[drivingagain]

How much does ceramic pro costs?

[drivingagain]

They can be applied by yourself if you do the paint correction and decontamination. Although some of the ceramic coatings can only be bought as a dealer of the product.

Fro example CQuartz can be bought on autogeek but Cquartz Finest has to be professionally installed.

[Snoman]

CQuartz is nothing more than a $50 bottle of nice wax. I'm still looking for professional bonding products and leaning towards some industrial ceramic products, but still researching.

[GMGP5X]

Originally Posted by Snoman

CQuartz is nothing more than a $50 bottle of nice wax. I'm still looking for professional bonding products and leaning towards some industrial ceramic products, but still researching.

Lets us know what you find out and decide on.

[Snoman]

Originally Posted by GMGP5X

Lets us know what you find out and decide on.

Will do though might be some time. The industrial solution I was researching may not be possible for vehicles (requires baking), but somewhere when I got to molecular bonding is when I tripped into Ceramic Pro. If someone is touching my car, it should be for something I am unable to do myself, much less buy off the shelf at Walmonkey or Amazon. I found an engineering company performing industrial molecular bonding using clear ceramic, but have not reached out to them yet.

My current top choice was Ceramic Pro as others discussed above. Pricing examples can be found with Grand Armor (cheaper than CQ), along with more videos than your boss would like you to watch at work. Ceramic Pro has a slew of leading benefits and has an actual lifetime option, though I believe does require minor maintenance. CQuartz requires a complete and full reapplication within 5 years (3 depending on who you listen to). I know the salesman sounds good telling you otherwise - they are either unaware their product is low quality or flat out lying about it.

The professional detailers around here (kids in a warehouse wtf?) want $1500 to apply a $50 CQuartz bottle and up to $1,000 to wash your car before hand "to remove swirlies". Your key word is "paint correction", hide your wallet if some jayhole tries to up-sell you on this bs. They are not paint correcting anything on your car. There is a valid argument "to get swirlies out", but even then - if you have a weekend and an orbital buffer - do it yourself.

p.s. I should have probably started out by saying the best product you can get for your car is going to in fact be, CQuartz - in a DIY setting, absolutely amazing product and worth every penny of it's $50-$100 cost. If you have a local detailer you trust, give the kid $600-700 to wash, detail, clean and apply CQuartz to your car over 2 days. He's not getting all the swirlies out, forget the swirlies, 90% of the public can't see them anyway. If you want a professional coating (not just some hand job) with arguably one of the best available, your going to spend $1,200+ on Ceramic Pro.

[joemosfet]

Originally Posted by Snoman

CQuartz is nothing more than a $50 bottle of nice wax

No? It contains silicon dioxide (the base for most ceramics), that when reacting with the moisture in the air, forms a measurable SiO4 layer that is ultra hard (9H+). SiO4 shares two of it's oxygen molecules with other silicon molecules - AKA quartz.

CQuartz finest is a lot more pure with a component to help cure it.

At least that's my current knowledge of the stuff.

(My current personal choice is the Gyeon Mohs+ 2-part system that uses a bonding agent and infrared lamps to help the quartz layer form faster and more evenly.)

[Snoman]

Originally Posted by joemosfet

No? It contains silicon dioxide (the base for most ceramics), that when...

Agreed, I was over simplifying it and will most likely spend a week in the garage in the evenings preparing my car ("clean room") then applying the product myself. I'm not paying anyone to apply a $50 product on my vehicle and I don't see the added benefit of paying $1600+ for Ceramic Pro which I'm beginning to think is basically the same product. Especially since I just found out the dealer cost is almost the same as CQuartz...and also the same as Gyeon Mohs+; $50-$100/car). Most of the "public data information" is being sold hook line and sinker by the product manufactures or sales staff directly, there is no cost involved - it's 95% labor and almost pure profit.

I lost complete faith in this process when I watched it being applied, the kid basically poured some on a soft cloth, wiped it on the car and let it air dry. The industrial white papers I'm reading are basically saying there is no substantial benefit to baking the product, so then there's that as well. There is prep work necessary don't get me wrong, but you can protect an entire car in less than an hour. Since you can pick up CQuartz for less than most "professional wax solutions".... I really wish I had known about this stuff when I bought my car.

[joemosfet]

Originally Posted by Snoman

I lost complete faith in this process when I watched it being applied, the kid basically poured some on a soft cloth, wiped it on the car and let it air dry. The industrial white papers I'm reading are basically saying there is no substantial benefit to baking the product, so then there's that as well. There is prep work necessary don't get me wrong, but you can protect an entire car in less than an hour. Since you can pick up CQuartz for less than most "professional wax solutions".... I really wish I had known about this stuff when I bought my car.

Yeah, the prep work is where the majority of labor will be. I'll be paying for paint correction / buffing out orangpeel / turning a wavy reflection into a mirror reflection. With the Gyeon Mohs+ stuff, its a 2 part application, two layers of quartz, then another layer of quartz with a water / dirt sheeting additive.

As for baking, heat won't help a quartz layer form faster, though it may help prevent condensation as the quartz forms, something only real humid environments would need to worry about, if even then...

However the top layer of Mohs+ contains hydrocarbons (for hydrophobic properties) that infrared helps organize into the SiO4/2 lattice before the quartz forms.

Like CQFinest, or OptiCoat pro, Mohs+ is only available through authorized installers, and thus is expensive. The installer I plan on going to wanted to do windshield, rims, interior as well, but that would have been around $1500. And, the windhsield, rims, interior coatings are all over-the-counter and I can apply them myself for much less.

So, I'll have him buff and polish the paint and clear coat, then install the Mohs+ two-part system on the paint only. The rest I will do myself.

[GMGP5X]

Great info from the both of you Snoman and joemosfet.

[Bassment]

Anyone use the chemical guys acrylic coating?

What is the point of getting dealers to put this stuff on, don't you just wipe it on with a microfiber pad? Seems like it's pretty easy.

[Tim Adams]

Spent two months last winter with a Porter Cable DA correcting the paint on my 2010 that I messed up by using too dry of a paste wax on a dry pad. It takes a lot of time to do paint correction right, but a new car should not be that bad.
I followed it up with this, http://www.autogeek.net/menzerna-pow...k-sealant.html

Then put this on top of that, http://www.autogeek.net/collinite-in...r-wax-845.html

The paint is smooth as glass, you have to look very, very hard to see any swirl marks. I applied all this stuff with the Porter Cable, and hand wiped it off.

I should add that it took two months because I did not want to spend all day working on it, on the one day a week I was off.

[Snoman]

Those two products (while respectable waxes in their own right) are not on the same level as Ceramic. The best analogy I can think of is would you rather have clear toothpaste on your vehicle or a crystal clear coating of earth stone with the shine of liquid glass? Wax and Acrylic are soft and while they look good temporarily (3-6 months), they will not protect your vehicle as well or as long "Ceramic". Bugs on the front end? Yea, no. The irony is that over the life of your vehicle, Ceramic can be substantially cheaper if done correctly.

Ceramic coating is the Holy Grail of detailing and paint protection. The term Ceramic is also a sales ploy to imply permanent, impossible to do yourself, requiring special tools unavailable to mere mortals like ourselves and thus expensive. The truth is that these products are nothing more than hardened polymers. Dr. Beasley provides a nice layman explanation of the products in this industry line. Take special note to understand that none of these products are lifetime as no salesman is changing the laws of physics, I don't care how many virgins have been promised. Monthly washing and annual inspections/reapplication are required in the fine print if you go retail.

Most (if not all) of these products are available direct to the consumer if you know where to look and they are relatively cheap. Surprise, your local retailer lied! Ceramic Pro is a re-branded product widely available in Europe. While possible to obtain and perform yourself, this product can be toxic to work with.

These products are not to be taken lightly and with patience and research, you can experience the best available for almost the same price as Meguiares. Don't try this at home and whatever you do, do not ever try this with a wax;




Finished products will look like this;


There are complete walk through videos from paint cleaning, preparation, swirl removing to detailed paint correction techniques.

[Tim Adams]

I'll live with what I have. My new SS isn't going to Pebble Beach.

[Snoman]

Originally Posted by Tim Adams

I'll live with what I have. My new SS isn't going to Pebble Beach.

It's not for everyone and the best time to do it is the day you bring the car home. With minimal planning, there is nothing you will touch this easy to maintain, cheaper or better looking over the life of the vehicle.