[SpeedLimit]

minimum for shiny enough...

[bobby35ny]

Former Zanio guy, love the stuff still do.
I use Cquartz now.

Not bashing any coating BUT.........
Its not a "cure-all" so do NOT spend big money on any of those coatings.
Coatings don't have that super slick feel that we all love.
To get that feel you need to top off the coating with "Reload" that will make it shine and feel the way you want. I use it after every other wash as a quick detailer.

Every 3 months, I use "Essence Plus" with a gloss pad, that makes it feel like you just got it out of the shop, kinda renews everything. EASY ON EASY OFF!!

Don't spend thousands for coatings not worth it!!

I remember on my '13, it was coated 2 weeks before a bird dumped on my hood.
poop was there for less that 15min and YES it went thru the clear coat, left a permanent mark...........

[MoreSpeed]

I did Expel - full front end, Rockers up to the crease in the door, Mirrors, etc... but feel doing the whole car is an overkill. I also had Ceramic Pro done over the whole car. Here is my rational.
1) Car prepped and paint corrected way better than I would have done
2) Lock that prepped look in going forward
3) Counteract the weaker paint on modern cars with their water based paint with a harder, more durable finish.
4) Reduce swirls and the buffing that goes into managing micro swirls.
5) It is not the cost of wax verses the cost of treatment, it is the desire not to have a car peppered with chips and imperfections. I have a tough time ignoring them and all non protected cars get them. Wax does not prevent that.
6) Ceramic coating means that my Blaster blower can dry the car much more efficiently, which means less micro fiber drying, which means less swirls.
6) Fixing chips with Dr. ColorChip is an art form that I have mastered, with sand paper and buffing, but I don't enjoy it and it is never 100% perfect.
7) For my treatments, before tint, I was a bit under $3K. This is under 5% of the cost of the car and worth it to me to have a nicer looking vehicle going forward.

[bobby35ny]

Originally Posted by bobby35ny

Former Zanio guy, love the stuff still do.
I use Cquartz now.

Not bashing any coating BUT.........
Its not a "cure-all" so do NOT spend big money on any of those coatings.
Coatings don't have that super slick feel that we all love.
To get that feel you need to top off the coating with "Reload" that will make it shine and feel the way you want. I use it after every other wash as a quick detailer.

Every 3 months, I use "Essence Plus" with a gloss pad, that makes it feel like you just got it out of the shop, kinda renews everything. EASY ON EASY OFF!!

Don't spend thousands for coatings not worth it!!

I remember on my '13, it was coated 2 weeks before a bird dumped on my hood.
poop was there for less that 15min and YES it went thru the clear coat, left a permanent mark...........

I wanted to clarify something........
I should have said, I don't think the coatings are worth the BIG money that people get for it. If you have the time and the equipment and do it yourself its worth it.

[bobby35ny]

Originally Posted by ELS1

Did you go with the Zaino route instead of coating? I feel that I would lose the satisfaction of cleaning my car if I got ceramic. The only plus side I see is the swirl mark protection, and less maintenance, but from what I recall, I never had those issues when I used Zaino on previous cars, but maybe that's because I took extra care of the paint.

If you DO use Zaino, did you apply it over the wrap with no issues and retain the Zaino specific properties?

I missed this post earlier, I want to respond!!

This is the misinformation that's out there about coatings.

Just because you coated the car it does not mean you are DONE, no way!!
You still have to maintain it with various products depending on what coating you used. You still have to spray it down sometimes or put a buffer on it.

The OP covered the whole car with a bra which looks GREAT!! So its a non issue.

[Glen e]

All bonified coatings: great stuff
All xpel films: the real deal

Xpel with a coating over it: a Needless combo that makes money for the detailer......

[VAZL1]

Originally Posted by Glen e

All bonified coatings: great stuff
All xpel films: the real deal

Xpel with a coating over it: a Needless combo that makes money for the detailer......

[ZL1 1LE]

Originally Posted by Glen e

All bonified coatings: great stuff
All xpel films: the real deal

Xpel with a coating over it: a Needless combo that makes money for the detailer......

What do you recommend to put on the xpel?

[Glen e]

Originally Posted by ZL1 1LE

What do you recommend to put on the xpel?

It's the amount of money you pay a detailer for a coating over xpel that is the problem. Not the actual coating. If you want to Coat your XPEL, do it yourself. For about $150 from pinnacle, 22PLE, cquartz etc.… you wipe the stuff on, buff off , it's not rocket science, requires very little skill, certainly not worth the 1000 to $1500 a detailer would try and charge you......check out YouTube for Cquartz. If a detailer wants to charge you 200-$400 for a coating over expel, that's OK, but not $1500, because he's really not prepping the surface for the coating.

But a lot of us here that the detail feel that it's unnecessary, because you really can't get the ceramic to bond with plastic, like paint. Therefore any sealant, Wax, or spray is fine. I have friends with XPEL that you use Meguires NXT , Blackfire Crystal seal, ultima paint guard plus, or Carpro Reload.

[lonestar_zl1]

Used Xpel on my wife's '14 GTR and have been happy with that. I had my Hyper Blue ceramic coated last week here is Houston. 4 coats of 9H and a coat of Light over the top plus a protective coating on the rims. I can honest say I am very impressed with the results and after effects. Super slick, rain has beaded up nicely (the only time in the rain), bugs that have baked on the paint all day come off with a rub of the finger and the rims aren't holding as much brake dust when I hose them off.

[ZL1black]

Looks fantastic. I ended up with Suntek on the front, hood, roof, mirrors, front pillars and rockers. I really wanted to do the entire car. My guy in Houston wanted close to $5k for the entire car. Impossible for me to justify $5k.

[ZL*Won]

I am finding that the cost to Ceramic Pro the entire car with paint correction is vastly different depending on who I call. I got 4 local estimates from $1000 up to $3800 today, all for the same Lifetime level Ceramic Pro (4 coats 9H plus a coat of Light with rims). How nuts is that? Needless to say, I am checking on experience level of the detailers but the guy charging $3800 is likely not getting a call back. Buyer beware. Found the same thing on the front bra....paid half of what I was first quoted by calling around.

[pkincy]

Had Xpel on my 08 C6Z from 12 on until I traded it on the 16. Didn't drive it in the rain as it wasn't a DD, but never used anything to clean it but a wet microfiber towel followed by a drying towel. It looked as good at 4 years as it did at 4 days.

That is the way I am treating my 16Z. My installer used SunTek on this job as he likes it better for the current products than Xpel which he used on the 08.

Only had it 7 months so far, but wet microfiber followed by a drying towel gets all the dirt off and it still glistens as it did the day it was applied.

My next door neighbor wraps cars (not who I used as he is a new neighbor) and says that the Ceramic Coating is a proper thing to do over the film, but so far I haven't seen any need for it to keep the car as new.