Mike Phillips
Active member
- Dec 5, 2022
- 51,004
- 7
Coating questions? Do they degrade? Are you married to them? Can you go back to a wax or sealant?
Anytime I get questions via e-mail, a PM or a FB message I prefer to invest my typing time where
A: It's easier for me to share links, pictures and videos.
B: More people can read and thus benefit from the information. (no just one set of eyeballs
So I get an e-mail asking,
Hey Mike,
I think you should do a piece on re-applying ceramic coatings when they degrade.
Seems to be a TON of confusion there. I've read they have to be completely buffed off after they degrade in 2-3 years to be reapplied.
Is this true? I
have also read that once you apply ceramic you are married to it from then on, you can't go back to wax and sealants
Thanks
David
Great questions David and "yes" I know first hand there's a LOT of confusing surrounding the topics you bring up.
I think a person could write a book on this topic and unfortunately I don't have time for "this" book so below is my short answer...
First - nothing lasts for ever, not even you or I. I guess if you apply a ceramic coating to your car's paint and then park your car in your garage and never take the car outside again then I guess a ceramic coating could last forever but you wouldn't get to enjoy the car very much, at least not from a driving point of view.
In my opinion, there's no way to REALLY know what's on the surface of your car's paint at the molecular level. Someday when science can shrink us down to the size of an Atom I guess we could shrink ourselves down and walk around on the surface of our car's paint and take a real-time inventory. Until that day then the next best thing you can do where you can REALLY take comfort in knowing you've removed anything that was previously applied and got back down to a clean base of paint - is to go ahead and re-polish or if you think it's needed then re-compound the car and put the car though the coating process all over again.
As far as being married to a coating after using it I call BS on that one. I won't even take the time to type out why I say this.
If you're done with using a coating, wash your car, clay if needed, machine polish the paint and put whatever you want on it and my guess is it's going to LOOK GREAT! :laughing:
My own personal take is this (I've shared this for the last couple of years on this forum)
If the car in question is a daily driver and especially if you live in an area where you drive the car in the rain, then the COATING is going to get a dirt stain from road grime just like the paint on a car gets if you use a car wax or a synthetic paint sealant on it to protect it.
To me this means that coatings or ANYTIHNG that claims to last more than a year is a great idea but if you want your car to look it's BEST then at least once a year you need to do some form of mechanical cleaning to the paint to remove the dirt stain that build-up as normal wear-n-tear for daily drivers.
So in my opinion, if you want to apply a coating to your car, you only need a coating that boasts it lasts for a year.
I think that most of the people that would be a member of this forum or lurk on it or any Facebook group, are also the type of people that CANNTO go an entire year without doing something to their car's paint thus a 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, etc. paint coating is irrelevant.
Instead, find an easy to use product that makes your car's paint LOOK GREAT - is easy to apply and affordable to re-apply.
Then good at washing your car and once a year, do a light polish and re-coat.
KISS = Keep it Simple Simon
Anytime I get questions via e-mail, a PM or a FB message I prefer to invest my typing time where
A: It's easier for me to share links, pictures and videos.
B: More people can read and thus benefit from the information. (no just one set of eyeballs
So I get an e-mail asking,
Hey Mike,
I think you should do a piece on re-applying ceramic coatings when they degrade.
Seems to be a TON of confusion there. I've read they have to be completely buffed off after they degrade in 2-3 years to be reapplied.
Is this true? I
have also read that once you apply ceramic you are married to it from then on, you can't go back to wax and sealants
Thanks
David
Great questions David and "yes" I know first hand there's a LOT of confusing surrounding the topics you bring up.
I think a person could write a book on this topic and unfortunately I don't have time for "this" book so below is my short answer...
First - nothing lasts for ever, not even you or I. I guess if you apply a ceramic coating to your car's paint and then park your car in your garage and never take the car outside again then I guess a ceramic coating could last forever but you wouldn't get to enjoy the car very much, at least not from a driving point of view.
In my opinion, there's no way to REALLY know what's on the surface of your car's paint at the molecular level. Someday when science can shrink us down to the size of an Atom I guess we could shrink ourselves down and walk around on the surface of our car's paint and take a real-time inventory. Until that day then the next best thing you can do where you can REALLY take comfort in knowing you've removed anything that was previously applied and got back down to a clean base of paint - is to go ahead and re-polish or if you think it's needed then re-compound the car and put the car though the coating process all over again.
As far as being married to a coating after using it I call BS on that one. I won't even take the time to type out why I say this.
If you're done with using a coating, wash your car, clay if needed, machine polish the paint and put whatever you want on it and my guess is it's going to LOOK GREAT! :laughing:
My own personal take is this (I've shared this for the last couple of years on this forum)
If the car in question is a daily driver and especially if you live in an area where you drive the car in the rain, then the COATING is going to get a dirt stain from road grime just like the paint on a car gets if you use a car wax or a synthetic paint sealant on it to protect it.
To me this means that coatings or ANYTIHNG that claims to last more than a year is a great idea but if you want your car to look it's BEST then at least once a year you need to do some form of mechanical cleaning to the paint to remove the dirt stain that build-up as normal wear-n-tear for daily drivers.
So in my opinion, if you want to apply a coating to your car, you only need a coating that boasts it lasts for a year.
I think that most of the people that would be a member of this forum or lurk on it or any Facebook group, are also the type of people that CANNTO go an entire year without doing something to their car's paint thus a 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, etc. paint coating is irrelevant.
Instead, find an easy to use product that makes your car's paint LOOK GREAT - is easy to apply and affordable to re-apply.
Then good at washing your car and once a year, do a light polish and re-coat.
KISS = Keep it Simple Simon
