Nano Ceramic Coatings: Yes Or No

[John]

Are you planning to have your ME nano ceramic coated? Going to do this yourself? Going to let a pro do it for you? Ever had it done on a current/past Corvette? Other car?

Or are you preferring to stick with sealants or waxes?

[John]

I am a firm believe in nano ceramic coatings, with most having a hardness index of around 8 times harder than your clear coat. To me, they are a massive protective barrier that I have on my 2015 Corvette, and will have from the beginning applied onto my ME. Like my 2015, the ME’s coating will be CQuartz Finest will be applied by a professional detailer.

Pictured here is our CQuartz Finest 2015 after visiting 22 states and 10,000 miles on it:




However, I have moved totally away from waxing (one exception noted below), even on my daily drivers. Both DD’s are 2017’s and I applied Wolfgang Uber Ceramic to them easily. YouTube videos were my only teacher, and both turned out excellently.

To the reverse, Ihave friends who still choose to wax their Corvettes, others who are sealant advocates. Like Corvette car colors, to each their own.

As I mentioned alive, even with nano ceramics on my cars, I do put a coat of wax or Rejex on each car just before I engage in a long road trip — to make it even easier to clean off bugs at night in a motel parking lot.

What do you choose to do for your car’s paint?

[Racer86]

Ceramic coating, wax, or sealants. Don’t care about this stuff. My happy day will be complaining about all the bugs stuck on the front of our Me Corvette.

[Busa Dave]

I am about the finish looking absolutely as magnificent (some say show vehicle) as possible (reason I had different clear put on my current C7 ZO6 looks like liquid obsidian now) so I will continue to follow my surface vehicle process using the equipment and chemicals, products I have. This includes polishing, sealing and 100% carnauba products no ceramic.

[Ssscooter66]

Yes, this is one of the things that will be done before much or any driving . I'll do most other DIY's that I can do but after bad luck / skill on a few cars & my truck I'm leaving this up to the professionals . Everyone's got different opinions on this I know , but mine is YES it will be done ...

[JB]

Ive never done this and people are always telling me my cars look brand new.

i doubt ill do any ceramic coatings on my next car.

i might change my mind before delivery but at this point id have to say no Im not going to do this...

[ltomn]

My plan is to make full use of all the wonders of technology in the coatings department. I intend to send my new car to Esoteric for a "paint correction" and a nano coating. I can only expect that this will help where I live. Especially with the 1/4 mile gravel driveway.

[John]

Esoteric is as good as they get, could well be # 1.

[ltomn]

Esoteric is as good as they get, could well be # 1.

That is precisely why I intend to use them. Add to that their location, which is around the corner from Criswell. I hope this is win/win all around.

[meyerweb]

I'm thrilled with the ceramic coating on my C7. I'll almost certainly have it put on my next new car, too.

[USVTRN]

How much $$ are we talking here? Obviously, buying a ME, the price is not a huge factor, but I would like to know if the juice is worth the squeeze.

[John]

If you do a nano ceramic yourself, even with really good prep, around $250, but if you get a professional who is high skilled with his DA polisher, tons of other equipment, a person who really cares, it is in the ballpark of $1,500. A nano ceramic is one of the top mods for me on my ME (done by a pro).

Regarding the previous “ballpark” pricing, it all depends how good of a paint job the car has, for the more time a pro has to work his/her prep and polishing magic, the more expensive. I know at the very top shops in the country, one can go to $5,000 or more in a ? beat, yet based on the average much-better paint jobs coming out of the new paint shop, I am betting there are good pros who would be able to do an excellent job for around $1,000, perhaps less.

[JB]

So you guys drive from the dealer to a professional shop to have a ceramic coating installed? For $1500?

can you still use an orbital polisher on the vehicle? Or are you going to tell me thats never necessary with a ceramic coating?

i daily my cars and sometimes...you get little scratches from other cars etc and use the orbitalpolisher to make those unfortunate marks disappear...

i would think with a ceramic coating you really can use an orbital polisher on the car to make those kinds of corrections to the paint....

what do you guys think?

[John]

You can use a DA on a nano-ceramic; in fact if you mess up in applying the stuff and leave a high spot, only a DA would “grind down” your high spot. However, I think, and someone smarter than me would have to confirm this, that after you do that, you would have to re-apply another super, super thin coat of it to finish it off.

Anyone know better?

[MikeC8]

Nope not on my C8. I enjoy a detail every now and then. I’m waiting a few years to see how the coating holds up. Removing a bad coating by an amateur installation isn’t something I want to do in the future. Plus how do you know how much to remove. Way to many questions in my book. The jury is still out in my court room.