[OneLapWonder]

Originally Posted by arpad_m

Okay guys, I'm glad you have so much confidence (seriously, I'm not being sarcastic here).

As a personal example, my garage was just brought into decent condition last year, and even now I don't have lighting that's anywhere near good enough for a professional quality ceramic job. Chances are I wouldn't even notice some high or missed spots with just a headlamp and handheld work light or garage light that I move around all the time. Other thing is dust, we have a ton of it here, my feeling is that even inside the garage there is just no way to force it to settle enough not to cause issues with a coating application.

Maybe I'm overthinking it, but hey, this is a forum, we are here to exchange ideas and learn from each other, right?

I don’t have a big garage, and it does not have great lighting and room for me to inspect easily. Most of the time, I finish late and can’t inspect outside until the morning. When I do, that’s when I notice high spots and by that time, I usually can’t correct without polishing. It’s not much polishing but it takes a lot of time I don’t have a lot of to redo a spot.

I did use my daily driver as a test mule, experimenting with how long I could let the coating sit before levelling without making it impossible to remove the excess. I left a few permanent rainbows but it was not much cost to better understand the coating behaviour.

Heat seems to degrade the ceramic coating faster, as do alkaline chemicals, and abrasive scrubbing. For example, the front fenders of the daily still have coating but the hood is 25% as hydrophobic after 1.5 years of sitting outside everyday at, and 20 hand washes.

[arpad_m]

Thanks for the info and the encouragement, guys I'll start my "coating career" with my daughter's beater and only then "graduate" to the Camaro

[JoeTX]

I'm in the same process as you, i will polish and coat the car but i will start with the trunk and check my results and build up the confidences from there.

PPF the mirrors yourself and other easy parts, let them do the front bumper to save you money.

https://youtu.be/YtVfr0JgQqU

[pzoom]

I put a strip of PPF on my bumper right below the trunk opening. I learned the hard way pulling out a suitcase out of my previous car and nicking the bumper.

[pwj155]

I just had xpel done to the front bumper cover of mine the day after i got it home, cost $700. I'll do the easy spots myself (hood, rockers, in back of front wheels, in front & back of rear wheels) I'll practice on the equinox first.

[22SS1LE]

Originally Posted by OneLapWonder

Heat seems to degrade the ceramic coating faster, as do alkaline chemicals, and abrasive scrubbing. For example, the front fenders of the daily still have coating but the hood is 25% as hydrophobic after 1.5 years of sitting outside everyday at, and 20 hand washes.

heat and most chemicals will not do much to a coating. Depending on what you used.
Coatings do get clogged over time with embedded dirt that doesnt wash off and calcium deposits from tap water and rain.
Most likely if yo wash the car and then do a Iron remover spray and rinse and then hit it with a waterspot remover and rise. there will be a big improvement to the hydrophobics.