Ceramic Pro Coating on a Prius w/ Pics + Recommended SoCal Detailer

that red paint is glowing! Looks good

I wax my silver prius once a season. The car barring is the hardest part but the new waxes these days are quite simple to use. I have never heard of a ceramic coat but i'm curious about iit since I worked as a detailer for Lexus in my college years. How much was it for the coating?

Good luck.

 

That's a very nice thing you did for your "new" car. But that red color is really easy to care for, just wash it when it gets dirty and you'll get that same shiny beautiful look again. I also haven't heard of a ceramic coating, but whatever it is, it sure makes the car look "new"

 

Who beautiful looking car wish there was a place out here in Chicago like that


iPhone ?

 

Beautiful results

 

They did a beautiful job, your car looks better than new. I have been reading about ceramic paint coatings and have been tempted to give one a try. Thanks for sharing I look forward to your future updates.

 

Ceramic Pro? I cannot say that I've been the biggest fan of their business practices.

It's good to see that your detailer did a good job of explaining the prep process. Personally I would've gone with Opti-Coat Pro or CQuartz Finest, but both of those options would've been substantially more.

 

Very interesting. Great looking car! Love the RED! Do please update the forum with how it holds up! You will know if it is not doing its job if the water is not sheeting off, or beading up, i would think.

I would suggest you find a "Touch-less" automated car wash to go through also. The one's with spinning brushes will scratch, where as the water jet, touch less system, is much better. For me, living where millions of people drive their vehicles on Pismo Beach and up into the sand dunes every year, those brush car washes are full of sand!!! They rarely ever change out the brushes, so the brush less wash is the only way to go around here! For around here, even the "hand wash" places use a brush automated system first, then "by hand with rags" workers to finish it off. It is STILL putting something ON the paint, (old rags, brushes, etc.), and seems to put those spider thread like swirl marks everywhere in the paint. The less you touch your paint, the better it will look, and last!

Personally, I used the two bucket wash system, then used a leaf blower to "blow dry the car", then clay bared with Meguiars Quick detailer as a wetting agent, and used Meguiars Ultimate liquid wax to finish it off. Ultimate wax (which is not really a wax at all, but a synthetic sealer), is amazing stuff that does not put white wax residue on things you do not want it on. Then i just get "the works" touchless wash every so often, and the "wax" seems to last near a year! (At least it did on the Dodge Dart).

 

I just found out about Opti Coat yesterday. It looks fairly easy to apply once you've prepped your paint. Is a clay bar enough to prep the paint in addition to the IPA wipe down?

 

Opti-Coat 2.0 has been discontinued in-favor of Optimum's new Glass-Coat. I have two tubes on order and have a car scheduled for this coating in a few weeks.

If you are interested in doing it yourself, be advised that it is suggested that you remove the paint defects before applying a coating. This is because most paint coatings will not have a "filling" effect like most paint sealants and waxes do, so any pre-existing defects (i.e. swirls, marring) will still be visible after the coating has been installed.

Most of the consumer-market coatings todays will be marketed for a two year lifespan. Examples of this include Optimum's new Glass-Coat, CarPro's CQuartz UK and C.A.R. Products' BulletProof.

I've used all of those products except for Gloss-Coat, and the Bulletproof has the easiest application. My own 2011 has CQuartz UK on it, and I've been very happy with the dirt-shedding properties in comparison to 2.0. If you're looking for a easy-to-use product, I would use C.A.R. Bulletproof.

If you plan to do this yourself and are OK with the paint defects that are already there, I would advise claying the car, followed by using Duragloss Squeaky Clean. This is a paint cleaner that will remove embedded dirt and any paint sealants or waxes that may be on the surface. A prep product by itself, such as IPA or CarPro Eraser, may not be adequate to remove strong sealants or oils from the surface. After Squeaky Clean, you can proceed with a 50% Isopropyl Alcohol solution to do a final wipedown, and then you can apply the coating.

My applicator of choice is the CarPro Block with their suede applicator; I find this method to be much easier than the traditional yellow foam applicators.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask -- I've corrected and coated many cars.

 

Never been a fan of red cars (or red guitars, for that matter), but have to say your car certainly has a wonderful deep tone to it. I'm sure the treatment helped immensely.

I'd call it spiffy!!!

 

I ended up applying Optimum's Gloss Coat about three weeks ago. Washed the car for the first time last week since applying the GC. Water rolled off pretty good! After drying, I went over the front bumper and hood with some Opti-Seal. Will have to see what the water does over those two areas compared to the rest of the car when I wash next time. I want to see if this Opti-Seal acts as a booster. The nice thing about the Opti-Seal is that it doesn't have the flash issues and build-up you need to knock down like GC. The only down side is that its not suppose to last as long.

The other part that I also spent some time on last week were the wheels. I ended up ordering a EZ Detail brush and some P21S gel wheel cleaner. I applied the wheel cleaner as directed and used the EZ detail brush inside the wheels and got the inside barrels to look squeaky clean! I highly recommend this combo for wheel cleaning.