PPF, Ceramic Coat or Both?

[iamweasel]

So I'm a newbie with this stuff as never used PPF or Ceramic coating on a vehicle before. I've read way too many articles on the matter and my head is spinning. Curious to those of you who did PPF and/or Ceramic coating, what were your reasons for doing it?

For me, I keep the vehicles in a garage and live in a non-snowy area with minimal road rash/rock chip concerns. Given that, was thinking maybe Ceramic coating is better for me as my primary interest would be helping to keep the truck clean, but seems going to car washes is a no-no and I don't want to hand wash my truck all the time, either. With my current vehicle, I'll hit the car wash once or twice a month and maybe hand wash it every few months.

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[BDreason]

I did full frontal + rocker panel + lower door PPF. Reason is to help protect the paint from rock chips when I take it off-road.

I don't have a lot of experience with ceramic coating.

 

[MulchBags2]

I did ceramic from a professional shop but it lasted less than a year in Florida. While it was on the car was easier to spray down. The ‘renewal’ at the one year mark barely lasted six months.

 

[iamweasel]

I did ceramic from a professional shop but it lasted less than a year in Florida. While it was on the car was easier to spray down. The ‘renewal’ at the one year mark barely lasted six months.

Which brand of coating did you use, just curious....

 

[MulchBags2]

Which brand of coating did you use, just curious....

I’m not certain but believe it was Drx Beasley.

 

[be.jammmin]

I did both. PPF professionally done and paint correction and ceramic myself. Absolutely the ceramic is a must. I was in the fence initially but used C6 Hydro Lite. Easy to apply and the self cleaning in rain or a touch less carwash has kept it amazing

 

[iamweasel]

I did both. PPF professionally done and paint correction and ceramic myself. Absolutely the ceramic is a must. I was in the fence initially but used C6 Hydro Lite. Easy to apply and the self cleaning in rain or a touch less carwash has kept it amazing

Looks great....just curious why do you think Ceramic is a must? Was keeping the truck looking clean and easy rinse-offs your main motivation or something else?

 

[Blue Ridge Raptor]

PPF on the hood, front fenders, A pillars & leading edge of roof if you’re worried about rock chips. Ceramic if you want to rinse dirt off easier & keep it shiny. if you do the ceramic yourself - more time spent on paint prep & correction will improve final results proportionally. Use two bucket hand wash method to minimize fine scratches & swirls When washing. FWIW, I find the OEM mudflaps keep a lot of mud clods off the fender quarters.

 

[SubaruRaptor]

So I have been wanting to make a post for awhile about cleaning, ceramics, and things as I have been deep in the sauce about this lately because I'm bored. Please understand everything here is very subjective. There is no standardization within the industry and very little detailed testing, so a lot of it is trial and error or personal opinion.

The answer to your question is how much protection do you want. Generally speaking for the best results you will want both options as they protect against different threats.

PPF:
Its primary use is to simply prevent rock chips. It becomes the sacrificial layer to bug guts, rocks, sticks, road grime and such. There are lots of different PPFs, some can self heal, some wont, some are "harder" then others, some have UV protection in them. Regardless of what you choose here you will have to maintain it going forward. Any cleaning products you use need to be marked safe for wraps/ppf and every X years you will need to get the PPF replaced.

If you dont replace PPF you essentially will never be able to remove it as the car ages. It will basically become permanently bonded and removing it will run a very high chance of damaging the paint. The other issue is that, the paint under the PPF once removed basically will never be able to match the non-ppfed paint because of natural marring and such.

For most vehicles PPF is only needed or wanted on the high abrasion areas. Think the front of the truck, doors / fenders where rocks or things will fly up on to the truck. Unless your car is an extreme exotic, its generally not worth PPFing the entire car, though that is an option.

You will want to have PPF done ultimately before the ceramic coating and the coating applied on top of it.

Ceramic Coatings:
There is a lot to walk through on this as the market is in generally saturated with ceramic products for almost all products. The reason for that is for the high amount of protection you are providing to the paint or surface of the car against molecular degradation. Ceramic coatings wont protect against rocks, they are designed to protect against normal wash marring and chemical abrasion.

There are lots of different types of Ceramic "coatings"/products.

• You have professional level coatings that can only be applied/bought if you are licensed and trained for that particular product.
• You have consumer grade coatings.
• You have ceramic soaps.
• Ceramic detail sprays.
• Ceramic sealants

Pro level Ceramic Coatings:
These are ones that a vendor must be "certified" in using. They can not be purchased otherwise. You will find that "certification" ranges from simply buying the certification to having to actually have gone through training to use the products. You will also find an extreme amount of different opinions from people online. As formulas for things change often, looking at reviews past a year or so become irrelevant. Just like Oil and Oil Change intervals, people will have a variety of opinions on whats good or not, or knows a guy who knows a guy who had something and it stole their tractor, their girlfriend and their dog, and caused his vehicle to to explode.

All Pro-level coatings will last several years, but require topping up each year along with normal wash maintenance. Some coatings are going to be better in specific areas of the country as the durability of coatings is all over the place and the driving environment.

Consumer level Ceramic Coatings:
Anything in this category is going to be stuff the average person can get. They work well and generally last about a year or so. The major difference is generally down to ease of use and idiot proof type stuff compared to the pro level coatings. Companies dont want to be blamed for customers applying stuff incorrectly and making a mess of the paint, so anything at the consumer level is going to generally be more designed with that in mind.

Soaps, Sprays, Sealants:
Think of these as specific tools to accomplish specific desired results to augment anything above. Coatings above are designed for a limited use of ranges where anything in this area either covers specific gaps, or provides additional accompanying properties or protect to the above.

My Advice:
I would recommend everyone to get a ceramic coating. Do some research on the product the installer uses. Remember stuff written online will generally always trend negative as users without issues tend not to say things are great.

PPF is going to be based more on your driving habits and area. If you live in a rock quarry, get ppf. If you offroad, get pff. Do you need to get the whole truck done, no, you can focus only on specific areas to add the additional protection.

Regardless of what you choose you will have to be careful above what you use to clean and protect with. You will need to pay more attention on any given off the store shelf product will have an ill effect on the coating or ppf.

 

[iamweasel]

So I have been wanting to make a post for awhile about cleaning, ceramics, and things as I have been deep in the sauce about this lately because I'm bored. Please understand everything here is very subjective. There is no standardization within the industry and very little detailed testing, so a lot of it is trial and error or personal opinion.

The answer to your question is how much protection do you want. Generally speaking for the best results you will want both options as they protect against different threats.

PPF:
Its primary use is to simply prevent rock chips. It becomes the sacrificial layer to bug guts, rocks, sticks, road grime and such. There are lots of different PPFs, some can self heal, some wont, some are "harder" then others, some have UV protection in them. Regardless of what you choose here you will have to maintain it going forward. Any cleaning products you use need to be marked safe for wraps/ppf and every X years you will need to get the PPF replaced.

If you dont replace PPF you essentially will never be able to remove it as the car ages. It will basically become permanently bonded and removing it will run a very high chance of damaging the paint. The other issue is that, the paint under the PPF once removed basically will never be able to match the non-ppfed paint because of natural marring and such.

For most vehicles PPF is only needed or wanted on the high abrasion areas. Think the front of the truck, doors / fenders where rocks or things will fly up on to the truck. Unless your car is an extreme exotic, its generally not worth PPFing the entire car, though that is an option.

You will want to have PPF done ultimately before the ceramic coating and the coating applied on top of it.

Ceramic Coatings:
There is a lot to walk through on this as the market is in generally saturated with ceramic products for almost all products. The reason for that is for the high amount of protection you are providing to the paint or surface of the car against molecular degradation. Ceramic coatings wont protect against rocks, they are designed to protect against normal wash marring and chemical abrasion.

There are lots of different types of Ceramic "coatings"/products.

• You have professional level coatings that can only be applied/bought if you are licensed and trained for that particular product.
• You have consumer grade coatings.
• You have ceramic soaps.
• Ceramic detail sprays.
• Ceramic sealants

Pro level Ceramic Coatings:
These are ones that a vendor must be "certified" in using. They can not be purchased otherwise. You will find that "certification" ranges from simply buying the certification to having to actually have gone through training to use the products. You will also find an extreme amount of different opinions from people online. As formulas for things change often, looking at reviews past a year or so become irrelevant. Just like Oil and Oil Change intervals, people will have a variety of opinions on whats good or not, or knows a guy who knows a guy who had something and it stole their tractor, their girlfriend and their dog, and caused his vehicle to to explode.

All Pro-level coatings will last several years, but require topping up each year along with normal wash maintenance. Some coatings are going to be better in specific areas of the country as the durability of coatings is all over the place and the driving environment.

Consumer level Ceramic Coatings:
Anything in this category is going to be stuff the average person can get. They work well and generally last about a year or so. The major difference is generally down to ease of use and idiot proof type stuff compared to the pro level coatings. Companies dont want to be blamed for customers applying stuff incorrectly and making a mess of the paint, so anything at the consumer level is going to generally be more designed with that in mind.

Soaps, Sprays, Sealants:
Think of these as specific tools to accomplish specific desired results to augment anything above. Coatings above are designed for a limited use of ranges where anything in this area either covers specific gaps, or provides additional accompanying properties or protect to the above.

My Advice:
I would recommend everyone to get a ceramic coating. Do some research on the product the installer uses. Remember stuff written online will generally always trend negative as users without issues tend not to say things are great.

PPF is going to be based more on your driving habits and area. If you live in a rock quarry, get ppf. If you offroad, get pff. Do you need to get the whole truck done, no, you can focus only on specific areas to add the additional protection.

Regardless of what you choose you will have to be careful above what you use to clean and protect with. You will need to pay more attention on any given off the store shelf product will have an ill effect on the coating or ppf.

Thanks for the info...appreciate you taking the time to do that.

Do you have a preferred Pro-Level "brand" of ceramic? I am not a DIY-person, I'd let a professional do it. LOL...

 

[RangerRickS]

I just put XPEL PPF full frontal and ceramic coating on my new Silver Lariat. It looks great. I have a half covered hood with PPF I bought used. It is a 2015 Outback. First 5 yrs in Colorado and the last 5 years in California. I like the fact the front paint looks great for a 10 year old car. No rock chips or bug stains. Hand wash or touch less car washes is all I use.

Love the wet paint look on the Ranger.

 

[SubaruRaptor]

Thanks for the info...appreciate you taking the time to do that.

Do you have a preferred Pro-Level "brand" of ceramic? I am not a DIY-person, I'd let a professional do it. LOL...

Most of them at the professional level will perform the same. The other issue is that you will be limited to what your local places offer, normally a place only offers 1 brand, so due to your location you may not have a choice.

• Gyeon is very reputable brand for both pro and consumer. The issue is that there are not that many installers in the US. You can use their locator to see if you have one. https://gyeonservices.com/en/home
• Gtechniq is also a well known brand of both pro and consumer products. You can find their locator here: https://gtechniq.com/worldwide/
• CarPro: Their consumer products are generally good from what I have seen from actual reviews. https://www.carpro-us.com/carpro-local-retailer-map/
• Ceramic Pro - The internet will tell you all kinds of stories with this one. Some people love it, some people hate it, some people have all kinds of experiences. From what I understand from their certification process, its just pay to get the certification. https://ceramicpro.com/elite-dealers-directory/
• Cerakote - I dont think these folks have an installer base, so it would just be something that your local installer could offer. https://cerakoteceramics.com/pro-paint/

I am personally going to go with Gtechniq in 2 months once me fender finishes curing. I recently bought about $700 bucks in car care stuff to try out on the truck and such, will be posting some things once it all comes in. I like washing my car, and theres a deep rabbit hole on this stuff.

If you want to see an actual youtube channel that actually tests stuff, not just surface level reviews. https://www.youtube.com/@ForensicDetailing

 

[LeeHo]

No PPF - just had a 7 year Ceramic Pro applied - plus interior protection. The detail shop has been around for many years and is in a resort area - he also does super high end cars. All I have to do is go to a brushless car wash and for 6 bucks my 2024 Lariat looks like it was just polished. Road tar wipes off with a damp cloth. Look for an experienced shop - you wont regret it.

 

[komek]

I had both ppf and ceramic on my M2C. My STi was just ceramic. My 2cents, in case its helpful:

Imo, unless you're washing your car every other week and it doesn't get that dirty, I didn't find the ceramic to be that huge of a help. It does to an extent but for me in the PNW the dirt, grime, mud, etc on a weekly basis didn't come off as easy as just spraying it down. Easier, sure, but it's not easy mode.

Tbh, the ppf was wayyyy more of a game changer for the m2 because I wasn't afraid to bust out the mit for washing it and getting PNW grime off. The ability to wash with whatever you want and not just limit yourself to touchless was freeing. I just washed it and didn't stress over swirls or scratches because PPF.

I'm not gonna PPF the Raptor because I don't care as much about the paint and swirls for this specific type of vehicle, but if you care about yours in that way, PPF is great route to go purely for the stress relief it provides when washing the vehicle. I wouldn't get it to protect the paint and/or protect its value or something because the cost to do paint correction and dent repair in 5 years will be substantially less than a full PPF job. Just get it because it makes washing less stressful.

 

[GARaptor]

Lots of good information given here. I always have PPF and ceramic applied to my new vehicles.
For the RR, I had Xpel PPF professionally installed to the entire front end. Then I applied ceramic on the entire vehicle. I don’t do automatic car washes, so the ceramic coat makes cleaning a whole lot easier.

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