Hand sprayer I can usually get out for $5. Car washes around us range from $8 to $30. We have cheap water, but in expensive water places outfits recycle the wash water! Yeah wash my my car with dirty salt water! not! I imagine the rinse takes care of it, but Really?
The car washes here filter the water whether it is fresh or recycled and it is much cleaner than the tap water which leaves spots on paint and glass.
What is the concentration level of salt in the water in these car washes? I would suspect that salt water would leave spots on the glass and result in customer dissatisfaction more so than rust issues. The alternative would be to leave the salt on the car rather than rinse with a presumed saline solution.
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I guess I should have told my car wash story here instead of in the emergency brake discussion. Hard to argue when they use terms like “shiny” and “long lasting” to describe their sealant. I guess I’ll just stick to my routine of clay bar, machine polish, machine glaze, and hand wax in spring and fall. Oh no, it’s spring again.
When I see ‘ceramic coating’ for paint, I read ‘another paint treatment scam’…
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Professionally done, ceramic coatings are legitimate. The thing is that the overall cost is steep. The necessary prep work can also be quite pricey, any flaws in the paint need to be corrected before the coating can be applied. It’s generally something that’s done on a new or freshly repainted car. I was interested getting it done when I bought my car, but even new cars require paint correction an it was going to be around $1500 all-in to have it done. For that amount of money, I’ll just detail my car twice a year and wash/wax it regularly…
Did I imagine the post on various ceramic coatings or was it zapped out of existence? Thought for sure that’s what I was responding to. I guess someone felt it was spam but really it was just pushing stuff by multiple vendors.
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Pushing stuff by multiple vendors is a lucrative internet business if you have a pay agreement for referrals with those vendors. I think that’s what was going on here, an affiliate program masquerading (poorly) as news or a review.
If you see an article that has a link to the product being reviewed or the book being praised, it’s a hidden advertisement for which the publisher of the article receives payment for products bought via that special link to the product listing.
You may be more internet savy than I but it had about 20 different products with Amazon links. It just looked like a the kind of thing you’d see on a detailer’s forum. At any rate didn’t really add anything to general information unless you clicked on the product and could read more about it.
It may be some sort of protection for the paint, but it’s not “ceramic”. No way to create that at room temperature.
Supposedly, it is ceramic “nano-particles” suspended in a clear coat type of paint. It is purported to provide a harder paint that resists abrasion, higher surface tension to shed contaminants and once bonded to the original paint, will not come off without mechanical abrasion (blasting/sanding).
I think this is the same type of coating they will apply to a house that is supposed to be lifetime paint…
Uh-oh - “nano-particles” - my BS meter just pegged! Sure, it might be the first of 1,439,384 different paint protectants to actually do the extraordinary things it says it’ll do, at an exorbitant price. But I doubt it.
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Ceramic coatings, themselves are not BS, they are actually very effective and do what they are advertised to do. If you go to any high end detail shop (the kind that specializes in exotics or collector cars), they’ll offer it. That’s not to say that there aren’t pretenders out there, and cheaper products that pose as the real deal. But if you could be bothered to do some research on the technology and what it takes, both from a labor standpoint and cost standpoint to apply it correctly on a properly prepared surface, you’ll see that what it offers is impressive. However, for most people it’s not something that they’re going to want due to the high cost.
It generally costs around $500-$700ish depending on the condition of the paint to the necessary paint correction done, all swirl marks, chips, scratches, etc need to be corrected before the coating can be applied, Then you’ll need to clay the entire car, there cannot be any bonded contaminants, then you’ll need to chemically decontaminate the paint using something like Iron-X, next, you’ll want to do an IPA wipedown of the car to get ride of oils that might be left on the finish. At this point the coating is applied. It’s best to do at least two coats, but you have to allow for curing of the first coat before you can apply the 2nd. Overall, to have this professionally done, for a car with decent paint to start with, it’ll cost around $1500-$2000. Expensive, but the coating will last for years, and the people who have this done are generally people of means who are looking to protect their six figure car(s).
This should not be confused with the spay on “ceramic” waxes/sealants that have come out in the last few months that you can find on the shelf at Wal-Mart for like $10.
The one I looked at was Meguires for about $39. Obviously just a better wax. What concerns me though is what happens if the car needs to be repaired with all this new stuff that no one understands what it is. Silicone has long been a problem on refinishing and I can’t believe some of these new products won’t cause the same problems. There just comes a point where I would rather just stick with what I have been doing for the last 20-30 years. Not saying I don’t buy the new improved waxes, but I’m not ready for nano particles on my paint.
I’ll be plain: to claim these are “ceramic” coatings is nonsense. Might they be good coatings? Sure, but they’re not ceramics. So any time a business takes a well-known name and misapplies it, I call BS. Why not call it what it is, whatever that is.
To me, ceramic coating is worth the cost since it makes maintaining car a lot easier.
I have no experience with Ceramic coatings on cars, but I know 5 people that have Ceramic paint on the houses. From what I’ve seen…I’ll NEVER vinyl a house again…I’ll get some type of wood siding and get it painted with one of the new Ceramic paints. One of those houses is over 15 years old and the paint looks like new. Here in New England - that’s saying something. One guy I use to work with built a HUGE (4000 sq/ft) retirement Timber Frame home on an island off the coast of Maine. I visited him about 5 years after he built it. I literally thought he had just painted the house…That is about as severe location you can get. I was sold on Ceramic paint. Costs more, but from what I’ve seen it’s well worth it.
Now if the Ceramic car finishes…I’ve never looked at them because of the cost. Not worth it to me.