Ceramic Pro

[realgren]

First to be clear: I have NO affiliation to this product.

My 87 911 is pretty much driven daily. I live at the beach in SoCal. The car sleeps outside. These conditions have been very tough on the paint. I had pretty much given up on washing it with any type of shamy or rag. I would only spray it down with foam and rinse the foam off. I would then blow dry the car. If I touch the car, I would damage the paint. It had become really delicate.

Before pic


One of the vendors at the California Festival of Speed was 5 Point Detail. They were featuring Ceramic Pro. They were demonstrating their paint coating which is scratch resistant, UV resistant, and super glossy (there are more benefits, but those are the ones that interested me).

Call me a sucker.... call me desperate, I had one of their tech guys look at my car at the show. He gave me a quote on paint correcting my car and applying 4 layers of Ceramic Pro. A few weeks later, I dropped off my car for a week to get it paint corrected and Ceramic Pro coated.

Knick from Eco Luxury Detail in Newport Beach handled the paint correction and the Ceramic Pro coating. He ran through the job with me and made me very comfortable about the process.

The results are amazing. Knick is a wizard at restoration. He was able to get most of the swirls out of the paint. He also filled in some of the nasty little rock chips from track days and LA crap roads. The car looks pretty much 90% new. It's astonishing how well the car turned out. The black of the paint is really deep now. It looks like a mirror finish.

Finished product and the shop (not my lambo )





I'll give everyone an update on how the coating behaves over time. I hope the coating holds up to the claims of being hydrophobic and keeping the surface from corrosion.

If you're in the LA/OC/SD area, you should definitely look at 5 Point and Eco Luxury Detail.

[DRACO A5OG]

Nice, what did the detail & coating cost?

[aoncurly]

Curious on cost as well, including the paint correction.

[realgren]

In my case, my car was very far along. They had to sand the pain with 5000 grid, fully polish, and paint correct.
They applied the Ceramic Pro, and also refinished the wheels ($125 each).

The entire job should have cost $3500... still a lot less than a new paint job!

I didn't pay that price since I met them at the California Festival of Speed and they quoted the job not knowing the paint was that far along. They honored the price they quoted although it was much lower than retail. They were very good to me.

If you only have some paint correction, polishing, and the Ceramic Pro, you're probably looking at $2000.

[heimtun]

Looks great. Will be great to hear how it stands up.

[realgren]

It has been close to a year since I had my car coated with Ceramic Pro.

My car isn't a garage queen. I drive it daily. It goes to the office, to the grocery store (I park far far away), to the gym, and to various Porsche meets.

The car also sleeps outside most of the time. I live in LA near the beach, so we get a sticky marine layer filled with smog overnight. 1 or 2 days sleeping overnight outside, and cars get coated with a layer of gray crap (that's my technical term).

I don't wash my car every week. I don't have time for that. It really gets washed every other to every 3 weeks.

I just gave it a nice bath this weekend after a couple of weeks of living outside. My ritual is to go to the coin operated cleaning booth and spray down the car really well. I NEVER use the foam broom (excepted on wheels).
Once the spray down is done, I dry the car with a hand held drying gun.
Then I use a spray on carwash if the car still has dirt on it or a speed shine product to get rid of water marks.

The ceramic pro doesn't react well with spray on car waxes. It just smears and leaves oily residues all over the paint. It's really weird.

After a year, I'm really happy to say the Ceramic Pro is holding up really well to the abuse. I think my car's paint probably goes through more hell than other car on this forum. The black paint is still extremely shiny. I can't really see any scratches on the coating after repeated washes and all of the dirt and grime to coating has seen. Even when the car has sea spray on it, the black paint still shines through the crap.

If I have to pick between a full respray and paint correction + ceramic pro, I'm happy with my choice to go with with the latter.

As a full disclaimer, I'm NOT affiliated with Ceramic Pro at all. I met the guys at the Porsche Festival of Speed in 2015. My paint was scratched, swirlen and a total mess. I took a leap of faith, and I think I had the best detailer do the paint correction and apply the coating: Knick at Eco Detail (949) 566-3660. I'm really happy with the on going results.

[ReconTrojan]

Looks very good.

I grew up in the South Bay and understand your plight and I live in Newport now, luckily I have a large enough garage for my Porsches but a couple of my cars sit outside. I have used coatings on newer 2 stage paint but outside of correction and wax I am not a fan of coatings on single stage paint that is 25 years old or older.

You're caught between a rock and hard spot not having a garage, have you considered a car cover? I have yet to see a coating that can defeat etching from bird ( And in Manhattan beach they are the size of Rodan) droppings. Thats why I no longer do hood clear bra's only front bumper on my Spyder.

Also I would not use a brush on your Fuchs, they painted them since you said it was 1225 per, they won't hold up as long if you use a car wash's long brush. Just put some car wash solution in a spray bottle and pre spray and use the sprayer to clean them.

Good luck.