Feel like I was duped here with detailing and ceramic coating

[Calendyr]

I read through several pages but I must admit, not all of them. IMHO, I saw two problems with the initial job... there was not enough correction and someone did not correctly buff out the ceramic coating. There were high spots _all over_ the paint. Either they did not allow it to flash correctly and/or they just did not buff it very well.

I don't doubt that they put a lot of hours into the paint... this does not mean it was done _correctly_. I don't detail professionally (it is hard work) but I've detailed plenty of vehicle's over the years. This year I worked on a friends Jeep that he takes off road and he's never even waxed the paint. I worked en entire side of the Jeep, needing to go over each panel several times all with foam pads. It still did not look like I wanted. I then broke out a wool pad that I've never used. One pass on a panel and it looked great! That was some _hard_ paint. Point is, unless you work _correctly_ putting hours into correction won't always equal a good job.

I'm a little surprised that the shop was able to buff through the ceramic coating and down to the paint for correction but it appears that they did.

As I said, I don't detail for money and I don't claim to be any kind of professional but I'd say polishing an SUV to 60% correction would take me 20 hours. Ceramic coating... 3 hours. $1,700 / 23 hours is about $74/hour (without product costs). Take away $200 and that is $1,500 / 23 = $65/hour. All of a sudden $1,700 does not seem like such a big number. But still, I'd expect top grade work for those numbers.

Just to put things into perspective, I'm considering "perfect" paint to be at 90% and 60% correction means each panel is worked well and correctly but leaves some minor scratches that are deeper.

My guess is that Ceramic Pro is much more expensive than 200$. Also you are not taking into account the other products used. It is most likelly closer to 400$ in products on a vehicle that size (Sand paper, compounds, polishes, solvents, spent microfiber towels, cleaning products, etc).

I don't do american cars often, I believe their paint is on the harder side, from the ones I have done (Fords). So it is possible they had issues removing the damage... but from the video, it looks more like an incorrect finishing polish step to me. Very odd considering the efforts they put into it. And they should have seen those swirl marks before they coated. Unless, as I mentionned before, the swirls are in the coating... which is possible.

I never applied Ceramic Pro, so I don't know their process. I believe it has to be heat cured with infrared lamps but I am sure if it is needed or just used to speed up the curing time.

[Calendyr]

And there is no way in hell they spent 39 hours on my vehicle. No way.

He is certainly talking man/hour. 3 people working on it for 12 hours is 36 hours. Thing is, when you have multiple people doing work on a vehicle, you loose effeciency rather quickly. People start to step on each other's toes and waste time. Only way to avoid that would be for them to do completelly different tasks like one doing the inside while other two work on the exterior... but no interior work was done ;(

[Calendyr]

I'm hoping to take it to a forum member this week. A local detailer (not above) said he can fix it but will have to strip off the coating and essentially start over. He said it would be $3500????? Is that even remotely correct? This is exterior detail only and he said its so expensive because he has to take off the existing coating, properly paint correct it and clean up the other guys mess, then re-coat it.

Really depends on what needs to be done. If the coating that was installed requires multiple steps of sanding, prices can climb quickly. Let's say a 1500 grit sanding is required, he will have to follow with a 3000 grit, then compound, then polish. So that is a 4 step correction on a huge vehicule. Probably about 30 hours of work just for that and about 100-200$ in supplied. Then it depends what coating is applied. This can range in price from 300$ to 1000$ depending on the product and the process. Some coatings are easier and quicker to apply than others (lowering the price) and some require multiple layers (increasing the price). High end coatings likes Optimum Opti-coat pro are usually in the 2000$ range (including the preparation work and paint correction) without having to remove a coating beforehand. So it is not unreasonable to calculate 500-1000$ more to sand the vehicule down on top of the normal application price.

I know 1 Ceramic Pro installer and he usually charges about 2000 CAN$ to do a 2 step correction and apply it on a sedan. On a truck the size of a Denali, it would be a lot more expensive.

[Calendyr]

Is that another detailer you found online?

Many people posted here price range for this type of job. And it is nowhere close to 1700$, let alone 3,500$.

Mild polish/compound should remove the coating with no issue. Few extra hours is a possibility but not enough to justify 2mortgage payments.

Mate, just leave the car alone before you get pulled into something else lol


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Just a question... have you ever removed a coating? I read a lot of comments like these on the forum and I always wonder.

I have had to remove a coating twice now, both time I had to sand. And I install McKee's 37 coatings, not even the high end Ceramic Pro or Optimum Opti-Coat Pro. So if McKee's 37 requires sanding, I would love to see someone try to remove Ceramic Pro with a compound.

[parshisa]

Just a question... have you ever removed a coating? I read a lot of comments like these on the forum and I always wonder.

I have had to remove a coating twice now, both time I had to sand. And I install McKee's 37 coatings, not even the high end Ceramic Pro or Optimum Opti-Coat Pro. So if McKee's 37 requires sanding, I would love to see someone try to remove Ceramic Pro with a compound.

Yes, i have. CQUK with GG FCC, orange lake country force pads on FLEX3401. Wasn’t hard at all really


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[RZJZA80]

Just a question... have you ever removed a coating? I read a lot of comments like these on the forum and I always wonder.

I have had to remove a coating twice now, both time I had to sand. And I install McKee's 37 coatings, not even the high end Ceramic Pro or Optimum Opti-Coat Pro. So if McKee's 37 requires sanding, I would love to see someone try to remove Ceramic Pro with a compound.

Is Ceramic Pro considered "high end"? Why doesn't any top level detailer out there that I know of use it?

[itsgn]

Really depends on what needs to be done. If the coating that was installed requires multiple steps of sanding, prices can climb quickly. Let's say a 1500 grit sanding is required, he will have to follow with a 3000 grit, then compound, then polish. So that is a 4 step correction on a huge vehicule.

1500 grits sandpaper to remove a coating that's a few microns thick max? Why, for god's sake? Any cutting compound should get it off easily. And if not, using such a low grit sandpaper won't be any help either. If the abrasive (be it suspended in a compound or on a sandpaper) can't cut through a coating, then it's because the abrasive is not hard enough, not because it's not coarse enough. A lower grit sandpaper won't remove anything that a higher grit sandpaper made of the same material couldn't. The only thing it can do is remove the very same materials faster, but in turn leaving back deeper marks on the surface. Which in the case of a 1500 grits sandpaper could be around 10 microns for a single pass, which is multiple times the thickness of the coating. Meaning a 1500 grits sandpaper would not only remove the coating (in a single pass), but also a lot of the clear coat below it, obviously unnecessarily. And then I didn't even count the additional abrading needed to take out those 1500 grit scratch marks, which would remove even more clear coat, again, totally unnecessarily.

[custmsprty]

1500 grits sandpaper to remove a coating that's a few microns thick max? Why, for god's sake? Any cutting compound should get it off easily. And if not, using such a low grit sandpaper won't be any help either. If the abrasive (be it suspended in a compound or on a sandpaper) can't cut through a coating, then it's because the abrasive is not hard enough, not because it's not coarse enough. A lower grit sandpaper won't remove anything that a higher grit sandpaper made of the same material couldn't. The only thing it can do is remove the very same materials faster, but in turn leaving back deeper marks on the surface.

And a heck of a loss of clear coat too!!!

[BudgetPlan1]

Just a question... have you ever removed a coating? I read a lot of comments like these on the forum and I always wonder.

I have had to remove a coating twice now, both time I had to sand. And I install McKee's 37 coatings, not even the high end Ceramic Pro or Optimum Opti-Coat Pro. So if McKee's 37 requires sanding, I would love to see someone try to remove Ceramic Pro with a compound.

That hadda be some weird kinda situation, I've removed 2 month old McKees V2 with Menz 2400 and a orange light cutting pad and I'll bet it woulda come off with something lighter. I've removed 22ple, Kamikaze, CQuartz, IGL Quartz, WG Uber and Feynlab Ceramic. Usually use a medium polish and orange pad and have had no issues. Never done a pro-coating though so don't know nuthin bout that.

[Bruno Soares]

Yeah, I agree that pretty much no coating will require sanding. Orange pad and medium polish should be enough. I haven't done anything with pro coatings but I have a feeling they're not as hard as claimed and could be polished off too. Worst case scenario a compound on microfiber pad. Sanding? I doubt it.