Newbie question on ceramic coating?

[TrustJesus]

So I get it that applying a ceramic coating is long , detailed process.

Honestly I can’t pull it off yet, but my question was the following.

If the car is washed, decontaminated, clay bar, paint prep.

Can you still apply a ceramic coating if the vehicle has deep scratches that need touch up?

Do you first touch it up, or just go on about your business?


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[acuRAS82]

So I get it that applying a ceramic coating is long , detailed process.

Honestly I can’t pull it off yet, but my question was the following.

If the car is washed, decontaminated, clay bar, paint prep.

Can you still apply a ceramic coating if the vehicle has deep scratches that need touch up?

Do you first touch it up, or just go on about your business?
Yes you can apply a coating to a prepared surface with any number of scratches.

By “touch up” do you mean with paint / Dr. Color Chip or something? Or do you just mean that the car would have benefitted from being polished but you decided not to polish?

Going back to your first question, you can apply coating to a scratched, prepped surface or you can tackle the defects and then re-prep (obviously being wary of paint touch ups having time to breathe).

[TrustJesus]

Hey Rob.
I was asking if the deep scratches have to be touched up, then polishing it?

I for some odd reason though that ceramic wouldn’t bond to paint well if there were deep scratches?


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[acuRAS82]

Hey Rob.
I was asking if the deep scratches have to be touched up, then polishing it?

I for some odd reason though that ceramic wouldn’t bond to paint well if there were deep scratches?

All the non-scratched paint will allow proper bonding. The small percentage of paint where there is actual scratch, I would imagine if there is still BC or CC paint left then the coating would maybe bond inside the scratch. If a scratch is down to metal then maybe or maybe not? For a scratch down that deep, sure it’s good to touch up before coating but not everyone can make that happen. It is what it is, maybe the coating bonds. But the 99.99% of paint that it is not that scratch will be perfectly fine.

[TrustJesus]

Thanks Rob I got you. Thanks for helping me out.


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[Billy Baldone]

I coat cars with deep scratches all the time. Most people that want a coating, do not want to pay for a multi step paint correction. So I package mine with a 1 step included. My One year coating is the most popular/affordable. I had a black Mercedes GLK 250 yesterday in for a 1 step/1 year. The paint was still pretty hammered after the 1 step, considerably better, but still had scratches all over it. A proper 2/3 step would have been over $1000. 2 things about that. 1, she was not willing to pay that. 2 she will still go to the tunnel wash. The idea that YouTubers are doing a proper 2 plus step paint correction on every car they coat is not the reality. 98% of my customers are blown away by a one step and ceramic coating. This week I have 3, 1 year ceramics scheduled, and 1, 2 year coating. All 1 steps, except a black F350. I'm upcharging him because I can't get Ford black to finish in one step without haze, and still get good correction

[TrustJesus]

Hey Billy
When you say 2/3 step, you referring to doing another polishing step?

Or would that mean compound first, then doing a polish?

As always thanks


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[TrustJesus]

How about polishing the pint? Is it necessary, even if we ignore the deep scratches?


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[acuRAS82]

No, you don’t need to polish but you need to prep the surface and polishing gives a nice segway into an easy prep (prep spray) right after. You could use coating prep polish with no abrasives which can easily be done by hand. Or you could probably do some pretty strong alkaline (or coating prep) washes, iron-x, tar-x and then prep spray.

There’s a number of ways to prep a surface and polishing is not required. But skipping polishing won’t eliminate the need to do the extra work to prep.

[The Guz]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JmTMnzD1hM

[DUBL0WS6]

I think of a two step as compound and polish. Others might view a two step as a polish followed by an AIO. I view a good finishing polish as good enough to go to a durable sealant.

[Billy Baldone]

To me a One step is aiming in the middle of correction/finish. For example I had a C7 Corvette in dark gray the other day that I used a UroTec Blueberry pad with The Last Cut, and got about 75% to perfect in one step. When Mike Phillips talks about abrasive technology, he is not messing around. I used Menzerna 400 Heavy cut on a F350 in black with an orange Force pad, that was just a click away from almost perfect in one step. These results were much harder to achieve in one step just a few years ago. An All in one, is a Paint Enhancement. A 2 Step is Compounding first, then polishing. A 2 plus step is cutting very aggressively then 1 or steps after that to finish out

[Mike Phillips]

I'll chime in....


For best results - you want to do "something" to the paint to insure the surface is absolutely clean bare-naked paint.

The BEST way to do this would be to use some form of abrasive polish as the abrasives will not only remove and even OBLITERATE anything on the surface, at the same time they will remove some degree of below surface paint defects, like swirls, scratches, water marks and oxidation.


That said - you don't have to machine or even hand polish. You could wash the car and then wipe it down with a panel wipe and then install the coating. You wont' get BEST RESULTS but unless the car was recently waxed you should get some level of bonding from the coating to the paint and then you'll get the benefits of the coating even though the paint may not look perfect.


:)

[weekend warrior]

I am 79 and not an expert...and I pulled the plug and coated my car...LOL I almost chicken out the morning I was going to coat...Mike has some great vidoes on how to coat...you might want to look at them...I spent about 8 hours in 3 days....to wash...clay...compound..the hood because of water spots....polished.. paint prep then coat...lots of luck

[TrustJesus]

Got it, good info