Ceramic coating and natures pinstriping

[soulezoo]

Has anyone had experience with having their paint ceramic coated and going off road and haivng buck brush and etc giving you a custom pinstripe job?

I am wondering how the ceramic holds up.

Thanks,

 

[Loshad]

No experience but I can guarantee it will happen.
If you want protection XPEL PPF is the only way to go.

signed,
The Pinstripe Wizard

 

[Vrybusy]

Agree with Loshad....get PPF if you want the best protection. Several types out there....the self-healing PPF is unbelievable, pricey, but the protective features are fantastic.

 

[LoneStar Tremor]

Had ceramic on my last truck and can confirm that lightly brushing up against some small snow covered cedar trees left some nice pinstriping. Would go PPF if you want more protection.

 

[soulezoo]

Thank you!

 

[Loshad]

I intend to ceramic the hood and roof to save money but PPF the front and sides.

 

[RaptorTremor]

I'd actually say ceramic is worse when it comes to scratches because it's a semi permanent coating, to remove the scratches you have to polish the paint, polish removes the coating so in theory a regular wax would be better since you can lightly polish the truck when it accumulates scratches and re apply wax/sealant. With a ceramic coating you're kind stuck until it's worn down in however long that specific one lasts. I can't say ceramic does anything when it comes to protecting from scratches.

 

[jhblaze1]

I got my truck back today from the ceramic place. It looks absolutely beautiful. They threw in free front window tinting to match the rears. However they fucked that up and i have some bubbles so they already said they'll re do them. They're not that bad, but not acceptable.


First things first....This place does Lambos, RRs, Bentleys, Ferraris. When I picked it up he said dude you're truck has been getting a ton of attention here, every customer that's been out back asks about it. People see it sitting next to a ferrari and the're like "holy shit that truck is awesome!"



A few things I wish I knew before ceramic coating:

1) if you don't have a garage (like me...well I have a garage but this truck won't fit) the 2 week curing time is going to be a pain in the balls. morning dew needs to be wiped off so that it doesn't leave water spots to bake in the sun. So every morning for the next 2 weeks I'm going to have to get up early to go wipe it down with microfiber towels before logging into work.
2) Similarly pollen shouldn't be left to bake in the sun, so the truck needs to be wiped off daily (might try the leaf blower here)

I guess that's really it but basically the coating is very soft for a few weeks until it fully cures to it's full hardness, which makes it very delicate. Not having a garage is going to make it challenging, or at least a bit time consuming, to protect it during this time. Hard to not let anything bake in the sun when you live in SoCal and your driveway faces due west and gets full afternoon sun.

It's too bad they don't have a curing oven or something to speed up the process.

You're not really supposed to let it get wet, but again I have no garage and it's going to rain in a few days. So I'm going to have to be religiously anal about going out to dry it as soon as the rain stops so water spots don't bake in.

There was a black mustang in there that they coated last month and the owner didn't follow any of the curing guidelines, let it get soaked by the sprinklers every night and he just let all the water spots bake in the sun so they had to completely re do it.

I'll post some pics tomorrow. It looks like a mirror. so f'ing shiny.

 

[jhblaze1]

A few pics of the ceramic job.

 

[SchillerM]

TrackArmour 12"x300' Roll of Temporary Paint Protection for Track Day

Track Day Paint Protection for your car! Apply this 12 inch roll of clear film to the front of your car and fenders in minutes. Prevent rock chips, tire marks and other grit and grime your car endures during track day. Remove our film in seconds after your track day, leaving your paint flawless.

www.trackarmour.com

Haven't used the stuff before, but seems a reasonable alternative to full time wrap. If you KNOW you will be getting pinstrips this might help?

 

[Loshad]

That stuff looks good but they say not to leave it on more than a day. That wouldn't be very convenient on a multi-day pinstripe trip but then a few minutes extra per day could save a lot of heartache.