Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Ceramic Coating for Autos

Is ceramic coating for a car worth it? It can be somewhat expensive.

There are different grades of it, but it seems to be the in thing to do now, I was quoted 1300 for my half ton and they said it takes about 5 days to do it which included paint correction. I didn't do it. Plus you cant run the vehicle through car washes and the coating is only good for maybe 5 years.

Now if I dropped 80k on a new vette, I would do it.

What happened to the good ol days of waxing your vehicle a couple times a year?

I thought so, the paint correction looks great and my truck is 10x easier to clean than an uncoated vehicle. Car washes are horrendous for paint, so I never used them anyway.

cars are very much like concrete. There's concrete thats cracked and concrete thats going to crack if it hasnt yet.
Cars are a very poor investment of money.

Some classic cars used to be a great investment, not so much anymore. Guns are better and take far less room to store.

Vehicles are a large and necessary expense. I don't see them as investments but I do spend money on making that car last as long as I can so I don't have to do the large expense as often.

Wow! That's certainly germane to the discussion.

I did my car which is an 08 that is not a daily driver and has never seen a car wash. Admittedly it sits under a cover in the garage most of the time but keeping it clean is a snap, road dirt and water just slides off the surface.

I had my 2019 Chevy truck done when new. I see no difference in it in terms of cleaning of keeping it clean . I use a car wash, but do it myself. Keeping it in the garage when not in use provides more protection than any additive coating..

I could never figure out when people pay $50K + for a vehicle and keep it outside and store $1000 worth of junk in their garage.

Depending on the vehicle and its use, I would start with a ceramic wax you can apply yourself and save a pile of money. Keeping a vehicle spotless is an exercise in futility for me but I’ve used ceramic wax and it does make cleaning a vehicle easier.

A buddy who owns a body shop told me some of them make touch up painting or paint blending in the event of a fender bender impossible. I’m not a painter so I don’t know why or which ones but I trust him.

I wasn’t going to get it anyway but was curious as I’d heard of it.

I did my truck 2 years ago. It made a huge difference. It's due again. Kodiak is hard on trucks

And some waste time internet posting irrelevant comments to the original inquiry, when they could be out making money.

I'm that person, I bought a truck, and use it and treat it like a truck, I'm not babying a truck. It will get it necessary maintenance and wash and vacuum now and then but thats it. My four wheeler, utv, mower, freezer, extra fridge, some hunting stuff, chainsaws, workbench, bandsaws, tools, etc, etc in the garage, wouldnt call it junk.

When I bought my new Lincoln Aviator last year they were running a special, $800 vs. $1,200. As has been posted I figured it was a good deal on a $70K vehicle.
I've put 8K miles on it so far, the majority of time it sits in the garage, 8 months of the year it gets hand washed with the recommended soap and dried with a Ceramic spray and micro fiber towel, during the winter months it's goes through the car wash a couple of times each month to get rid of the salt and sand they put down on the roads.
It's amazing how easy it is to clean and dry, and how the water just runs off the finish vs. how it use to just puddle with just wax.
It's only been a year, but am very happy with mine.

Get it cleaned and polished first, followed by this...Works great and easy to re-apply once every month or so.

https://www.meguiars.com/automotive...use-ceramic-wax-protection-g190526-26-oz

How do you keep the spray off your windows, plastic trim, etc?

If doing it myself with the home spray on/off - I've used Turtle, Meguiars and one other but none have performed for me as well as Griots. That stuff is amazing. I did my truck in October of last year. Zero washes between then and last weekend - the water still beads up and flows off with the dirt. Really impressed with it.

In the car business that's known as Mop and Glow... Did they sell you Croak and Choke as well?

I think ceramic paint coatings are a great choice for people who drive lifted 4wd trucks with oversize tires, brush guards, hi lifts, and rootop tents, that don't have a scratch on them and never will.

If you are attached to blemish free paint, I'm told they help.