Hell yes. I used a cheapo product off Amazon to prove it. From my research the ceramic coating is only as good as the surface it's going on top of. Thus the time it takes to actually apply the ceramic is not a lot, it's easy to apply and buff. What takes real time is the paint correction. Our cars come w/o paint correction from the factory so it's covered in orange peel. Orange peel doesn't shine very well and it is visible when you are less than a few feet away. See all those small ripples in your clearcoat? This is where the true cost of a ceramic job comes in, it's the labor to cut and polish the factory clear coat! It could take up to 10 hours depending on surface area and that's why it cost so much. The actual products used imo doesn't make a huge difference buyt you know some brands like to talk up their compound as super special. I didn't buy it so I tried a product on the much cheaper end of the scale. Anyways I broke out the orbital and spent a few days cutting and polishing the paint that is not under the PPF. The PPF shop did paint correction for the areas that they covered etc. Then I applied the ceramic in sections, covering the whole car. The ceramic effectively seals in that level of shine into the car as long as the ceramic lasts which is typically a couple of years. You can increase that by using a booster, a si02 spray that replenishes the coating between washes.
