Coatings worthwhile?

[Acer619]

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?

I don't know much about cars, but I can tell you that having coatings is really important and it really isn't just for aesthetic reasons...

I'm driving a 15 years-old car and the exposed metallic part of my car is now rusted out... You're doing coating mainly for that, especially when the air and perhaps acidic rain can really tear your car out in the long-haul.

I have no intention of changing my vehicle and planning to maintain it to my very best, so yeah, I've changed a lot of parts over the years - amounting to MYR 20k+ (Ringgit Malaysia) at least (or around 6k in USD), but coating is tremendously helpful for the metal's health.