New Car Coatings or Sealants

[WillSin865]

Just bought a new Buick Enclave and have been browsing here trying to figure out what I should put on it from the start. I've been looking at coatings, but have never used one of those and quite frankly, I'm a little intimidated by that.

Couple of questions:

1. Which coating would be easy to apply for someone who has never done one before?
2. How do you maintain them after? Do you use a detail spray or spray wax after washing?

I have used JetSeal on my vehicles prior with good results, but always am applying a spray wax or spray sealant to give it a boost.

 

[UncleDavy]

I always wanted to try applying a ceramic coating but I am afraid of screwing it up. Instead I used Wolfgang Deep Gloss Paint Sealant and I am sold on the product. I applied it on my truck back in October and it is still shedding water. You can top it with a wax for extra shine. I prepared the surface just like you would a ceramic coating; complete wash, iron decontamination, clay bar, IPA wipedown, light compounding, polish, then sealant. I was quite pleased with the results.

 

[Ebg18t]

Easiest coatings I have used are the McKee’s 37 & Wolfgang Uber Ceramic. McKees is cheaper, but WGUC is still holding strong at 2yrs on my Wife’s car. I’m putting the McKee’s on my new car in a few weeks once the weather stabilizes. Expecting 5-8” snow tonight.

I’ve been maintaining them with McKees 37 foam or SI02 wash or Wolfgang Uber Rinseless wash.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

 

[BudgetPlan1]

Don't fear the coatings; while some are certainly trickier to apply than others, there are products out there that are near sealant-like as far as application goes...and will give you 20-30k miles of solid, glossy, self-cleaning performance depending on climate.

Don't get caught up in hardness and scratch resistance, IMO the most over hyped aspects a coating; stuff hits your paint like rocks, purses, jewelry and such are gonna scratch...just like regular sealants and waxes.

For your average user, the self cleaning, low maintenance and resistance to environmental contamination such as bird bombs and etched water spots are the key benefits of a coating.

Gyeon CanCoat is a nice, easy and inexpensive way to give coatings a shot, kinda a coating-lite product

Autogeek CanCoat vidYouTube

 

[Ronin47]

Don't fear the coatings; while some are certainly trickier to apply than others, there are products out there that are near sealant-like as far as application goes...and will give you 20-30k miles of solid, glossy, self-cleaning performance depending on climate.

Don't get caught up in hardness and scratch resistance, IMO the most over hyped aspects a coating; stuff hits your paint like rocks, purses, jewelry and such are gonna scratch...just like regular sealants and waxes.

For your average user, the self cleaning, low maintenance and resistance to environmental contamination such as bird bombs and etched water spots are the key benefits of a coating.

Gyeon CanCoat is a nice, easy and inexpensive way to give coatings a shot, kinda a coating-lite product

Autogeek CanCoat vidYouTube

Disagree, carnauba does way better against bird bombs and water spotting.

 

[BudgetPlan1]

Disagree, carnauba does way better against bird bombs and water spotting.

The water spot/bird bomb etched hood of our Corvette would beg to differ on that point. Covered in one of the Meguiars paste waxes and/or Zaino years ago. If I didn't take care of things like that immediately back then, it left a permanent mark.

On the other hand, left a teradactyl sized bird bomb on the hood of a Gyeon Mohs coated vehicle outside in the sun for over a week last summer, wiped off without a trace.

I know that coatings have a reputation for water spotting but to be honest, I've never experienced that to the extent that water spots wouldn't come off with the next bucket wash. And many of the coated vehicles had product applied and then never saw any washing for 7 months/20k miles.

Guess everyone's climate or experience is different but I'll *never* have a black daily driver that isn't coated again...too much work to keep presentable.

As for 'wow, that looks dirty after a summer rain' appearance type water spotting, some coatings do better than others in that respect. Find one that excels in that area and you're good to go, find one that doesn't and the results will be predictable.

As with everything, YMMV.

 

[The Guz]

Don't fear the coatings; while some are certainly trickier to apply than others, there are products out there that are near sealant-like as far as application goes...and will give you 20-30k miles of solid, glossy, self-cleaning performance depending on climate.

Don't get caught up in hardness and scratch resistance, IMO the most over hyped aspects a coating; stuff hits your paint like rocks, purses, jewelry and such are gonna scratch...just like regular sealants and waxes.

For your average user, the self cleaning, low maintenance and resistance to environmental contamination such as bird bombs and etched water spots are the key benefits of a coating.

Gyeon CanCoat is a nice, easy and inexpensive way to give coatings a shot, kinda a coating-lite product

Autogeek CanCoat vidYouTube

I agree. CanCoat is a good starting point for getting into any coating.


I have not had any issues with a coating spotting either or any issues with bird bombs with any coating. Maybe the two of us are just lucky.