By Chris Tropea
Nov 3, 2021
Ceramic coatings often offer plenty of claims about how well they work to protect your car’s paint, but how much of that is the truth and how much of that is just marketing hype?
In order to find out, we ask detailing professional Tim McNair from Grand Prix Concours. Presented by CRC Industries.
[Cleaning up that garage find | Garage Rescue Miata]
11/2/21 1:40 p.m.
I had my 135 ceramic coated, it was amazing how easy it was to keep the car clean and looking great.
I've found the common thing to do now is, wrap the entire car in 3M clear wrap, then ceramic coat the wrap.
Helps prevent rock chips AND keeps the car super easy to keep clean.
11/2/21 3:16 p.m.
Then repaint the car a favorite color, ceramic coat that, clear wrap, then ceramic coat that wrap.
Then repeat as needed.
11/2/21 3:45 p.m.
Don't quit your day job.
11/2/21 4:17 p.m.
How much does all that usually cost? I have heard that the price of a good wrap can equal that of a decent paint job. Is that true?
11/2/21 4:53 p.m.
Good wrap rivals the cost of paint for sure.
11/2/21 5:26 p.m.
No way. My friend did a full ceramic on his GT3RS. Other semi-exotics I've seen wrapped. It's expensive but nothing compared to a quality repaint on a high end car. Maaco or your brother's friend Rico might paint your GT3RS for less but nobody who actually owns an exotic is going for a less expensive repaint.
11/2/21 5:29 p.m.
About $2000-2500 from what I've seen in the OKC area.
Just Ceramic coating is in the $600-800 range. It's incredibly labor intensive. First you need to do a great wash of the car, then clay bar, then polish the paint, THEN you can coat the car/windows/wheels.
11/2/21 7:28 p.m.
In reply to z31maniac :
If you have carbon ceramic brakes then you don't need to do the wheels, they'll get ceramic coated on their own to the tune of $16k worth of rotor wear.
11/2/21 7:45 p.m.
$2000-2500 is pretty cheap as far as paint is concerned, if you want a paint job done to the standards that you'd have if you wanted to ceramic coat your car.
When I think "decent paint job" my mind goes to the $10-15k range. Depending on color, $2k might not buy you the paint.
11/2/21 8:19 p.m.
Trying to understand how something that isn't fired is called "ceramic".
If it's not actually ceramic, it seems like more marketing wank for silicone polish.
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