It would be more beneficial than any wax or sealant and last a 1-2 years depending on washing maintenance . The key part of ceramic coating is protection, but to get the best looks out of a coating the prep is everything. You can was a car with Dawn dish soap, whip down with Prep and coat any car, but it will not look brand new. Coatings have no fillers and do not hide any paint defects like fading, scratches or oxidation. ‘Prepping a car for a coating is a long process depending on how bad the paint at the beginning without any wax and after stripping the wax with Dawn or any wax sealer remover. The rule of thumb with coatings is Get you paint as perfect as you can with your tool and abilities and the wipe down with alcohol prep and then coat it. If you paint looks great after it is all polished out that’s what it will look like with a ceramic coating. I will be very protective UV highly hydrophobic coating that will last a year easy and two years with basic wash maintenance and occasional indoor storage. If you have any other questions just let me know and I will be glad to answer them for you. I have fully detailed cars for years and have been coating for the past 6 years. I only coat cars now at the end of detailing work now.
@Dave.0 Is correct. I am Happy with the way my mini turned out but I should have spent more time getting the paint looking better.
If you have a bunch of dings and the bonnet is showing wear, stay with the wax, unless you want the deep shine on your shiny parts.
I'll be having my hood refinished, as usual, a few small spots in the clear coat have flaked away. I have a guy that is amazing at paint matching. Rest of him is pretty much as new. I got lucky with a two owner, well documented/maintained JCW.
After 15 years of pretty hard driving (a bunch of AMVIVs, MTTS's and other MINI events, as well as some really long road trips for work), my car still shines pretty good and I find it difficult to get WAF (wife acceptance factor) to get the car paint re conditioned. Wife is trying to get me to buy another car soon given the mileage and age of my current car. However, a co worker just bought a car and he has been soaking the advice you guys have been giving me. Thanks for your contribution to the discussion.
At Pascal, well, I'm number one (one) Do vector calculus just for fun I ain't got a gat, but I got a soldering gun (What?)
Not mine, but I got a quick pic of a MINI at the Arc d'Triomphe when I visited Paris last month. Loved seeing all the MINIs in Europe!
You can ceramic coat any car. You just have to remove all the wax and sealants with a Dawn carwash. Then polish out the car, wipe it down with alcohol prep and start coating.
In midst of social distancing, I went to Home Depot to get a furnace filter. Found another MINI at the far corner of the parking lot to park beside
Cleaning my buddies car as a favor. Asked me to remove roof vinyl. Heat gun and razor blades do the trick, heat up vinyl until it browns like a s’more and then scrap away.
Street sweeper came into my side street and cleaned out the street. Nothing like motoring down clean streets.
Cleaned out my CAI. It's not totally black anymore. Not quite as clean as Dave.O's bonnet but I spend more time motoring than cleaning.... and I other priorities...
I think it's the focal length and the camera angle that made that Red R56 look so much bigger than the R53.