What are these and are they worth doing on a new vehicle that will be used off road from time to time

 

short answer yes, maybe.

correction is to help get and defects from manufacturing: orange peel etc.

ceramic is good (esp dark colors) from showing swirl marks when washing... its sort of a stronger clear coat finish in a way. it is not a way to prevent rock chips, thats what ppf is for. hope that helps

 

Here's my original post from about a year ago with all the details. I didn't have to do any real paint or color correction because mine was only a few months old.

I've done this quite a few times in the past on other cars and a couple of cars we've purchased since and I can 100% tell you that keeping it clean and keeping the bugs off is as easy as it's ever going to be.

https://landroverforums.com/forum/20...g-time-111271/

 

Simple breakdown:
Color correction (I assume paint correction) is the prep work done prior to applying coatings - removes swirls and light scratches. Basically making the paint look the best possible before sealing.

Ceramic - protects from the elements, road grime, bird droppings, bugs, etc. Makes washing your car a breeze. Literally saves you time and typically only requires a spray on / wipe off product to keep it going.

PPF(Paint Protection Film) protects from scratches and small object strikes like gravel, big bugs etc. (basically prevents road rash on the front end if you plan to keep the car a while) but still needs to be waxed or ceramic coating to keep it in the best shape for the longest period of time.

Worth is relative. I’ve never had to buff scratches out of a ceramic coating so maybe others can comment - but If your off road trips are going to result in a lot of scratches you might be better off staying old school wax so you can buff them out. If you are just getting muddy, ceramic will help, makes your wash up easier. PPF will actually protect from most of those scratches by taking a hit instead of the paint but not all PPF cleans up as well from scratches and ultimately you’d peel it off and replace at a cost or just make your car look new for sale.

You can always go the way of Allegedly and try it yourself for a relatively low cost with a prosumer (stuff from a detailing site, not consumer grade like your local parts store).

Personal experience -
I tried consumer grade - spent $80 and 1 day to wash/polish/prep/apply and it lasted 6 months. Pretty good.
I tried prosumer grade - spent $200 and 2 days to wash/polish/prep/apply and it lasted 18 months. Much better.
I tried pro grade - spent $1200 and 0 days and it was still like new 5 years later when I sold the car. It came with a 10 year warranty.

 

I'm sold on ceramic coating. My wife's assigned parking spot at work is under a tree and this evil bird dumps on her Defender nearly every day. With ceramic coating the bird droppings easily wash off with no residue bonded to the paint. My Defender is doing long distance drives every weekend to college rowing regattas. The entire front is covered with bug splatter and now it all easily washes right off. Plus after washing you just use a leaf blower to get rid of most of the residual water.

 

@roverzfan

Everything you said above about coatings, ppf, etc. is 100% spot-on. Great summary. Ceramic is the modern replacement for wax. It does everything 10x better except maybe offer that warm depth that you only get in a freshly waxed car. You know, before it wears off a couple weeks later.

The only thing I'd debate a little is the prosumer vs pro. It used to be very true. I did a ceramic coating probably seven or eight years ago that looked "okay" and it lasted maybe 2 years. Pro product used to be extremely difficult to apply and mistakes had to be buffed out. They've really come a long way in making even the best pro product easy to apply so they could start selling long-lasting ceramic down to normal people.

I feel like we're at the point where pros have access to some product that's marketed better. They'll use terms like Mohs hardness and then disagree with each other's claims. In many cases, the only real difference now is an exclusivity agreement. This one I did a year ago, is, after 14k miles, no different from the day it was done.

There's this whole movement within the detailing community to try to mystify ceramics and make them seem like you have to spend thousands to get something wiped on your car. It's a huge money maker. Probably the best they've ever seen. It's EASIER than wax.

Where most pros are better than the average guy in his garage is with paint correction and prep. Where they're worse is that many just want a quick payday.
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Allegedly

Totally agree that the new coatings for the prosumer are definitely getting better and easier - that’s why I’ll be doing my own on my new (used) Defender - and why I suggested ILovemyheckler follow your lead - at least see how it goes.

What I won’t do is PPF and I will always do the combo . In my case this one came with full PPF which was poorly maintained so I’ll be polishing for quite a while to get it back to good.

For those that aren’t into detailing though I think it is safe to say that paying someone that is good at prepping paint and laying down a couple coats of ceramic is worth it. This isn’t 2 hours and done. This is a solid 8 hours of work and if they are like my locals that means a full detail inside and out, engine clean, paint detail, ceramic and various protectants on wheels and plastics.

 

Agreed, agreed, and agreed. No way am I trying to do PPF. Those people deserve that money!

 

So when I have a pro do the car it’s with G-Technique. Clearly great stuff and proven with my Jag.

Since I’m going to do the Defender myself I just found this great set - it get’s me all the critical components to hopefully revive the PPF on the vehicle and then both G-Technique and CarPro have PPF specific coatings (supposedly more elastic and seeps into the pors of the PPF better than regular ceramic which is working on bonding to paint.)

I’m probably a few weekends out on actually getting around to doing the work but I’ll shoot some before and afters for anyone that might be interested. https://www.autopia-carcare.com/carp...ample-kit.html

https://www.autopia-carcare.com/carp...artz-skin.html

 

Autopia has been solid to work with. I bought a similar kit and I didn't look at the bottle size. I just threw it in the cart.

They're laughably small but it was actually all I needed of Iron X and Tar X before I did my coating.

I really liked Ech2o. Never would have tried a waterless wash otherwise and I use it on the beach cart all the time now. The big winners for me were Bugout & especially PERL.

The one that's missing from the kit is InnerQD. It's tied with PERL as my favorite detail product ever. Surprised they leave that out. They're both like 30 years ago when RainX first came out and it was like voodoo.

Yes on the pictures.