I’m wondering the exact same thing. According to their website they have had it tested to the Boeing/Airbus standards I think.
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Australian Tesla Ceramic Coating, PPF, Tinting and other Accessories
- Thread starter Gior
- Start date
Their website says they use the Caiman brand. The lifetime warranty suggests it shluld be decent however you should check exclusions in that
I just do what a car repairer told me once just put 50:50 distilled water and vinegar into a spray bottle and spray and wipe.
To me its all bull8888
a few wipe on ceramic particles does not do anything. They want you to think along the lines of a ceramic surface like ceramic plate which can only be achieved by firing the clay material in an extremely hot oven.
Graphene - also bull****. whats the concentration of graphene in the bottle?. Also the graphene is not linked together in the bottle otherwise it would have come in a sheet.
snake oil comes to mind. The ladies have their bottles of creams lotions and potions, the blokes have their ceramic graphene nano yada yada paint protection
yeah nah... all its says is that it does not damage the surfaces. Nothing about paint protection.....
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So you’ve never tested a professional only ceramic coated panel next to one not coated then
Yes I have the water beads better, but to use the words "ceramic" "nano" " graphene" is just marketing hype.
Again there is no such thing as ceramic coated. Ceramic particles in suspension is not the same as the hardness of a ceramic tile.
the use of 9H and 10H only refers to the hardness of ceramic material when tested - they test a block of the material by scratching (Mohs hardness test) it not when the material is in suspension.
How much ceramic do you think is in the bottle. Enough to make one ceramic tile? But what makes the ceramic particles link together?. Normally this requires the ceramic to be fired in an oven.
No one has ever told me a ceramic coating (silica dioxide) is like tiles on my car.
A ceramic tile is not hard, it is the glazed silica surface that is hard whilst a porcelain tile is hard right through but extremely brittle.
In the case of a paint coating, the layer of silica that is being applied in liquid form is the key element. Yes it has several names in its marketing but is no more misleading than terms like FSD
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But yet the phrase "ceramic coating" is used as though ceramic coats the paintwork protecting it. The implication is the ceramic being a hard material protects the paint. But a hard material like ceramic is only hard when it completely bonded to one another like in a tile. But in a bottle it's not.
Then the other issue is that ceramics are not water soluble. So where is the ceramic in a bottle?. Real ceramics in water appear as a thick slurry and then it's painted and fired in an oven melt the ceramics so they bond together. Yeah nah it's all bull***.
Water beading maybe but I don't consider water beading to be paint protection.
Basically the above info comes from the car repaired whom I've been going to for years. He would know - he repaints cars. He says the paint he puts on the cars have to be cured in a car oven to harden it. Anything that does not require curing in a car oven is snake oil.
The name is marketting, the results are not.
But did you know bamboo is one of the hardest timber decks you can build and yet is also the softest paper towel, and is also highly flexible for clothing whilst bears survive by eating it. I don’t understand why but I do see the end result.
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Hmm maybe for easier car washing and maybe less waxing. Other than that I don't agree it protects the paint. Remember the paint sits under a clear coat.
The other marketing hype is the "9H or 10H" implying the coating is hard to scratch which is not true. 9H material is harder than quartz. I'll bet I can scratch any car with ceramic coating with some quartz crystals.
Ok so you’ve never had a proper coating applied. The clear coat is part of the paint system (paint can be coloured or clear) and it is the clear coat of paint that gets damaged from bird droppings, pine sap, tar, calcium water, and acid fallouts. Having lived with all of these consequences on black cars both with and without a coating, I have absolutely no doubt that the coating makes a difference. I can only comment on professionally applied coatings, and if you are waxing it then you have a nasty cheapy coating.
I deal with a lot of epoxies and urethanes, both water based and more toxic variants. They cure by a chemical reaction when mixed with a (usually clear) hardener that is accelerated with heat. So you can let them cure naturally which can take up to two weeks, or you can get it done faster in an oven or warm room. Either way once cured the hardness is identical. This curing process can also be accelerated with different hardeners especially in cold climates but that impacts time not hardness, and rapid hardeners via chemical reaction make applying the paint in a timely manner much more critical. Clearly a car painter is wanting the faster curing time so they prefer to use an oven. The oven also provides a dust free environment.
You can check this information on the material data sheet of the appropriate paint as it usually provides the curing time vs temperature.
When you go to the dentist and get a filling, the material used is cured under uv light, so rather than send you outside for 2 hours the dentist will blast your tooth with uv light. Car coatings are also cured with uv light, either two weeks in the sun for the uv or a couple of hours in a uv light booth, which is why details have substantial uv lights.
Your painter should know that heat will not cure a paint coating.
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The 9H stuff with regards to ceramic coatings refers to a graphite/lead pencil hardness test - generally from 9B (soft) to 9H (hard). 9H indicates it cannot be scratched with a 9H lead pencil. Some coats go as far as claiming 10-14H hardness, which is dubious as this does not exist on the scale (though you could say "beyond 9H").
Further, the hardness of a ceramic coat depends on the hardness of the substrate underneath (ie., the paint/clear coat). So at best, ceramic coats should claim to improve hardness by a few points on the lead pencil scale relative to uncoated paint (some decent brands like CarPro do this), rather than state absolute hardness claims.
The Mohs hardness scale is completely separate. Coated or not, you could scratch car paint with a copper coin (~3.5 on the Mohs scale - a fraction of properly hard materials).
Most ceramic coats leave a slick surface that prevents dirt and grime from sticking too much, making washing easier. Quality coats provide light scratch/swirl, water spotting, etching, etc protection at best. They all need maintenance and maybe a top-up, though nowhere near as often as a traditional wax.
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I may be wrong, but I think it's infrared light (or a heat lamp). Either way, professionals have these to speed up the process, especially between multiple coats. For a casual home application, park in the sun is a-okay.
danesuper6
Member
Yes, first hand experience. Had my car done there in March and I can't fault anything they did. Whatever the brand is, the car is super easy to wash and dries spotless, but that could be my techniques more than anything. I'm actually rebooking in with them as I had a heap of panels repaired and need to have them redone. I've had ceramic on other cars in the past but I highly recommend them
Hey you should watch the YouTube vids on the ceramic coating. They are fascinating. Especially the one with the white Q5 that had the coating applied to half the car. They poured mud over that poor car and the difference between the coated and non coated sides was amazing. When the ceramic coating people talk about scratch resistance I think they are mainly talking about resistance against swirl marks. Not scratching with an object. I think the benefits all lie in ease of cleaning to a deep gloss level.
There is no issue with using wash and wax. I think the ceramic coating is for lazy people who just want to hose off their car once a week and for it to come out looking shiny.
Maybe those lazy people value their time on other things
I'll just get the occasional wash and was at Crystal hand car wash. Too lazy to wash cars. Typically maybe 2x a year. Have done it for all my cars over the last 15 years. No issue with the paintwork. Age of the cars (bought from new) 21,19,15,12,7,4. The 19year old car sits outside and may need its first cut and polish sometime.
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