How did you prep the surfaces before applying the ceramics? Did you use some sort of wax stripper?

the car pro quartz was semi challenging to use. I’ll admit I’d likely not use it on paint or highly visible areas. Applicator ceramic is definately an acquired talent that takes training. The hydrophobic properties are amazing!!! The wear resistance so far is excellent.

M:
Care to explain/detail your exact steps for the car pro quartz application??? Thanks in advance!!!

Ed

good info and thanks for the education.

I’ll be honest when I was researching ceramics; I was planning to use ceramic pro, igl, system x, or an equivalent. They seem to be the name brands that professional/commercial grade companies use.

after seeing some of the results I couldn’t justify the prices. There were similar products that were 1/4 of the money performing just as well. Of note…car pro quartz, nano bond, and gloss it were on my list.

again I didn’t know how these ceramics would perform; so instead of wasting 500-700$ on material, I opted to use cheaper alternatives.

so far…I’m not disappointed and would use them again.

another point of contention I guess would be the life expectancy. I’m not looking to get 5 years out of these products. I’d be happy with 1. The fact that other companies promise 5-7 years is laughable in a marine environment. I just don’t see that happening with any product.

if and when I decide to try the more expensive stuff I’ll be sure to report back…

In the vid "virtually maintenance free for the time that you own it"

I keep my vehicles many years, does it last more then 10 years?

there are various surface prep products on the market…made by chemical guys, adams, etc.

If you look at the active ingredients it all ties back to isopropyl alcohol.

in our case we made an iso prep mix consisting of 75% iso alc mixed with distilled water.

the ratio of distilled water and alcohol depend on the % strength of alcohol. Do a Google and you can find the right mixing ratios.

It is a process

after final polishing and correction we use a prep spray that removes all those raw chemicals that are in polish (see offshoredrillins post) leaving the surface clean and free of any unwanted residue.

Then we do the first coat of ceramic coating. All hand applied. I use a 2 towel method to remove. 1st towel to level, 2nd towel to remove the product from the surface.

with our coating product we recommend the 2nd coat go on about an hour after the 1st. This allows coat 2 to bond with coat 1. Leaving you with an efficient 2 layers of coating.

step 3 is 90 min after coat 2 we use a topper spray to finish off the coating.

i can explain it here but honestly there are so many YouTube videos showing how to use it.

car pro quartz seems to be one of the most popular / affordable ceramics on the market. Every Tom dick and Harry has made a video about it.

here is the jist of it for steps:
1. Wash the surface
2. depending on surface condition buff and polish to remove scratches.
3. Clay bar
4. prep with cleaner to remove wax, oils, etc
5. apply car pro quartz in cross hatched patterns working in small sections.
6. Allow for product to flash and wipe away with cloth.

there are many more details to get into but this is a high level summary.

Ill let the pro’s answer but based on all the testing I’ve watched…no

Even the professional grade stuff was gone after 700-850 days of environmental exposure.

still pretty damn good.

Thanks, was seeing cost of 5K maybe for my new Mega cab. If it would last then would be worth it

no, it wont, most are good for 4 or so years with proper maintenance.. most clear coats are still chemical based as where paints are water based. but properly taken care of just redo it in 4-5 years and youll be fine. im not a fan of the 10 year coatings or layered coatings, as they have flash times and will start rejecting themselves after the first one if that time frame lapses. Ive used the majority of them out there, and the only one I have had zero comebacks with has been Xpel, c quartz pro was gone off cars in a year, same with opticoat, Ceramic pro wound up being one a total pain because if a product failed they blamed the consumer and the installer. their warranty process is a joke. Virtually all of those coatings also come from south Korea, Xpel coating are made 100% here in the US.