Like a do it yourself product or professional? I think it would be fine either way but will need a thorough decontamination wash and clay the car. I would recommend a light polish after claying, then a IPA wipe down before applying the ceramic. You could skip the polish if your paint is in good shape or are not bothered by its current condition. Many videos on YouTube can walk you through the process if you DIY.

 

A must have on any vehicle, whose looks you care about, and do not use only to get from point A to point B. It not only gives a car a higher gloss, but also protects it from the elements, and - what's probably the most important - lowers the maintenance requirements/frequency at least by a magnitude. You'll need to wash the car less frequently and less aggressively, which in itself will do a lot to protect the paint and maintain the shine it gained through the coating.

However, if the car you're buying didn't have one already that's been well-cared for, you'll also need to do have a full paint decontamination and paint correction done, because otherwise the coating won't be able to bond properly, and won't be able to do much for the appearance of the car, as it's not able to correct or mask, but the most superficial scratches on the surface.

Also, unless you live on the southern hemisphere and/or in a (sub)tropical region, the ideal application time would have been at least 3 months ago, because that's when the coating can dry and bond properly, and because when it can do the most for your paint, by protecting it from the elements and chemicals, that impact it this time of the year. And because of the former, you won't be able to do or have a proper application done for at least 2-3 months to come.

In this case I'd recommend you to do a very thorough wash of the car (probably even 2 times over), and then applying a SiO2-based sealant, like CarPro Reload, which won't cost you a lot (the cheapest, 100ml bottle will be enough for multiple applications even on a Touareg), can be done quickly and DIY, even if you have no clue about detailing, but will still offer you a very good level of paint protection, and get you through the few months to come until you can do or have a proper coating application done.

 

Thanks for the advice guys! I will wait another few months until getting this done and take your recommendation to apply a good sealant. Would you apply a wax after the sealant? I looking at a shop that is certified to use gyeon ceramic coatings. Any experience with that brand?

 

Would you apply a wax after the sealant?

You can do that, but the benefits would be minimal to non-existent. Also, the wax would mostly mask the properties of the sealant (which could be beneficial in some regards, but will be just worse in most cases and aspects). Anyway, if you do top a SiO2 sealant with a wax, make sure to let the sealant cure first (at least a day) before applying the wax, because otherwise the solvents in the latter may interfere with the bonding process of the sealant, and you might even strip it off the surface completely. If you're using a cleaner wax, you'll do that (ie. strip any previous sealants) anyway, regardless of the cure time - so don't use cleaner waxes.

I looking at a shop that is certified to use gyeon ceramic coatings. Any experience with that brand?

All the top of the line coatings (Gyeon, CQuartz, Opti-Coat, Ceramic Pro, etc) offer about the same thing, so it mostly comes down to personal preference - including which one's look you like best, and which one the shop you're trusting has the most experience with. Other than that go with the cheapest one - even though if you will also have a full paint correction done, the price difference should be negligible between them (because most of the costs will be due to the paint correction itself).

 

shop around me charges minimum $1200 for the best Gyeon coating and that does not include paint correction. Does that seem about normal? I am in upstate NY, so thinking may need to go NYC/NJ to get more competitive prices?

 

shop around me charges minimum $1200 for the best Gyeon coating and that does not include paint correction. Does that seem about normal?

I suggest you look around for better prices. A $1200 charge should include at least a basic level of paint correction.

The Gyeon glass coat product itself is about $150-$200 max (depending on how many coats you want to have, and/or whether you want to have it topped off with an extra shiny/water repellent coat) - so anything above that is for labor. And honestly, because the application process of the coating itself is fairly quick, a $1000 charge for labor is pretty hefty, even if it possibly includes a light polish of the car. Which of course you should enquire, whether that (and/or washing and decontamination) would cost any extra, or are included in the package price.

That said, you possibly won't get a much lower quote than $1000-$1200 anywhere else either (or if you do, be wary of that, and do a background check of the shop and/or ask for references, before trusting them with the work), but that should include washing, claying, decontamination and also some level of paint correction and polish. If you do not have those done before you have to coat applied, the life expectancy - and also possibly the initial results - of the coating will be greatly reduced.

Also bear in mind, that whenever they offer you a 2-3+ years warranty on the ceramic coating (usually 5 years, but some even go as high as 7 or 8 years), that doesn't actually mean that the coating will last that long, and work as on day one. Rather, you will be required to bring the car back regularly at 2-3 years interval max (or more frequently) for "maintenance", during which they will simply try to correct the coating and/or reapply it as necessary - which they might possibly charge you for at least partially (because there will always excuses why it was your fault that the coating has degraded/scratched/etc) and/or try to upsell you. Or if they're cheap, they'll just top your coating off with a lower durability sealant, so it appears to you as if the coating has been rejuvenated, when in fact it has just been topped off with a product, that will be gone in a few months max.

Also, it's highly unlikely, that you will not get at least a few serious scratches and/or small dents into your paint during those 3-5+ years, which in turn will require the paint to be corrected again and the coating polished off and reapplied. Because of that and the things written above, I also suggest that you avoid those 5+ year warranted jobs, and rather go for the cheaper ones, because you'll want to have to coating reapplied anyway after a few years, even if nothing serious happens to your car and you don't sell it either - in which case all those plus year warranties you paid a hefty extra for, will be a total loss for you anyway.

 

I couldn't say about the price, but think its high to not include at least a basic 1 step correction. Some professional ceramic coats I believe are only available through a detailer and may offer significant more durability vs the 2 year consumer versions, so that may also influence your decision. Personally I would just set a weekend aside, do a full decontamination, light correction with carpro essence and apply Cquartz UK. If you don't already have most of the needed products to do this, and had to buy a DA, pads, clay bar, polish, microfiber, iron removal chemical, etc, you could easily spend $200 or more to aquire the materials and then have to spend the time do do the labor. Anyway, I would definitely shop around at that price just to get an idea what places are charging.

 

Very helpful! thanks again for the advice on this!

 

CQuartz or Opticoat are the ones that I have heard of before. I was going to have my 458 done, but since I never drove it in the rain, I opted against it. But, for my TDI Touareg, I am definitely interested.

 

Lets keep in mind the do-it-yourself ceramic kits are SIGNIFICANTLY different than the products you paid $1-2,000 to have applied. The expensive professional products are several microns thicker once applied than the DIY kits. That doesn't mean the DIY kits are bad, they aren't, they just aren't in the same class.

 

Lets keep in mind the do-it-yourself ceramic kits are SIGNIFICANTLY different than the products you paid $1-2,000 to have applied.

For one, that's impossible to say without knowing what the exact products are or what will be applied as part of the $1200 treatment. There's no rule that says that one can not charge $1200 and apply a DIY coating or something. Also, as explained above, most of the $1200 cost is from the labor cost of paint correction, not the cost of the actual coating product.

Actually, the cost between most DIY and "professional" coatings is negligible or non-existent, and there are several DIY coatings that are more expensive than some other "professional" coatings. For ex. Gyeon Q2 MOHS 50 ml costs the same - or actually 5 pennies more - (£79.00) as/than does GYEON Q2 MOHS+ (Pro Use Only) 50 ml (£78.95).

The expensive professional products are several microns thicker once applied than the DIY kits.

Or not. For ex. CarPro claims that their DIY CQuartz layers "1-3 microns" thick, and their professional CQuartz Finest "3+ microns". Which is in essence a nice way to say that there's no distinct difference in between the layering thickness of these products. Even if there was, CQuartz is also layerable, so, one can reach even 6 or 10 microns thickness with it, if they wanted. That said creating a coat thicker than 2-3 microns rarely (if ever) makes sense, because it will not enhance neither the look of the car, nor the gracefulness or speed of the paint degradation. It's essentially just a waste of money, product and labor, for the sake of itself.

That doesn't mean the DIY kits are bad, they aren't, they just aren't in the same class.

They cost the same and they deliver about the same. The differentiation between the DIY and Pro product lines are in reality more about market segmentation and upselling (ie. letting the rich - and/or dumb - people pay a LOT more for mostly the same stuff), and about providing a high-level all-round service, than about the product being really that much different, or costing more (in terms of material/production costs).

 

Would this process fix a few bird poop blemishes on my hood and then protect it from happening again?

 

Whether paint correction can fix your blemishes, depends solely on the nature of these defects and their depth in the paint. If they're only in the clear coat and not reaching into the base paint or down to the metal, then they might be correctable. Otherwise only a partial or full repaint can "fix" them, and polishing can only provide a minor "enhancement" of the defect (ie. make it less obvious, or make it appear less severe), if at all.

As for the thing happening again: ceramic coatings generally enhance the chemical resistance of the paint surface, but caustic agents still might inflict damage to it. So, a coating might help, but generally not provide full protection against such accidents happening again. Especially not if the agent is left on the surface for a prolonged time and/or in extreme heat.

 

@Gnits ,
Do you have a favorite brand of ceramic you work with?
Is there a writeup on how to apply it that you prefer?
Is the car supposed to be waxed or completely wax-free when applying the ceramic?

 

If you want a DIY product, then just go with CarPro CQuartz (CQUK) 3.0, because it's easy to apply, available in virtually all markets, and is not too pricey either, at least compared to competing products which might cost 2-3 times more, but give you essentially the same results. Gyeon also has similarly priced products in the MoHS line.

There are gazillion writeups on how to apply ceramic coatings, and even videos. I suggest you read / watch several ones, so, you get the big picture and also the nuances. The car must not be waxed, and actually must be very thoroughly cleaned before applying any kind of ceramic coating. If the paint is not clear and there is wax on it or other kind of sealant or contamination, then it will reject the coating, and not even uniformly, so you'll have high spots all over and an uneven finish.

Also, it makes little to no sense to apply a ceramic coating on a car if it hasn't been polished and paint corrected recently (ideally just prior to application), because otherwise the surface will not be level, and the coating will not make the scratches and blemishes disappear, just conserve them.

 

Awesome, thank you, I appreciate your input.