Experience/Thoughts re Moonstone (and Mk 8 fuel consumption)

[Tallpaul]

Has anyone ceramic coated their car?  If so, which ceramic coating, how long ago, result and durability? If you would care to share,  how much did it cost? Do you think it has made a difference? Was it a worthwhile investment?  Thanks.

The majority of the cost of a ceramic coating is the preparation of the paint. A pot of coating is about £50 and a Golf size car can be done in under an hour.

Whether it's worth it is up to you. It's amazing how much improvement can be made to the paint even on a brand new car, let alone one that's several years old.

I've had 3 cars ceramic coated and never paid more than £440 all-in which was for my Mk8 and it took the guy 9 hours in total - 8 of that was cleaning and the paint correction.

Now my paintwork looks better than when it left the factory and all I need to do is carefully wash and dry it. I won't need to apply any products for approx. 2 years (maybe more).

Be aware you can pay 3 or 4 times as much for 2/3 days work with some kind of protection applied to every single surface inside and out. Personally, I think that's madness for a Golf; perhaps less so for something more prestige.

[willni]

Has anyone ceramic coated their car?  If so, which ceramic coating, how long ago, result and durability? If you would care to share,  how much did it cost? Do you think it has made a difference? Was it a worthwhile investment?  Thanks.

As you know I do it time to time. Lots of ceramic coating brands all offering different benefits Gtechniq being one of the best known ones, Gyeon is my current favourite after trying many brands and coatings.

Durability wise don't go for anything beyond 2 years, your car WILL pick up scratches that the ceramic won't stop so after 2 years you'll see benefit in polishing the car again as well as coating formulas get revised and new chemicals are introduced so you'll stay on the current thing. A number of coatings I offer easily reach past the 2.5 year mark and thats with very poor care.

Current coating on my 7.5 is 6 months old and is the old Gyeon Syncro, on the mk5 it's a 2 year old Carbon Collective Nero and Molecule self-healing combo.

Most of my jobs I tell people don't go for a long term coating first, buy the cheapest coating first so you can make mistakes! As the wash and drying routine requires more patience. The cheapest coating actually Gyeon CanCoat Evo which gives epic gloss and water hydrophobicity and now lasts up to a year (generally over a year).

I won't get into the pricing side of it at this point, but although the pot of coating can cost £50, coating an entire car takes an hour but most coatings require multiple coats, drying times and strict working conditions.

Is it worth it? Depends who you ask, I think it is. Makes a fantastic difference to the paint depth and gloss.

The most important aspect a lot of people are missing out here is maintenance of the coating, if you want your coating to live the longest possible you have to invest in maintenance coatings and drying towels and special shampoos etc. It's a full commitment which is why I recommend cheapest coating first so you can make the mistakes before your long term coating.

[MaggotsRus]

I have to say i agree with SRGTD i have never had any PPF or ceramic coating done to any of my previous GTI’s and not my clubsport 45. I have used the Maguiars ceramic hybrid wax and its made the car look stunning. I do accept that detailing is an art form and there are many sponsored you tube stories with lovely little soundtracks in the background drawing you into a world of £££££££ spending but like anything in the car world you can pay as much or as little as you want. If you look after your vehicle as best as you can and then sell on / part ex etc… the dealers wont give you a CAP better price because its been PPF or ceramic coated. They will of course knock you for scratches, wheel damage, limited history. I am more concerned at the moment again of vehicle theft and so any investment as we have seen in this forum in car or home, personal security is by far a more worthwhile enterprise. Just my thoughts folks.

[Exonian]

Some excellent advice there regarding all the variables around ceramic, paint damage and care.
Very interesting stuff.

How does ceramic cope with bird poop?

[Watts]

I've not tried lots of different waxes and never had a ceramic coating but I have been impressed with FinishKare 1000P. It really lasts well and I put a second coat on top of their Pink Wax. I find a great depth of shine even on my white car. Considering the cost of these products and how long they last I think they are high performing bargains.

[JoeGTI]

How does ceramic cope with bird poop?

Not well at all in my experience. I had my lapiz blue R ceramic coated. It was parked up in the sun one weekend while I was away and a bird crapped on it and left quite a bad mark on the bonnet! Now maybe the coating on my car was inferior, but that made my mind up - waste of money.

I ended up investing in a DA polisher after that, which sorted out the bird poop stain in a matter of seconds. A really great purchase. I'd highly recommend purchasing a DA polisher, they're a great tool to have in the shed for spot corrections like this. I've never used it to polish a full car... only used it for spot corrections, its really brilliant for removing light marks, swirls and of course bird poop marks.

I've found that you can get excellent results these days for fairly small money and not much DIY effort required. The days of wax on / wax off, labouring over paste waxes are gone, there's a whole load of spray waxes and sealants available now which are really a breeze to use and can give brilliant long lasting results imo. I just can't see the justification for spending 100's (or even 1000+) on a pro job for such marginal gains.

I do see the value in PPF for sure, particularly for the front end of the car, as stone chips really piss me off! But PPF is still very expensive too and you really have to weigh up if its worth it, will you keep the car long enough to get value from it, are you really just keeping it clean for the next guy...  and as mentioned, no dealer will give a monkeys if you've PPF'd the car. You won't get that money back. And when you look at a PPF'd car up close, you can see the plastic is there...

[Exonian]

Thanks Joe.
That seals it for me (excuse pun).
I’d never really considered ceramic because it’s quite expensive and I tend not to keep cars long but was always intrigued about this apparent miracle product.
Now I know I really don’t want to spend hundreds of pounds on it.

One day I will eventually get the DA I’ve been promising myself to do spot polishes to swirls and poop etches.

[SRGTD]

I'd highly recommend purchasing a DA polisher, they're a great tool to have in the shed for spot corrections like this. I've never used it to polish a full car... only used it for spot corrections, its really brilliant for removing light marks, swirls and of course bird poop marks.

+1 for investing in a DA polisher. I’ve owned mine almost 10 years and it’s more than paid for itself. I’ve never had a car ceramic coated as I do quite enjoy waxing my car.

When I owned my mk6 Golf, it was also bombarded by one of our flying feathered friends on a hot sunny day when it was parked up. After carefully washing the offending poop off (there was lots of it and it was thick and literally caked on) there was some serious etching to the clear coat. A little time spent with the DA and an appropriate combination of polish and pad and all traces of etching were gone. It made light work of removing some concrete staining I got on my GTD’s bonnet from water dripping from a concrete multi-storey car park roof. I also used it on my brother’s car to remove some supermarket car parking or trolley scratches and he was very impressed with the results.

I have polished a full car with my DA - I did both my mk6 GTD, my previous generation Polo GTI twice and a friends car (a Chrysler Crossfire ) and IMHO the the results were really good. I want to do my current car, but I’m not getting any younger, and I find doing a whole car quite knackering these days, especially with having a dodgy back. It usually takes me a couple of days to recover . Still, I do want to give my car the ‘full works’ before winter gets here.

[willni]

Bird dropping wise it depends on your coating on the car, there are two types of ceramic coating:
Protective and Hydrophobic

Protective gives you a good bit of shine, little in the form of water beading but a lot of protective from environment factors and offering a hardness rating of up to 9H for small things.

Hydrophobic gives you lots of shine, lots in the form of water beading but little in protection for environmental factors.

Another member mentioned it takes an hour to coat a car, this would have been a hydrophobic coating. Full coatings take 3+ hours to coat a golf, then you need to factor in waiting times of which can be 6 hours.

But in my 7 years of using ceramic coatings no bird has etched my paint, my dog did chew my sideskirt before though 


In terms of PPF which I forgot to talk about earlier, it's great stuff mine even self-heals so I never have any scratches! But it's the kind of thing that the duration you're going to own the car dictates, as it's the cost of a proper respray, not one from a bandit.

But what you need to factor in is the mishaps with PPF, I've seen it time and time again where someone has grazed the front of their car and you think this will be a respray and once you remove the ppf, no damage! The ppf is a lot tougher than you think and I'd 100% get it again but only if you're keeping the car for 4 years plus does it make sense.

[Foxy367]

I had my last golf ceramic coated and it beaded well for about 12 months. It was apparently a 3 year coating and quite a good quality one too but I was educated that even with ceramic coating it still gets coated in road contaminants which need to be cleaned off from time to time.

The best thing though was the paint correction the Tornado red was outstanding when it came back





With my Current car I went down the route of the Bilt Hamber Speedwax which so far has worked well though it has been a few months since I did it and ready for another coat