Ceramic Coatings?

[Rsurfer]

[QUOTE=dgage;1699836] Plus coatings don’t last more than 3 months so you’d have to buy the product again to repair it.




Do you mean that the left over coating will not last more than 3 months? I have opened bottles of coating pushing the one year mark and still good. Most ceramic coatings will keep well in the frig.

[dgage]

Plus coatings don’t last more than 3 months so you’d have to buy the product again to repair it.

Do you mean that the left over coating will not last more than 3 months? I have opened bottles of coating pushing the one year mark and still good. Most ceramic coatings will keep well in the frig.

Wording matters so sorry about that. I corrected to may not last depending on the coating.

[dgage]

CarPro Essence PLUS is a unique siO2 nano coating, made from a distinct blend of ceramic coating repair agents, high gloss quartz resins, and hydrophobic nanoparticles, that will lay down protection on uncoated paint and work as a repair agent on already coated paint! This non-abrasive formula will repair fine swirls in a damaged ceramic coating while also increasing the hydrophobic properties and cleaning the surface underneath!


CarPro Essence PLUS

Thanks for that Craig. But really at that point your coating in the corrected area is Carpro Essence Plus right?

[Craig Encinitas]

^
I would presume a combination.
Unless we could microscopically analyze each swirl and scratch to see which ones penetrated the ceramic coating and went into the clear coat, then decide to polish off the coating and re-coat that panel...we wouldn’t know.

What’s the next best thing to do? Use a product like Essence+ as a quasi-band aid and the customer can make a decision at a later date.

I used Essence+ on a coated car recently to cover up the swirls. I’ve also used it on some pretty bad scuffs and horizontal line scratches. How long will it last on top of a now repaired coating? So many different factors. But, it only took me a couple hours to “repair” this swirled up BMW. Which was what the client chose over completely stripping it and re-coating it.

$ cost versus $$$ cost.

Let it dwell for about thirty minutes.


To this (sorry, no before shots):


I guess if this were my car (and my cars are coated), I’m going to do the easiest and least invasive, least time consuming method first to see how that goes.

And I agree, ceramic coatings aren’t for everyone. But, we can kind of agree that a good coating should guard against some scratching. And I reminded the owner, DO NOT go to a car wash!

[Bruno Soares]

Essence+ was pretty mediocre in my experience. Didn’t do any fixing and reduced the hydrophobic behavior by a lot. I even tried more than once in different cars and still think it’s worthless.

Dlux has always been great for me, every year and a half or so reapply and the trim is back to looking great.

[dgage]

So Craig I think that is one difference between a hobbyist and a pro. As a pro, I’d definitely sell a ceramic coating as that is good money and hopefully gets you a long term customer to take care of their investment. As a hobbyist such as myself and the OP, this is where I wonder if the value is there for us unless someone just wants to do their car once and leave it alone for a year or so. I want to get outside and get away from the computer so I want to take care of my car in spring and falls oI don’t really need a true ceramic coating.

[PaulMys]

So Craig I think that is one difference between a hobbyist and a pro. As a pro, I’d definitely sell a ceramic coating as that is good money and hopefully gets you a long term customer to take care of their investment. As a hobbyist such as myself and the OP, this is where I wonder if the value is there for us unless someone just wants to do their car once and leave it alone for a year or so. I want to get outside and get away from the computer so I want to take care of my car in spring and falls oI don’t really need a true ceramic coating.

Great post.

Agreed 100%

[Craig Encinitas]

Yes to everyone’s reply.
If we all did the same and thought the same, what would we discuss?
I did wax and sealants for years.
Then I had a white car and did nothing to it for a couple years.
Now I’m running the ceramic train.
Kinda describes most my life.

[rick100]

I have used essence plus , its ok. Not going to lie , my expectations were high before using it , specially at that price point .

It didnt do much for the bigger swirl marks, maybe it cover some minor defects. I couldnt really tell , my car is white too , so that doesnt help much but still it didnt do anything for the swirl marks I wanted to fix.

I used it on my brothers audi , dark grey , and it did a better job , even though his car was not coated.

I ll probably use it a few more times on other cars just to finish the bottle or get more " data". I m not impressed by the product . To be fair I had very high expectations , so that didnt help.

[DUBL0WS6]

I'll say this, I'm not sure based on my limited experience that coatings are all that mar resistant.