The case against multi-year ceramic paint coatings - Road Grime = Surface Staining Daily Drivers by Mike Phillips

[The Guz]

The good thing is with very little to no rain here in So Cal, road grime is not that big of an issue. But on average 1-2 years is about right anyway.

I appreciate Nanolex trying a different way to quantify the durability of the product, is that any better than a time frame? For my purposes it's actually worse.

For me, 12000 miles is about 14 months worth of driving, while my wife will cover than same distance in 4~5 months depending on her work schedule. Using mileage numbers like that would mean the Nanolex coating would last less than most good sealants on my wife's car, and be almost in lifespan of a traditional wax. Over the years I've found LSP durability to be very similar with our vehicles despite one being driven 3x more than the other each year.

Good point. 12000 miles would take me ~5-6 years lol. My yearly commute is 2000-2500 miles a year with such a close commute to work.

[TTQ B4U]

This article is a great support for products like Gyeon's CanCoat product. SUPER hydrophobic property paired with great gloss in a product that can be easily applied quickly and lasts 6-9 months depending on conditions.

[DetailZeus]

Another benefit of the annual detail is you don't have to go crazy with maintenance in the interim. Is my coating slowly losing its hydrophobic properties ? Is it degrading or just getting clogged? Will claying damage my coating? What should I top it with? How do I deal with waterspots?

All of these questions are moot if you know you will simply repolish and recoat come spring. You could do nothing but simply gently wash the car over the course of the year, which in my opinion, is the reason to choose a coating in the first place.

[DaveT435]

There is one thing I don't know if anyone has brought up is the fact that ceramic coatings are a lot less porous than paint. So while road grime can hold on the the porous paint, and actually work it's way down in the pours and be extremely difficult to remove, as a matter of fact probably the only way you'll get all of it is to polish the paint. The ceramic on the other hand is much less porous that's why it beads so well and has the self cleaning capabilities that it does.

Personally I think with a good coating I would say at three years that same white paint would be nearly as dark in color as what that picture shows had the car been coated and had decent maintenance. There is the issue of scratches and marring that could potentially be an argument for polishing. I know from personal experience that 2-3 years and still having a vehicle look incredible and fairly scratch free isn't unrealistic.

Just thought I should point out that there is an argument for long term coatings.

Also as many learned with Opti-coat 2.0, when it was sold, you can clay a good quality coating and get it to return to it's "just coated" condition. For those of you who weren't around when Opti-coat 2.0 was being sold. There were a few cases where people were complaining about the coating being "gone" at 18-24 months.

Come to find out the vehicles had been totally neglected for that period of time, so yes if totally neglected you can get buildup on a coating. In these situations they were complaining of no beadin, lack of gloss, etc. then it was recommended they clay the car. It does have to be a good quality durable coating and I would recommend a very fine clay, should be all that's needed, but you can clay the vehicle and remove the contaminants without damaging the coating.

[Ronin47]

Cars need to be polished atleast every year regardless of coated or not, even if its an AIO or finishing polish. So yeah, coatings lasting pass the 24 month period doesn’t mean much if one wants their paint looking good.

[DaveT435]

Depends on who's maintaining it and what part of the country you live in I guess.

[FUNX650]

Cars need to be polished
at least every year

regardless of coated or not, even
if its an AIO or finishing polish.

Bob

[Rsurfer]

Cars need to be polished atleast every year regardless of coated or not, even if its an AIO or finishing polish. So yeah, coatings lasting pass the 24 month period doesn’t mean much if one wants their paint looking good.

Your opinion and not a fact.

[Ronin47]

Your opinion and not a fact.

Talking about daily drivers and or cars not garaged. Regardless..my opinion based on my experience.

[Calendyr]

I hear you Mike. I also think that products that advertise 7 or 9 years durability are a little bit overkill. I doubt someone can maintain their car for that long without having issues like micro-marring. For me, 2 to 5 years products seems best. I have had my newest car for a little less than 3 years now and I have never polished it or clayed it. When I applied the coating about a month ago I did a light polishing as a prep for the coating and the paint was in very good shape on most of the car. I have scuffs on both bumpers because people in Montreal are idiots and can't do parallel parking without touching other cars. Other than that, the paint was in great shape and all I have been using as protectant for the last 2 years is CarPro Reload during the summer and Automatic touchless car wash wax and coin-op car wash wax during the winter.

It's all in the maintenance. If you decontaminate the car once a year (chemical, not clay of course), I think that coatings can remain clean for quite a long time. But I would not go as far as thinking 7 years down the road the coating would still look great.

Main advantage of a coating for me that is dirt has a really hard time binding to it. Since I coated my car, just doing the pressure wash removes about 95% of the dirt, where as it would remove only about 80-90% before. Even bird poo or pollen can be removed easilly with a pressure wash now.