[cole1186]

Hey guys!

Just got my car in 2 days ago and just had my tints put on, got the nano tech ceramic tints and love them so far since I live in South FL! My shop will do a full Ceramic job for a decent price, $1000. Paint correction, ceramic coating, etc... They said it will take 36 hours to complete it.

This is my first time getting this done. My shop is highly trusted and does exceptional work. Not sure if there are "levels" to ceramic coating but they said this is as good as it gets. They wanted to charge me $1500 at first but then remembered I've been there twice and will refer them out to everyone I know (I'm in real estate so that's a lot of people lol).

What's everyone's thoughts on this? Worth it to get done?

[astroricardo]

Depends on how you're going to care for it. If you're going to wash it 'correctly' yourself with the correct product then maybe. If you're going to do 'drive thru' or a wash where someone is using just random soap with waxes and stuff in it then you're probably wasting your money.

There are 'levels', I got this from somewhere:

Gold Package
4 layers of 9H, 1 layer of Light, coat all glass w/ 3 coats of rain, coat wheel faces w/ 1 layer of 9H & 1 layer of Light
- Lifetime Warranty -

Silver Package
1 layer of 9H, 1 layer of Light, coat all glass w/ 1 coat of rain, coat wheel faces w/ 1 layer of 9H & 1 layer of Light
- 5 Year Warranty -

Bronze Package
1 Layer of Light, coat wheel faces w/ 1 layer of 9H & 1 layer of Light
- 2 Year Warranty-

So it depends.

I think full frontal PPF is a better investment, but that will probably run at least double that.

If it's a good job and you want to do it, then $1000 is worth it though.

[m4ml]

Originally Posted by astroricardo

Depends on how you're going to care for it. If you're going to wash it 'correctly' yourself with the correct product then maybe. If you're going to do 'drive thru' or a wash where someone is using just random soap with waxes and stuff in it then you're probably wasting your money.

There are 'levels', I got this from somewhere:

Gold Package
4 layers of 9H, 1 layer of Light, coat all glass w/ 3 coats of rain, coat wheel faces w/ 1 layer of 9H & 1 layer of Light
- Lifetime Warranty -

Silver Package
1 layer of 9H, 1 layer of Light, coat all glass w/ 1 coat of rain, coat wheel faces w/ 1 layer of 9H & 1 layer of Light
- 5 Year Warranty -

Bronze Package
1 Layer of Light, coat wheel faces w/ 1 layer of 9H & 1 layer of Light
- 2 Year Warranty-

So it depends.

I think full frontal PPF is a better investment, but that will probably run at least double that.

If it's a good job and you want to do it, then $1000 is worth it though.

You're referring specifically to Ceramic Pro. They're the only ones, to my knowledge, that offer "levels". The Ceramic Pro Gold comes with a lifetime warranty as long as you do the annual maintenance (around $170/yr.).

And it's much more than $1000.

Hell, my paint correction was almost $1000, just to prepare the car for Ceramic Pro.

To the OP... $1000 dollars is either one helluva deal... or you get what you pay for.

[modat]

I ended up doing it myself. While it won't have the durability of the professional coatings, I actually prefer that.

I like to detail my cars and every year or so do a light polish to get rid of the swirls. The polishing will remove the coating anyways so I dont see any value in the long term coatings.

If you have no desire to do a yearly coating and dont really care about perfect paint then a professional coating is worth it.

[G MONEY]

Originally Posted by cole1186

Hey guys!

Just got my car in 2 days ago and just had my tints put on, got the nano tech ceramic tints and love them so far since I live in South FL! My shop will do a full Ceramic job for a decent price, $1000. Paint correction, ceramic coating, etc... They said it will take 36 hours to complete it.

This is my first time getting this done. My shop is highly trusted and does exceptional work. Not sure if there are "levels" to ceramic coating but they said this is as good as it gets. They wanted to charge me $1500 at first but then remembered I've been there twice and will refer them out to everyone I know (I'm in real estate so that's a lot of people lol).

What's everyone's thoughts on this? Worth it to get done?

If you can afford it, wrap the car. It's hands down your best bet. Super easy to maintain and keeps the paint perfect. It's expensive but if your keeping the car for awhile, definitely worth it. Wash, dry and it looks like a fresh detail every time. All my stuff is wrapped

[boss2k]

Not worth it , i use hydrosilex every 6 months and the bottle lasts me a year for multiple cars and you cant tell the difference if its ceramic coated or not

[kjx]

PPF > ceramic.

Ceramic enhances gloss and protects against minor things like bird poop and environmental contaminants. Ceramic will be removed if you polish the car.

You must have PPF if you're hoping for rock chip protection and protection from swirl marks, etc.

You can put ceramic over PPF but ceramic must be removed before PPF is applied.

[Tall Tom Cruise]

Cold take... But IMO a professional ceramic coating is worth it just for the convenience factor alone of drying your car with an electric leaf blower

[boss2k]

Originally Posted by kjx

PPF > ceramic.

You can put ceramic over PPF but ceramic must be removed before PPF is applied.

This makes 0 sense as you are coating the plastic and not the actual car

[BMWM4CX]

Originally Posted by boss2k

This makes 0 sense as you are coating the plastic and not the actual car

It's a common thing. There's many coatings designed especially for application on top of PPF.

[kjx]

Originally Posted by boss2k

This makes 0 sense as you are coating the plastic and not the actual car

What makes zero sense? Ceramic coating can be thought of as very long lasting wax that survives car washes.

Would you put wax on the surface that is exposed to water and dirt and is the top most layer that provides the gloss? Replace the word wax with ceramic in the question.

Or would you put it between the PPF and the surface it's supposed to bond to?

I've spent over $25K on PPF and ceramic coats on 3 cars in the past 5 years, and my M4 has fully body PPF with self-applied Graphene on top because that's the best possible combination I've identified over time.

Ceramic is not what people make it out to be. PPF is the thing to get, and if your car is already paint corrected (as a full body PPF would have), don't waste money on having someone apply ceramic for you. Graphene is superior and can be self-applied.

[Likeanowl]

Originally Posted by m4ml

You're referring specifically to Ceramic Pro. They're the only ones, to my knowledge, that offer "levels". The Ceramic Pro Gold comes with a lifetime warranty as long as you do the annual maintenance (around $170/yr.).

And it's much more than $1000.

Hell, my paint correction was almost $1000, just to prepare the car for Ceramic Pro.

To the OP... $1000 dollars is either one helluva deal... or you get what you pay for.

What?! $1000 in paint correction?! Was your car washed with steel wool or something? My entire car paint corrected was only 2 labor hours. That is absolutely insane.

[boss2k]

Originally Posted by kjx

What makes zero sense? Ceramic coating can be thought of as very long lasting wax that survives car washes.

Would you put wax on the surface that is exposed to water and dirt and is the top most layer that provides the gloss? Replace the word wax with ceramic in the question.

Or would you put it between the PPF and the surface it's supposed to bond to?

I've spent over $25K on PPF and ceramic coats on 3 cars in the past 5 years, and my M4 has fully body PPF with self-applied Graphene on top because that's the best possible combination I've identified over time.

Ceramic is not what people make it out to be. PPF is the thing to get, and if your car is already paint corrected (as a full body PPF would have), don't waste money on having someone apply ceramic for you. Graphene is superior and can be self-applied.

Understand what PPF and Ceramic does

My point is if you ceramic coat the car on top of PPF you are not applying the coating to the bare body of the car but on top of the PPF film , basically you are making the PPF film look more glossy. If you need to replace the PPF the money spent on ceramic is down the drain.

[boss2k]

Originally Posted by BMWM4CX

It's a common thing. There's many coatings designed especially for application on top of PPF.

Yes lot of people do it but i feel its waste of money.

[iviegatron]

Originally Posted by boss2k

Understand what PPF and Ceramic does

My point is if you ceramic coat the car on top of PPF you are not applying the coating to the bare body of the car but on top of the PPF film , basically you are making the PPF film look more glossy. If you need to replace the PPF the money spent on ceramic is down the drain.

PPF is not replaced as often as you think. My entire car has PPF and ceramic coating on top of that. The warranty I have on the PPF (XPEL) is 10 years. That's longer than the life span of ceramic. Only down side of applying ceramic to PPF is you have to apply it yearly compared to bare paint which could be up to 5 years. If I had to choose one over the other, I'd pick PPF everytime. Getting both however gets you the best of both worlds.

[boss2k]

Originally Posted by iviegatron

PPF is not replaced as often as you think. My entire car has PPF and ceramic coating on top of that. The warranty I have on the PPF (XPEL) is 10 years. That's longer than the life span of ceramic. Only down side of applying ceramic to PPF is you have to apply it yearly compared to bare paint which could be up to 5 years. If I had to choose one over the other, I'd pick PPF everytime. Getting both however gets you the best of both worlds.

I had PPF replaced on my M3 within 2 years because it started becoming yellowish and looked bad on a white car. It was Xpel and replaced under warranty. You never know. If i had Ceramic applied to that Xpel PPF i had to get it done again , thats my point.

[m4ml]

Originally Posted by Likeanowl

What?! $1000 in paint correction?! Was your car washed with steel wool or something? My entire car paint corrected was only 2 labor hours. That is absolutely insane.

If I remember correctly it was $750ish for the paint correction (hence the "almost"). Do note though, that I didn't get Ceramic Pro until after having the car for four months (and I did have one really bad "hand" wash that the damage was IMMEDIATELY noticeable). It wouldn't have changed the price much from my understanding even if I had driven directly to the detailer from the lot though.

The results afterward were stunning.

I just saw a post here in the forums the other day that had a paint correction estimate in the $750 range as well.

[iviegatron]

Originally Posted by boss2k

I had PPF replaced on my M3 within 2 years because it started becoming yellowish and looked bad on a white car. It was Xpel and replaced under warranty. You never know. If i had Ceramic applied to that Xpel PPF i had to get it done again , thats my point.

On PPF you have to get it done every year though. So if you had to replace the film within 2 years because of yellowing the ceramic coating has done its job already. One good thing with PPF is you won't have to polish or remove any scratches next time you have to apply ceramic coating. Get a bottle from Amazon for $100 and do it yourself.

[cole1186]

Thanks for the feedback everyone!

They said 36 hours... Does it normally take this long??

[M2 CCO]

Originally Posted by cole1186

Thanks for the feedback everyone!

They said 36 hours... Does it normally take this long??

Yes, especially if they are doing any paint correction. Most shops also like to let the coating cure for a bit before they turn it back to the customer.

[cole1186]

Originally Posted by M2 CCO

Yes, especially if they are doing any paint correction. Most shops also like to let the coating cure for a bit before they turn it back to the customer.

Okay awesome, so you also agree I should do it for $1000? Seems like a fair price? And like I said he was trying to charge me $1500 at first but I brought him business and I am a returning customer and brining my girls car and my next car there so he did hook it up..... So I am hoping a $1500 ceramic coat job is the "real deal" lol

[M2 CCO]

Seems to be in the ballpark for what I would expect for a light polish and coating job. What coating does the shop use or did they give you some coating options to choose from?