatings don’t allow you to polish the paint without having to deal with the whole reapplication process. This is especially annoying if you want to spot treat an area. As some coatings even have problems bonding to themselves once cured. This requires you to polish the whole panel.

4. Coatings for every surface
Seems like there is a coating for every type of surface. By the end of the day you’ll need a paint coating, PPF coating, plastics coating, wheel coating and glass coating. They even make interior coatings.

Lately I have been experimenting with what I think is a good middle ground. Spray coatings/sealants. These often work on most if not all surfaces. Spray and wipe and no worrying about curing or high spots. Hopefully I can find something with 6ish months of durability. It would still be way less of a hassle to apply. Plus the ability to polish whatever and whenever I feel like.

Right now I’m testing NV Car Care products, the Turtle Wax Seal and Shine and the Meguiars Hybrid Ceramic spray.

The latter two last around 2-3 months so far. However I have high hopes for the NV car care line. Also comparing it’s durability to a CQuartz UK 3.0 car as a baseline.

What do you guys think? Thoughts or ideas?

[Slideways]

The coatings seem to be worth it for cars that get parked out in the elements frequently. The application process is what I dislike most about coatings. For a garaged car, I think a sprayable wax or sealant is the way to go.

[Grke46m3]

Very worth it. Especially on wheels it makes cleaning them so much easier. Its honestly all in the prep as well make sure that paint is clean and apply even light coats. I have had good experience with the kamakazi line

[tdott]

I had Modesta BC-04 installed on my E92 M3, the gloss and wet look was amazing. It is garage kept and has held up well for the past 3 years. It makes cleaning easier, even rubber marks from the track come off pretty easily. The installer gave me some detail spray which I use after every few washes, I am only now starting to run out, I plan to use CarPro Reload from now on.

Does seem like that much of a pain to maintain it, at-least for me. Just a few different products I now use.

I paint corrected and coated my E38 with Avalon King's coating and it's decent, car is silver so it's hard to tell much of an improvement in gloss. It stays outside and doesn't get treated as well as the M3, it's not bad but didn't cost much.

I did use the left over coating on a new set of track wheels, and after my first track day on them I was surprised at how easy it was to clean the wheels normally the dust from my track pads made cleaning my old apex a pita but with the new coated wheels, a pressure wash blast and quick wipe down and they were looking great again. I would say it was definitely worth coating my track wheels.

[COVID-19]

You’ve only dealt with Cquartz UK? I feel like UK wears super fast specially if you DD the vehicle. I’ve used other coating and UK seems like it always gives me way more swirls.

[Lip]

I been slowly accumulating the right products to maintain a coated car over the last year or so. Pressure washer, foam canon, brushes, mitts, towels, shampoo, cleaners, etc. It can be a lot to figure out and I think you have to at least like aspects of cleaning/detailing a car; it's not for everyone. With this COVID-19 pandemic, I am using it as an opportunity to finally do a 2-step paint correction and coating.

There are many benefits of a coating from what I gathered over a year of research:

• Protect the many hours of work to paint correct a car
• Keeps it looking good for longer
• Stays clean longer between washes (assuming b/c its slick and harder for grime to adhere to the surface)
• Easier to wash grime off
• Easier to apply than wax

If you're not interested in paint correcting your car, Meguiar's Ceramic Spray is a good easy-to-use alternative.

[Brian N]

The coatings seem to be worth it for cars that get parked out in the elements frequently. The application process is what I dislike most about coatings. For a garaged car, I think a sprayable wax or sealant is the way to go.

Cool what reasonings do you have the cars in the elements are better suited with coatings than garaged cars? Just trying to see if you have a pro con that I haven’t thought of yet.

The application process is the whole entire reason that lead me down this path. 15 mins of application vs hours just seems so much better if beading and looks are comparable. Every 6 months and to me it’s a no brainer.

[Brian N]

Very worth it. Especially on wheels it makes cleaning them so much easier. Its honestly all in the prep as well make sure that paint is clean and apply even light coats. I have had good experience with the kamakazi line

Yup coatings in wheels are awesome. This is the one area that to me you get the most bang for your buck. I am still trying a spray coating as a test. Then later this year NV is coming out with a more extreme wheel spray coating that might be interesting. If it lasts a year might go with that.

Kamikaze is great stuff. Like I said tired of the whole coating process. Dealing with coating toppers. Then if you need to recoat your bottle might be expired.

I want to get rid of the middle man and just have an awesome sprayable ceramic “topper” step you have to do anyways.

[Brian N]

I had Modesta BC-04 installed on my E92 M3, the gloss and wet look was amazing. It is garage kept and has held up well for the past 3 years. It makes cleaning easier, even rubber marks from the track come off pretty easily. The installer gave me some detail spray which I use after every few washes, I am only now starting to run out, I plan to use CarPro Reload from now on.

Does seem like that much of a pain to maintain it, at-least for me. Just a few different products I now use.

I paint corrected and coated my E38 with Avalon King's coating and it's decent, car is silver so it's hard to tell much of an improvement in gloss. It stays outside and doesn't get treated as well as the M3, it's not bad but didn't cost much.

I did use the left over coating on a new set of track wheels, and after my first track day on them I was surprised at how easy it was to clean the wheels normally the dust from my track pads made cleaning my old apex a pita but with the new coated wheels, a pressure wash blast and quick wipe down and they were looking great again. I would say it was definitely worth coating my track wheels.

Yes coatings are awesome if you are a set and forget it kinda person. I guess I have a little OCD and swirls bother the crap out of me. So having a coating for 2-3 years is hard. Pretty much you gotta deal with mildly swirled paint if your good at washing for the duration of the coating. Otherwise what’s the point of coating if your gonna polish at a yearly interval.

My main gripe comes from what you describe earlier. The topper in your case the reload. The coating takes the attributes of the reload while it’s on top. The “sacrificial” layer as they describe it. My goal is just to get a single step where I do that exact same process. However no coating underneath but the same beading and good protection. I want something that can last about half a year. This way if I apply every 3 months let’s say I have all the benefits of a coating without having to coat. If that makes sense. I don’t see what I would be loosing at that point.

[Brian N]

You’ve only dealt with Cquartz UK? I feel like UK wears super fast specially if you DD the vehicle. I’ve used other coating and UK seems like it always gives me way more swirls.

No I have dealt with Kamikaze, a number of CQuartz products, Gyeon, 22ple. Along with testing my neighbors in beta stages professional Megs coating coming out next year.

Like I mention earlier. I just don’t understand the logic all these companies are trying to sell everyone one now. Like most want you to coat and do toppings to maintain the coating or “rejuvenate” it. If I am spraying in a topper every month or every other month. Then for me screw it. If I get a really capable one I don’t need the hassle of the coating underneath.

So I am testing my two cars. One with NV car care spray coatings in it vs. UK 3.0 just to comparing beading and self cleaning characteristics. If it can hang for 5-6 months. I think I would have found the ideal solution at least for myself.

[Brian N]

I been slowly accumulating the right products to maintain a coated car over the last year or so. Pressure washer, foam canon, brushes, mitts, towels, shampoo, cleaners, etc. It can be a lot to figure out and I think you have to at least like aspects of cleaning/detailing a car; it's not for everyone. With this COVID-19 pandemic, I am using it as an opportunity to finally do a 2-step paint correction and coating.

There are many benefits of a coating from what I gathered over a year of research:

• Protect the many hours of work to paint correct a car
• Keeps it looking good for longer
• Stays clean longer between washes (assuming b/c its slick and harder for grime to adhere to the surface)
• Easier to wash grime off
• Easier to apply than wax

If you're not interested in paint correcting your car, Meguiar's Ceramic Spray is a good easy-to-use alternative.

Yup totally understand being a little bored these days.

A lot on your list is from my personal experience not quite the results I get.

It does not protect the many hours worth of work polishing. The car will still swirl. Coating protecting against swirling has largely been debunked.

It does keep it looking good for longer. However it me only worth it if it doesn’t require extra toppers maintenance on top. Some people who coat and leave it on their cars without all the extra stuff. That can deal without polishing or claying I get. To me I can get these self cleaning properties and looks from other products that are much easier. Even if only 1/4 the durability.

As mentioned above good spray coatings have awesome beading self cleaning characteristics and even darkening the paint for richness

I don’t know what wax you’re using but real show carnaubas are a breeze to apply compared to a coating. If your talking about the amount of reapplication totally get it. A coating every 3 years for people is attractive.

[Slideways]

Cool what reasonings do you have the cars in the elements are better suited with coatings than garaged cars? Just trying to see if you have a pro con that I haven’t thought of yet.

The application process is the whole entire reason that lead me down this path. 15 mins of application vs hours just seems so much better if beading and looks are comparable. Every 6 months and to me it’s a no brainer.

I don't really see a major downside of coating a car that gets garaged other than the prep and cost of the coatings. For me, it would probably take about two or three days to do a full correction and then coat the car. Since the original paint on my E46M is still in very good condition from the last detail 5+ years ago, I just stick to proper washing technique and easy to apply spray sealant. If it sees more than a few days a week of use, I might try out a coating.

[mrgizmo04]

For me the jury is out on these. I still don't quite get the application cycles. As stated in one of the posts above, if I have to re-apply or rejuvenate it every few months then what's the point. Some of the prices for some of the kits are pretty hefty, nano this nano that.

[ghostofsenna]

I like to detail my cars and fortunately it lives in a garage, so I don't do coatings since you can't polish or correct. I do firmly believe in coating the wheels.

[Mspir3d]

I used opticoat several years ago and it's still holding strong. It's topped with Zymol carbon wax once a year. I don't normally need to use a wash mit however the car sits in the garage most of the time. I've been thinking of using CQ quartz on my daily driver but haven't been able to find the time to do it. I do believe a lot has to do with the paint preparation though. I color sanded and polished before applying so the finish was super smooth.