OT: Ceramic paint protection system coatings, First hand experience… Options

[draganc]

Hi folks!

What’s the community’s point of view on ceramic coatings vs
old school traditional wax-on-wax-off?

I used a ceramic product from a Florida based company years
ago, with great results but forgot the name, and are looking
for today’s miracle product.

Let the discussion games begin!

[bbrock]

I applied CQuartz UK 3.0 ceramic coating to my car about a month ago. I can't speak to long term results but it is supposed to last for two years. A couple days after applying it, I drove the car on a 700 mile round trip and came back with the car absolutely plastered with bug guts. I parked it outside in the rain and after an hour, it rinsed perfectly clean. All I had to do was wipe it down with a microfiber drying towel. After a month, water still beads up and rolls off like a very fresh coat of wax. It does not shed dust as well as I had hoped. If it truly lasts two years, I will keep using it because I don't like to spend a lot of time fussing with the car.

I did have one weird thing with the ceramic coating though. I applied the coating on top of Xpel PPF on the hood and the first time I drove the car on a hot day, could see the wipe pattern of the applicator that showed as bronze streaks. I was at a gas station and pointed it to some people who were admiring the car and they looked at me like I was crazy. It was only on the hood and not on other panels with PPF or any without PPF. The marks disappeared in the shade or when the metal was cool. I finally figured out that I could only see the marks when I was wearing polarizing sun glasses. Weird. The effect seems to have faded as I was able to barely see them the last time I had the car out on a hot day.