Ceramic coating or Clear bra?

They do very different things. Clear bra will protect from impacts such as stones and road debris. Ceramic coating is a longer lasting, much stronger wax that’ll protect from environmental contaminants - UV rays, fallout, sap, bird droppings, etc, add gloss to the paint and make the vehicle much easier to clean. In an ideal world you would do both - clear bra high risk areas and then coat the whole car. Find a reputable installer - good brands where you can go check out their installer list are Gtechniq, Cquartz, opti coat, gyeon and IGL. Feel free to PM me with any questions.

 

Some of the films now have ceramic coatings.

 

There's a huge price differential between the two but imho Xpel clear film or similar is the best way to go. Xpel is a real coating that will protect your car. You can treat it like an extra layer of clear coat. You can polish and wax it just like you would any car surface. I put it on the front end of all my cars and had it applied to the entire body my black Porsche. Its great protection. Ceramic coating can't compare to it.

 

News to me. Which films?

 

I think I mis-spoke. STEK Dyno Shield ppf has a hydrophobic coating which has some of the qualities of ceramic coating. I was thinking it was actually a ceramic type coating.

Pic attached of my 911 with STEK fwd of windshield and ceramic coat aft. Not the greatest pic by phone, but very hard to tell the difference in person.
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Agh cool. Heard good things about STEK. Unfortunately none of the installers we work with are reps for them yet - guess they’re both too tight with llumar to rock that boat.

 

I have Stek and Xpel on different cars. I found both to be excellent. As mentioned, it’s all about the installer. They really need to prep existing paint properly b4 properly installing the film. We as owners, need to properly take care of film after installation. For example, some harsh products can have the film turn yellow.

For ceramic coatings, to me, if daily driver, an excellent option. But if only casual driver, I’d rather wash/wax the car more regularly.

 

I stay with ceramic coatings/wax.

Cannot stand the visible edges and reduced gloss of the plastic wrap!

 

Same here. My 2006 F430 Spider had clear bra since day 1. I finally removed it 2 months ago. The visible edges bothered me and no matter how hard I try to detail my car I can't get a deep shine as I know I'm polishing & waxing the film and not the paint.

I'm willing to pay the cost of a respray to get the natural deep paint shine.


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4 coats of pure carnauba wax and you are golden for three to six months.

Depends how often you drive it.

Then after years of that treatment the road dust and old wax film build up comes off w (cleaner wax)

Then repeat the 4 coats etc.

 

I have a clear bra on car and ceramic coating over that. The car looks phenomenal and is a snap to clean.

 

I have clear film on the nose and other places on my 360, and it does help to minimize dings from rocks, et al.

My wife hates the film. I do not. We do not talk about it much.

We had her daily driver ceramic coated last year.

 

+1

I used to use blue painters tape for numbers at the track. Would stick fine even if I had just waxed the car. It will NOT stick at all now that I have ceramic coating.

 

Have you tried racers tape? As you know has more adhesion and what I use. But my car doesn’t have the coating.

 

I'm a HUGE fan of CeramicPro. I did my 2015 dark grey Yukon top to bottom (wheels included) with it and ran it through over 100 carwashes in a 12 month period. We documented the process before/after/after all the washes and there was not a single swirl on the entire car and the water beading was hardly different although there was a slight difference. The ease of cleaning a ceramic coated car is crazy and the paint protection is great although If you are looking for stone protection, then a clear bra (xpel/etc..) is the way to go.
I've since done my Panamera, my Aston and my 2018 Yukon.

 

As you know, many prior threads delving into both options are available for review.
I'll share my experience so it's out there for future enquiring minds

488 black wrapped in xpel. looks gorgeous after a detail and wax. the film has saved me from a small abrasion: the corrective hype is legit

911 black, paint corrected, wrapped in xpel, then ceramic coated: despite claims, the wrap definitely subdued the gorgeous paint depth. looks good, but without the wrap it looked amazing. the ceramic coating is truly easy to maintain. somehow, the degree of daily grime just seems less (not sure if that's quantifiable or just placebo). my detailer gave me a spray-and-wipe treatment to use quarterly. I've only had it a few months so can't comment on long-term durability.

to be honest, I enjoy detailing my car every so often so I kinda miss the waxing of the 911. but I guess you could argue that just leaves more time for driving.

 

Switched to vinyl numbers on the windows. Just wanted to point out the characteristics of the ceramic coating. Bugs and dirt come off very easily, much more so than with wax. However, streaks from track marbles still take a little more effort, but again less than with wax.

 

My car has a ceramic coating. Keeping the paint looking good requires less time now.

 

While this thread is active.... any updated thinking on whether it’s OK and/ or recommended to apply wax over the clear coat? Or, better to just wax the remaining metal on the car, being carefully to tape off the clear coat edges?


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When I had my 430 it was wrapped in clear with no ceramic. I always waxed over the clear and it came out great.