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.

[mehmet0565]

Good thing i read this type of thread before deciding to do it in my car.

[simon_c]

You actually reminded me that I have Sonax PNS sitting in my garage. Gonna just use that for now but might go buy some TW seal n shine because it's so highly recommended and might just use that for my other cars. Good call on getting more 70/30 MF towels though.

[Tbonem3]

Honestly, if I had a white car (or tiag), I would definietly do a coating (though I'd look at the non sio2 coatings like mohs too) as you just can't see the super fine swirls.

I think a white car is the best candidate for coating due to the aforementioned light swirls AND since white doesn't ever look as deep and wet as black anyway, and the coating will give a very crisp "HD" look.

A black or dark car would be a better candidate for semi annual polishing and applying a sealant that gives the wettest, deepest look.

Of course you can do what ever you please, no wrong answers really as long as the paint is protected.

For spray products - if you're not going to be coating (usually sio2), then I don't see a lot of logic in using the sio2 based "quasi-ceramic" sprays. If you want that technology, just do a true coating.

If you want the car to look the absolute best, with more frequent polishing (jeweling, very light, not removing any real amoutn of clear coat), then I would steer you towards polymers like Sonax PNS, WG deep gloss, jescar powerlock, beadmaker/slipstream/slickNslide/OGdrying aid.

That said, like I mentioned earlier, I can barely see a difference betwen Pure evo and beadmaker. Plus, the high sio2 coatings might only rival a sealant's depth and wetness, but will be even crisper and brighter (esp if they have tio2 with sio2).

I'll also say that products are so good today, you can't go wrong. One of the best sprays out there is from turtle wax for $10 lol. Seal N shine plus ICE looks unreal and it's from one of the cheapest brands around, available at pepboys/autozone etc.

Rather than focus on which sprays, I'd make sure to have other things locked down, like going to the best (softest, most absorbant) 70/30 mf towels versus the ubiquitous 80/20 towels that smear product around and impart fine swirls (esp on softer paint like JDM/USDM). Also, making sure the paint is squeaky clean before you apply whatever product, that is, doing a wipe down with panel cleanser for best bonding.

[simon_c]

Welcome!

To coat or not to coat; a difficult proposition still.

There is no perfectly right answer. For me, it comes down to color of car, if you diy the correction & environment (garaged).

To make it simpler, I would say the only reason not to coat would be if you really wanted to "touch" the car a lot or do light polishes periodically. Maybe you have a garage queen and you love to polish it (super light) twice a year or so and apply a wet looking wax or polymer sealant. Coating wouldn't make as much sense. Price and difficulty of install used to be big factors, but products like Gyeon mohs or pure are very affordable and so easy to apply.

For most people, a 2 year (black car) to 5 year (white/silver) coating is great beaides the cost of not DIYing the correction. You wash it and blow off, don't need to top it or touch it in anyway. Then use an iron remover spray every few months is about all the "maintenance" you need to do.

Only issue then will be, " how far am I away from getting it redone, and how many swirls can I see in the paint" If you don't mind some light swirls (I'm talking about a dark color car), then you've really got nothing to do for years which would suit many busy people and those not as obsessed about the car's finish as some of us. Mind you, even with those light swirls, the coated car will still look better than just about any other car. I just hate to see swirls, personally.

Pure evo is so damn wet & glossy, it gives nothing up to real wax or polymer. I didn't believe it till I did it and lived with it. I do miss applying wax and sealants, but oh well.

Tbonem3 Love this insight. I'm the type that likes to do a light polishing 2x year (well every time I do it I'm like I don't want to do this again but that's a different story). I think for me coating doesn't make sense yet since I like to remove swirls. I do have a white car so not as noticeable but part of the ownership experience is detailing for me so I like to do it. Do you have a recommendation for a spray on wax/ceramic product you like? I'll like ceramic coat my wheels though so I don't enjoy cleaning those.

[Tbonem3]

Welcome!

To coat or not to coat; a difficult proposition still.

There is no perfectly right answer. For me, it comes down to color of car, if you diy the correction & environment (garaged).

To make it simpler, I would say the only reason not to coat would be if you really wanted to "touch" the car a lot or do light polishes periodically. Maybe you have a garage queen and you love to polish it (super light) twice a year or so and apply a wet looking wax or polymer sealant. Coating wouldn't make as much sense. Price and difficulty of install used to be big factors, but products like Gyeon mohs or pure are very affordable and so easy to apply.

For most people, a 2 year (black car) to 5 year (white/silver) coating is great beaides the cost of not DIYing the correction. You wash it and blow off, don't need to top it or touch it in anyway. Then use an iron remover spray every few months is about all the "maintenance" you need to do.

Only issue then will be, " how far am I away from getting it redone, and how many swirls can I see in the paint" If you don't mind some light swirls (I'm talking about a dark color car), then you've really got nothing to do for years which would suit many busy people and those not as obsessed about the car's finish as some of us. Mind you, even with those light swirls, the coated car will still look better than just about any other car. I just hate to see swirls, personally.

Pure evo is so damn wet & glossy, it gives nothing up to real wax or polymer. I didn't believe it till I did it and lived with it. I do miss applying wax and sealants, but oh well.

[simon_c]

Tbonem3 Appreciate the write up and awesome insight. I'm considering using Gyeon Pure Evo as well now but wondering if I'm better off just using the ceramic sprays after every wash. Also, did you ceramic coat your wheels as well? I'm considering getting the Gyeon Q2 quartz product for wheels.

[c watson]

I have my 22 X5 coated with xpel fusion 4 year. This was my first black car and I was a little nervous so I sent her out straight from the dealer to get done. The car gets parked outside and is subject to basically all elements.

Pros: gloss, beading effect, easy washing, even easier drying with leaf blower

Cons: if you get some swirls from poor washing, you need to polish and this will remove a good portion of the ceramic coating. For this reason I haven’t ceramic coated my e46 yet and will keep using Jescar sealant.

[tlow98]

Just an update on my impressions after "installing" my first true ceramic serum coating (Gyeon Pure Evo).

All necessary work was done to prepare the car, ofc, including final panel wipe before application. Application done on a nice day, inside the garage, so ideal situation. Only non-ideal part was that the bottle was manufactured a year ago, but it was sealed, and the contents were still perfectly clear and liquid.

Application was ridiculously easy, both on the paint, and leveling it with short nap "pearl" weave MF towel for no lint and less grab on the paint (towel was 320gsm 80/20 "the pearl")

You get several minutes to remove the coating, so no rush. There is a visible flash. Gyeon says you can remove it immediately, or not, but I wouldn't wait simply for the sake of waiting, only if you're progressing to a new panel, then go back and wipe off.

I found the best method to be with 2 towels, one to level, and a fresh one to catch any "overspray" as I call it - inevitably, you'll push some of the resin onto adjacent panels or glass, and you'll want to catch that with a new towel. I threw all towels away. I only will keep a towel if the ceramic product is the typical low sio2 content water based spray type (though I do wash it immediately).

I let the car sit for 2 days before I drove it. It's been a week today. I kept it inside today as we did have some rain; drove the E46 to work.

Impressions - I was actually pretty sad at first becuase the car didn't look a lot better than before. I always keep my cars clean, well polished, and I use quality LSPs, so I know there wasn't a lot of room for improvement, but the way people talk about coatings, I really expected a wow moment.

Luckily, it did seem to get even glossier as some days went by. My impression was also hampered by gloomy weather, I want to see it in our normal bright sunlight.

To be honest, the car doesn't look much better than when I have it coated with cheap Mother's CMX or Beadmaker. The point of this, will be the longevity, the chemical resistence/self healing, and water behavior so that I can wash and dry the car with minimal touching and keep the swirls away for a year to 18 months if possible, before polishing the car again, and maybe trying a new coating.

I recently corrected an F80 M3, and to finish it, I used a coating "lite"- Wolfgang uber ceramic spray coating (1 year protection), and honestly, it looks just as good (smelled the same even, strong VOCs/solvent) so I don't agree that the lite coatings aren't "true ceramics." They very much are, just not the 2-5yr longevity which I don't even want, personally.

I'm a little sad that all I get to do now is decon wash the car now, no trying different toppers as no topper will surpass the coating itself, and many actually ruin the coating. If it weren't for swirls on a black car, I'd really prefer NOT to apply a coating,as I enjoy the WOWO of product, and "touching" the car, trying different products. I guess I can still do that to my E46.

Oh, and I got the Gyeon pure for $45 after $15 off via DetailedImage. Can't beat that for a true coating! The Wolfgang 1 year coating retails for $65, and at that price, similar to Gyeon's CAN COAT at $60, I don't really recommend it over a $50-60 bottle of 2-3year ceramic, but I actually grabbed the wolfgang for $16.50 from autogeek on sale and plus copoun, and I'm glad I have it to experiment with and put on customer's cars who want better protection and looks for cheap. The 1 year spray coatings at $60+ make more sense if you have multiple cars or if it's for your business as they will cover like 6+ cars. They have a short (1 year) shelf life, so that's why I dont' really recommend buying them despite their great performance and cost per application.

Nice write up. Thanks. I agree with you that coatings are initially not that impressive, and for garage queens I prolly wouldn’t recommend them.

The selling point for me is with our daily drivers. Oops, didn’t wash those bugs off for three weeks? No worries, after a good hand wash they look spectacular with little effort.

I’ve only really tried CarPro products and look forward to Gyeon and others next, so super helpful mentioning the shelf life comment. Thanks for that!

[bigjae46]

Thanks for the review. I’d like to do a coating for the same reasons as you. Looking forward to the long term update!

[Tbonem3]

Thanks Will! It'd be more impressive with 4k video, but I'm not at that level of content creator 😋

[Will]

^ damn, that's a nice shine. Great prep. I'm loving the close-up photos, too!

[Tbonem3]

Gyeon



MF applicator was easier to use than a block with suede. Soak it in serum once, then just a few drops each time





You can see how thick it goes on. Seems a bit streaky, but it levels out and there's full coverage



You can see it flash a bit



Super "candy" gloss

[Tbonem3]

Just an update on my impressions after "installing" my first true ceramic serum coating (Gyeon Pure Evo).

All necessary work was done to prepare the car, ofc, including final panel wipe before application. Application done on a nice day, inside the garage, so ideal situation. Only non-ideal part was that the bottle was manufactured a year ago, but it was sealed, and the contents were still perfectly clear and liquid.

Application was ridiculously easy, both on the paint, and leveling it with short nap "pearl" weave MF towel for no lint and less grab on the paint (towel was 320gsm 80/20 "the pearl")

You get several minutes to remove the coating, so no rush. There is a visible flash. Gyeon says you can remove it immediately, or not, but I wouldn't wait simply for the sake of waiting, only if you're progressing to a new panel, then go back and wipe off.

I found the best method to be with 2 towels, one to level, and a fresh one to catch any "overspray" as I call it - inevitably, you'll push some of the resin onto adjacent panels or glass, and you'll want to catch that with a new towel. I threw all towels away. I only will keep a towel if the ceramic product is the typical low sio2 content water based spray type (though I do wash it immediately).

I let the car sit for 2 days before I drove it. It's been a week today. I kept it inside today as we did have some rain; drove the E46 to work.

Impressions - I was actually pretty sad at first becuase the car didn't look a lot better than before. I always keep my cars clean, well polished, and I use quality LSPs, so I know there wasn't a lot of room for improvement, but the way people talk about coatings, I really expected a wow moment.

Luckily, it did seem to get even glossier as some days went by. My impression was also hampered by gloomy weather, I want to see it in our normal bright sunlight.

To be honest, the car doesn't look much better than when I have it coated with cheap Mother's CMX or Beadmaker. The point of this, will be the longevity, the chemical resistence/self healing, and water behavior so that I can wash and dry the car with minimal touching and keep the swirls away for a year to 18 months if possible, before polishing the car again, and maybe trying a new coating.

I recently corrected an F80 M3, and to finish it, I used a coating "lite"- Wolfgang uber ceramic spray coating (1 year protection), and honestly, it looks just as good (smelled the same even, strong VOCs/solvent) so I don't agree that the lite coatings aren't "true ceramics." They very much are, just not the 2-5yr longevity which I don't even want, personally.

I'm a little sad that all I get to do now is decon wash the car now, no trying different toppers as no topper will surpass the coating itself, and many actually ruin the coating. If it weren't for swirls on a black car, I'd really prefer NOT to apply a coating,as I enjoy the WOWO of product, and "touching" the car, trying different products. I guess I can still do that to my E46.

Oh, and I got the Gyeon pure for $45 after $15 off via DetailedImage. Can't beat that for a true coating! The Wolfgang 1 year coating retails for $65, and at that price, similar to Gyeon's CAN COAT at $60, I don't really recommend it over a $50-60 bottle of 2-3year ceramic, but I actually grabbed the wolfgang for $16.50 from autogeek on sale and plus copoun, and I'm glad I have it to experiment with and put on customer's cars who want better protection and looks for cheap. The 1 year spray coatings at $60+ make more sense if you have multiple cars or if it's for your business as they will cover like 6+ cars. They have a short (1 year) shelf life, so that's why I dont' really recommend buying them despite their great performance and cost per application.

[Tbonem3]

Just ordered Gyeon Pure Evo for my E90. I'll put my 2 cents in here afterwards. And compare it to the polymer (beadmaker) & sio2 (and sio2+tio2) quasi coatings/sprays I've been using.