Ceramic Coatings.

Barry

Barry

Paint Fanatic
Staff member
Let's clear this up.
Ceramic coatings are all different, some no better than wax or as good, and then the real ones where, when done professionally, will cost you upwards of 1500 to 2000 dollars.

With us getting a lot of new customers from the majors, I'm getting flack about the temps I give for epoxy, neutralizing acid, and warning on ceramic coatings. The majors dont try to educate people except on their product, right, wrong, or stupid; I do.

Here is my experience with ceramic coatings; a factory paint job is 4 to 5 mils on average. I have never seen a problem or heard of one.

I have had a handful of calls from insurance jobs at the most, where they did bubble as usually very little paint is applied, and it's across the board as far as the board of brands of clear and paint used.

I've had more from restoration jobs in the past than I cant guess but think about the number of mils and how many months they take to cure fully.

So if you want to think ceramic is an issue with only SPI products, then use another paint brand.

Restorations are the most significant concern because we have a lot of mils of material, and these cars are not exposed to the sun for final curing.
Using the high-end ceramic, does that mean there will be a failure? No, but sure can, and is it worth the risk to redo for free?
But the chance that is why we warn you as paint must breathe.

Use at your own risk.
 
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I just had a back and forth with a guy on another site who took a class on using phosphoric acid. They told him to never wash it with soap and water as that will leave a film. I told him that is not true and that if he didn't properly neutralize the acid it would cause poor adhesion. He of course came back and said "the manufacturer states that this product produces a chemically clean and paint ready surface."

So I showed him pictures of the roof on my signature car where a blister kept forming while I was buffing it. When I cut into the blister it was obvious that there was no adhesion to the metal. I then told him that I learned that others had the same problem and how to properly neutralize the acid. Never had any problems since then.
 
@Barry just to clarify, the bubbling you mention in your post is because people are applying ceramic coating too soon after painting?

We are seeing some weird stuff on blend panels, and instead of just using prep paste and a grey pad we have been sanding them lightly with 800, then using a sanding sponge, then finishing with a grey pad because some of these coating don't seem to come off with just a grey pad.
 
Yes, you are 90% correct.
I just helped a shop figure out why the retro
job he did, and after two months, the car bubbled; he is not a customer but used a high-end paint that he had been using for years.
Jobber had no answers and he asked if I would help.
The first question was what did bubbles look like, and exactly where are they?
As soon as he told me, I said it is ceramic coated or covered with a plastic but small chance on the plastic because where the bubbles are.
He had to close the shop down as he could not afford to re-do the car labor-wise.
 
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screw around with paint and you'll learn how to make jelly or worse . is it worth it ?
 

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metalman said:
I would rather paint a car or bike than wax it, let alone ceramic coat. So, I won't be using any soon.;)
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Pardon my ignorance.
- Is it a bad idea to use wax after color sanding and allowing the paint to fully cure for 3 - 6 months?
- Other than storing the car indoors, what, if anything, should be done to preserve the paint?

Thanks,
Emil
 
Straight carnauba wax with no polymers or ceramics is pretty safe after that length of time. We don't do a lot of waxing, but I use Mothers 05750 (mostly because it's easy to get) and have had no trouble.
 
Evil_Fiz said:
Pardon my ignorance.
- Is it a bad idea to use wax after color sanding and allowing the paint to fully cure for 3 - 6 months?
- Other than storing the car indoors, what, if anything, should be done to preserve the paint?

Thanks,
Emil
Click to expand...
No, paint has to breathe. It's better off , from what I've heard from here and other people , to allow it to cure without anything over it.
 
I read "after allowing paint to cure for 3-6 months." Unless @Barry wants to come in and contradict me, regular old tried and true plain carnauba wax is okay after that length of time especially if it's gotten some sun. The problem is that people will take "artistic license" with that statement and go ahead and put any kind of fancy polymer/ceramic whatever wax on. That's where the mistakes happen.

Plain carnauba = okay
Any other wax = who knows, maybe your funeral.
 
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I don't understand why people want to wax new paint.
Last car of my own that I painted looked just as good when I sold it 3 yrs later as
when I first painted it.
All I ever used on it was a clay bar and regular washings with Dawn dish soap.
 
jcclark said:
I don't understand why people want to wax new paint.
Last car of my own that I painted looked just as good when I sold it 3 yrs later as
when I first painted it.
All I ever used on it was a clay bar and regular washings with Dawn dish soap.
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I can say that from the consumer side that all these wax and detailing company's marketing efforts convince us that we have to do it! We have to "correct" the paint and put all kinds of stuff on it to protect it. And they've succeeded too, like Barry mentioned people pay big money to have all this stuff applied to their cars. No different than Eastwood/POR15 and rust "encapsulation"
 
The only ceramic coating I'm considering using is one of the new air dry exhaust header coatings from cerakote.
 
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