What About Ceramic Coating?

[trutolife27]

I agree ceramic is oversold. It is a great product but you have upkeep with it. People think oh i have a ceramic coat now I don't have to clean or do anything. That is where they run into problems.
The xpel works, just so expensive. You can save money doing it yourself but an xpel installer can hide the lines and make it look really good.

Really ceramic is more for a person who has time and likes to clean the car, and xpel is more for the lazy guy lol.

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[zhackwyatt]

Anyone have any thoughts or experiences with this product? I’ve never done anything with my cars, except take them to the Car Spa (local car wash that does a decent job). Wondering if it’s worth it to do anything more for the MME. Also, should I upgrade my Car Spa plan to “hand wash” from “tunnel wash”?

Tunnel washes with the beaters do a horrible time on paint. Swirl marks are no fun. Touchless don't even clean.

The best way is to do a two-bucket hand wash with grit guards. Then claybar it, polish, and then wax. It's a pita. So that's car care level 10.
A wash tunnel is car care level 3. Doing nothing is 0. (My opinion and made up scale.) The higher up the scale the better the paint is protected but the more work/cost. You have to figure out where on the scale you want to be.

Ceramic coatings and PPF, make each wash less work. But you still have to do it and the car care scale still applies.

 

[Kamuelaflyer]

The folks at Avalon King told me that the biggest enemy to ceramic coatings is not UV light but rather people who never wash their car. His comment was, it needs to be washed twice a month. Ideally, I'd like to get a high-quality PPF, at least in certain areas, as @trutolife27 pointed out, followed by a high-quality ceramic coating everywhere (wheels and glass included).

We shall see.

BTW, as an aside and off-topic, your local Electric Vehicle Clubs can be a great source of local information about some of this stuff. That's how I found out about PPF here, who does it and whether its worth the time and expense in my little corner of the world.

 

[macchiaz-o]

The shop near me does window tinting, xpel ppf and vinyl wraps. They said most of the ppf and wrap customers are Tesla owners. Hmm.

 

[jhalkias]

Anyone have any opinion on the right or best thing to do here in the Midwest with our winters? Pretty hard to hand wash your car even twice a month in the winter.

 

[efisher]

On a related note, do you have to do anything special before you run a Mach E through a car wash?

 

[macchiaz-o]

Anyone have any opinion on the right or best thing to do here in the Midwest with our winters? Pretty hard to hand wash your car even twice a month in the winter.

Same here. Wouldn't it be nice to have a huge, climate controlled garage with floor drains and a utility sink?

Anyway, I'm still not sold on PPF... Haven't missed it on prior cars, but I was definitely less enthusiastic about them...

Yeah the rock chips suck, but my understanding is that they can still happen through ppf, and in any case they'll at least cause chips in the film. Is that right?

Also, I'd definitely not pay to cover the entire car because they want several thousand for that. But if I only covered the front, wouldn't the shine/reflection look different between front fender and front door (for instance)?

 

[hybrid2bev]

On a related note, do you have to do anything special before you run a Mach E through a car wash?

I think you just put it in ‘stay in neutral’ mode. Maybe fold in the mirrors too.

https://owner.ford.com/support/how-tos/under-the-hood/transmission/rotary-gear-shift-dial.html

 

[Maric]

Turtle Wax (yes, that Turtle Wax) has an excellent spray on ceramic coating. I frequent detailer forums and learned of it there. It’s a great product. Easy to reapply as needed. Amazon carries it.

Also, running your car through a gas station car wash is one of the worst things you can do to your paint. I cringe at the thought of someone driving their MachE through a Shell car wash.
Myself, I’m probably going XPEL PPF for at least the front and hood.

 

[Maric]

The shop near me does window tinting, xpel ppf and vinyl wraps. They said most of the ppf and wrap customers are Tesla owners. Hmm.

Tesla has absolutely terrible, soft paint. But if you protect it early, it looks really beautiful. Tesla has one of the best reds on the road.

 

[trutolife27]

Xpel Wrap not Xpel ceramic coating. The film is different.

 

[GoGoGadgetMachE]

This is not strictly true. XPEL offers both PPF and ceramic. From the other referenced thread and the stuff I looked at online, it seems like most people don't even know the XPEL ceramic exists yet as it's relatively new:

FUSION PLUS Ceramic Coating | XPEL | Surface Protection

A lot of people mean the PPF when they say "XPEL" without qualifying it.

XPEL is floating around and talked in the other thread already referenced.

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