ceramic coating / paint protection
 

looking to get swirls out and ceramic coating done at a reasonable cost.
so much tree sap and where i park

any recommendations?

Autowerkes Exclusive

was this guy the sponsor on here? there was a guy on here. worked on porches and what not.

Yes, he is (maybe was?) a sponsor.

Autowerkes - I don't know their pricing now, but I think its more on the higher end on $ since they work on a lot of higher end vehicles. I could be wrong, haven't spoken to him for years, things could have changed now.

Another one off the top of my mind is "ProjectDetail".

Autowerkes wasn't cheap but I definitely got what I paid for.

Ken at Autowerkes is top of the line and is located out in Maple Ridge (though he does have courtesy cars). His work is the priciest but his clientele speaks volumes.

I ended up with RDI Detailing in Richmond for my RDX (See results: https://www.instagram.com/p/B0ZqMpzo...ns_share_sheet) and it was $1597 for Opticoat Pro (5 year warranty) and another $400 for the wheels. Roman was super professional and does tonnes of Teslas and Porsches.

Terence at Glossworks is cheaper at around $1K for a RDX - I'm not sure what product he uses and what warranty it comes with. I had written him back asking for more details and never heard back. I suspect he's using CeramicPro and it'll last for 2 years.

I chose RDI b/c it was much more convenient than Ken (there was just no way with my schedule to get out to Ken whereas Roman could drop me off at Skytrain) and Opticoat Pro doesn't require a $200/yr maintenance clean (though it's recommended).

With this stuff you are absolutely getting what you pay for so think in terms of how much protection you need rather than what the price is as the price is really about the total labour and attention to detail.

wont help with swirls but i got a bottle of Rejex and will apply it at next wash

people seem to swear by it...if it's good enough for boats/helicopters it's probably good enough for most cars

I applied rejex in april and it's still beading water. I can tell in the mornings when I see the droplets of condensation on the roof and then right down the middle of the roof where I couldn't reach it looks completely different.

if it is a brand new car, would ceramic coating protect the paint from scratch or rock chip?

maybe the faintest of scratches, but it's more to protect against tree sap/bird poop/waterspots

you need ppf to reduce damage from rock chips

Project Detail

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

Got a quote from Ken @ Autowerks - $1885 w/ tax (9y warranty). That is beyond my budget.

There are some guys offering for $380 w/ 2yr warranty.

I will reach out to Project Detail etc.

anyone one heard of The Midnight Auto Deail?

Project Detail. Had my TSX polished and double coated with CQuartz. Love love love it

what year and model?

lmao 2k, is a coating worth like 10% of your car?

btw, don't put too much thought into warranty...shops that do detail work come and go

What IS your budget?

$380 implies no paint correction and that's where all the labour really goes. Assuming you have a car with a few years of wear on it you're looking at a two stage correction which most shops would charge $400-800 for.

If you have less than $1k to spend I suggest you consider a partial DIY. Have any old detailing shop do the paint prep (paint correction) for you and then apply the ceramic yourself. You could get it done for $300-500 including supplies. Someone like Burnaby Autospa could do an acceptable correction for you to work with.

Wtf? 2k for a coat? Srs, what are you guys driving that warrants a 2k wax job.

I did a PPF on my CTR and applied Ceramic Coat on top of it..

i just did it myself because it was all prepped at the time.. i bought a DIY kit from avalonking.

I didn't have a good experience with ProjectDetail on my 993.

Had paint correction + opticoat done. He left spots of residue on the hood and after I pointed it out, he made me go out of my way to wash my own car (with no hose access as it was shut off in January - he knew this) as he refused to rewash it prior to fixing the hood.

The kicker to this is him asking to take the car out for a "photoshoot" post-correction only to find out he took his gf and her dog down to eat at Cactus Club for the Market Crossing Thursday meet instead. No photoshoot ever happened.

This was in 2016 but it left a sour enough taste that I've not been back.

2k quotes should be for some paint correction and a swirl free finish. Takes 2 days usually and is pretty is labour intensive.
Anything quoted much lower i assume would be not swirl free and slapping a coating on which you can easily do yourself

When I had CQuartz applied by Ken at Autowerkes, I paid much less than 2k but that was on a brand new car so he didn't have to do any claybar, paint correction etc. Like a couple of people said, it sounds like his price quote includes paint correction and prep which is crucial prior to applying the ceramic quote

yeah maybe at most get paint correction done, then do coating yourself

to put it in perspective i had full front ppf done for much less than 2k and it turned out pretty good

to get the full rear done another shop wanted almost 4k WutFace

and the kicker is that trying to get a reply back from half of these guys was like pulling tooth...one said he wouldn't have time for another 2-3 months

maybe they're so booked up with McLarens and Porsche GTs they become numb to what seems like a reasonable quote

I don't see the point of spending half of what a competent brand new paintjob would cost on a normal car just to put a coating on ?

I drive a 2017 kia.
So yea, 2k is about 10% of the car.

budget is around $300ish.

no name guy: https://tmnauto.business.site/ $360

If that's your budget, don't bother. No one will polish your car before hand (the link you posted doesn't mention polishing either) and you need it even if it's a brand new car because dealership installed swirls. Your car is used, so you can't properly coat your car without proper prep work. It'll be a poor finish and it may also impact the durability of coating. Another thing to note is that not all coatings are equal. Just because it's called a ceramic coating, doesn't mean coating A is as good as coating B.

You want something cheap to keep sap off? Buy those ceramic coating in spray bottles and go to town once in a while. It should help make clean up easier.