Everything You Need To Know About Ceramic Coatings

How Ceramic Coatings Work - What Is The Best Ceramic Coating?
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We are learning all about the world of ceramic coatings! We'll learn: What is a 9H ceramic coating? How much do ceramic coatings cost? How to apply a ceramic coating? What is a nano coating? This is all thanks to XPEL who I’ve partnered with on the video to learn about the ever popular world of coatings. They’ve recently launched their new product Fusion Plus, and what I appreciate about XPEL is that they’re very realistic about what ceramic coatings can and can’t do.

If you’ve followed the ceramic coating craze lately, you may hear claims like these coatings completely preventing scratches and rock chips, or that you’ll never need to wash your car again. Not exactly accurate, but that’s not to take away from the very real benefits that these coatings provide, like the ease of maintaining your paint’s cleanliness, protection from things like tree sap, bug guts, and bird dropping, the deep, glossy appearance, and of course the very popular hydrophobic, or water-repelling, qualities.

So let’s start with how it works, why it’s useful, and then get into some of the more common misconceptions. XPEL’s ceramic coating, fusion plus, is a silicon based product. So you have a carrier fluid containing nano-particles, and these tiny particles create an inseparable bond with your paintwork that can’t easily be washed off like a wax or sealant. Really, one of the easiest ways to think about a ceramic coating is like a semi-permanent wax or sealant.

Regarding pricing for XPEL Fusion Plus, if a car is fully wrapped in paint protective film, it will be about $800 to $1,000 depending on the size of the vehicle and local labor rates. If paint correction is required, the cost will range from about $1,200 to $2,000, depending on the level of correction required and local labor rates.

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[jameswillert]

As a professional detailer (and once an authorized installer) who has been installing ceramic coatings for half a decade - this is the best video I have seen outside of our industry (and even some inside the industry. Well done.

[pmkwiek]

I would really appreciate a video on rust proofing, and the best ways of rust mitigation

[chrisfix]

Awesome video Jason! It's interesting to see they use paint protection film and ceramic coating!

[hahaLOLhaha]

Put ceramic coating on the whiteboard😁

[frenchys]

I've done both, paint protection film and ceramic coating, to all my vehicles. The benefits this video shows are not over exaggerated. The ease of keeping my vehicles clean and looking like new as well as the protection from not getting rock chips and swirls, is worth every penny.

[rickintexas]

I had my car (2011 Porsche Panamera) professionally ceramic coated with Feynlabs Heal Lite. It has self-healing capabilities without the paint protection film. A few months later I had a small mishap with my garage and the self-healing capabilities worked. I was amazed at how well it worked. As the video said you still have to wash your car, but washing is much easier now and the car always looks great. If it is not too dirty you can do a "waterless wash" which is super fast and easy. I am really glad I had my car professionally ceramic coated.

[MattMaranMotoring]

Wow, that's fascinating that the self-healing of the film still works. That was one of the things I wondered about when I got ceramic on the Bullitt on top of the XPEL. Thanks for the info Jason!

[Tore_Lund]

Wow! The car was a Subaru but after applying Nano coat, it turned into a Model 3!

[shubham-pawar]

Scratches at level 6 with deeper grooves at level 7.




Sorry wrong channel.

[charliejoker]

This looks exactly like CarPro's CQuartz. Right down to the "booster" being a milky-white SiO2 product. Got to say my days of work on prep was worth it for my CQuartz application. It really comes down to having a perfect surface to put your ceramic coating on. That's where you will pay and hopefully find someone who knows their stuff. You won't get good results on an old car unless you correct the paint first. I did my first ceramic coat when I bought the car and after doing a full polish and glaze cycle on the entire car. When I switched to CQuartz after seeing the superiority of the finish compared to what I was using, I had to do the same polish and glaze cycle again. The results are superb, but the car still gets filthy and looks terrible if not washed.

One thing that isn't mentioned in the video is that while coatings have a hydrophobic property, much rainwater and spray on the roads has chemicals and particulates which do stick to the surface and cause a dirty appearance. In the Atlanta area my car will look filthy if I drive in the rain. Simple hose water is not enough to clean it, and I need to do a full wash if I want the car to look "clean" again.

As for paint protective film, IMO it is a bit of a waste unless you have lots of money or a free/low cost way of replacing it regularly. It tears, oxidizes (turns yellow), and generally looks bad far more quickly than the paint. True it does have a sacrificial protection against rocks or other debris, but the hassle of replacing it is a non-zero cost. It doesn't make financial sense, either if you are planning to use it to preserve resale value. The paint condition is an almost insignificant (barring conspicuous damage) portion of your car's value. If you are trying to sell a car, if it is a commodity like 99% of cars (including anything Tesla makes) the only things that materially affect price are age and mileage. Film is basically a bad investment. You could easily get a respray of the bumper clip and hood for the same price as some film installs and get a perfect restoration as opposed to a constantly degrading bit of vinyl on top of your finish.

I'm not paid or compensated in any way from CarPro. I simply like their products.

[stavrosTX]

Would love to see a follow-up on the tech/chemistry on the coatings over time and how they eventually break down.

[trapcracker]

As a detailer I can say that there’s no “miracle product” and that preparation and the skill of the installer is much more important than brand of product.

[sisterbrothers]

There are SOOOO MANY choices, I don't know which one to select. How about explaining the difference between a $69 DIY ceramic coating and a $1, 000 professional ceramic coating with paint correction? Some reviews on Amazon say some brands only last 3 months or less.

[gdibble]

Yep; everything in this video is true. I have this on my vehicle and it makes cleaning a breeze, not to mention my stress level is lower knowing that bug, skat and sap droppings can be cleaned within a reasonable amount of time w/o any issues. 👍
I like the level of detail in this video. _Jason, you're really loving that Tesla and going all out. Not that I blame ya ;)_

[lucastseh]

^thought this was a chrisfix video until i heard your voice

[videomaniac]

I had the Opti Coat Pro plus coating applied to my black Nissan 370Z sport coupe over all the exterior surfaces, including the wheels and brake calipers, and the results are really amazing. The installers had a challenging time working with the Nissan "Scratch Shield" self-healing clear coat, having to do two separate compounding stages to let the clearcoat stabilize before doing the second stage. After the final polishing stages the surface was like a glass mirror and was ready for the silicon carbide base coat, followed by the silicon dioxide top layer. It will take a full month before the coating is fully cured and reaches its full hardness and gloss, but already, after a week, it's incredibly glossy and resists almost all debris that tries to stick to it. Surface dust and dirt blow off when I drive it and bird droppings slide off when I hit them with water.


It was not cheap, >$2, 000, but I think it was a worthwhile thing to do for a very nice car that I plan to keep and want to keep looking nice. One nice thing about it is that it can go for much longer periods before needing to be washed and when I do wash it it is much easier and faster to clean.

[britishrocklovingyank]

If you are getting a new car get a coating immediately. Like make it part of the buying process. Get the car and drive it straight to a detailer. New car paint is becoming insanely thin and is close to making correction impossible.

[DefinitelyNotAFerret]

I thought heat brought things to a higher energy state not lower? Vapor is more energetic than liquid water which is more energetic than ice..

[paulj]

what about damage that needs a bodyshop, would be interesting to know how they cope with that and also things like smart repairs.

[TheApo]

Hey, nice video.
I think it should be mensioned that if you apply the coating on glass, many people dont like the "new" feeling of water moving permanently even at low speeds because of the minor friction of the windshield.
My experience in the past, as i put some of those lotus effect stuff on my windshield, was that my wipers had to do even more work cause of the perma-moving water all over the windshield. Maybe a matter of taste, i dont know....

Have a nice day !