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Ceramic Pro Coatings - Are They Worth IT?


R0909

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3 hours ago, jjackkrash said:

I have a hard time getting holograms and swirls out during the finish process with just a rotary.  I think if I had my choice for just one it would be the Mille (gear driven orbital like the Flex) but having options is sure nice.  

I have the new cordless flex and love it! Easily removed the holograms. A little heavy after 2 days though 

Edited by gdmatson
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14 hours ago, boardjnky4 said:

yeah I don't see the value in the cordless. It's heavy and if you're working in your driveway then there really isn't any need.

Bought it before going to ceramic coating to use on the hoist for the bottom of the boat. It is heavier but not by much. Just can’t get to the bottom on the trailer as well and was not going 120v standing in water. My hair doesn’t do the spiked look well. LOL

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6 hours ago, gdmatson said:

Bought it before going to ceramic coating to use on the hoist for the bottom of the boat. It is heavier but not by much. Just can’t get to the bottom on the trailer as well and was not going 120v standing in water. My hair doesn’t do the spiked look well. LOL

HAHA 

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On 1/11/2019 at 12:25 PM, jjackkrash said:

I have a hard time getting holograms and swirls out during the finish process with just a rotary.  I think if I had my choice for just one it would be the Mille (gear driven orbital like the Flex) but having options is sure nice.  

Yeah, that's why I love my Flex. It doesn't take any effort or thought. I just slap a less aggressive pad on there, 2500 or 3500 polish, do a couple quick passes, and it's done. Crystal clear. 

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I would like to ceramic coat my boat come spring.  What brands or companies have people been using for the DIY stuff?  I have been doing some searching and I have only found a handful of places on the web that advertise for ceramic coats specific to marine applications,  not sure if they are truly any different than the automotive stuff?  So far I have found Liquid Crystal, Glidecoat, Boat Jelly, & Clearkote all selling ceramics advertised for marine applications.  The Boat Jelly stuff appears to be the most cost effective from what I can tell.

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I looked into all kinds of sealants and coatings last year for my white bottomed VLX.  I keep mine on a lift and don't wipe down after every use like most trailered boats.  2 summers ago, I got sick of the cleaning the "Brown" off the bottom and sides....it never got bad, but I am anal and used Worx and Peroxide as a spray and rinse quite often.  This was after I used Collinite on the entire hull....so obviously, I was looking for a better solution.

All in all, I never pulled the trigger on a special sealant and last spring I pulled out an old bottle of Nufinish and did the bottom.   Never once last year, did I have to clean the bottom....it lasted all summer.  Quick and easy....but probably doesn't give the shine of other products....but for underwater protection, I haven't found anything better.

 

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1 hour ago, longlake said:

I would like to ceramic coat my boat come spring.  What brands or companies have people been using for the DIY stuff?  I have been doing some searching and I have only found a handful of places on the web that advertise for ceramic coats specific to marine applications,  not sure if they are truly any different than the automotive stuff?  So far I have found Liquid Crystal, Glidecoat, Boat Jelly, & Clearkote all selling ceramics advertised for marine applications.  The Boat Jelly stuff appears to be the most cost effective from what I can tell.

You can add Marine Nano Shop to that list.  I did all the outside and hull of the boat last summer.  As others have said.  Applying any kind of sealant or ceramic isn't bad.  It's the significant amount of prep you put into the surface to get it smooth and clean and ready to accept the coatings.  Anyways, I like it so far, but it's not even been a year yet and obviously I'm not using the boat a lot over the winter.  It'll be nice to see this thread throughout the coming summer.

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7 minutes ago, Dfowkes said:

On a new boat how much prep work would you need?  Would you need to use clay or something else to remove any wax that may have been applied? 

Searching on youtube, I found several videos that explain the process.  None of those that I watched showed clay.  All showed cleaning and polishing prior to application of the coating.  On a new boat, I'm not sure you'd need to do much other than a quick polish prior but ICBW.  I'm interested in this as well for both of my boats, which have black hulls.  On the '17, I think it's going to be easier than the '06 due to much less correction needed prior to application of the coating.  FWIW, all the videos I saw were of hulls needed correction prior to the application of the ceramic coating.  This season however, I think I'm going to use the @ibelonginprison recipe that he's had great success with.  Considering both of my boats live on a hoist, I think it's the best, most cost effective option for me.  I'm not yet 100% on my decision though.

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34 minutes ago, Slurpee said:

You can add Marine Nano Shop to that list.  I did all the outside and hull of the boat last summer.  As others have said.  Applying any kind of sealant or ceramic isn't bad.  It's the significant amount of prep you put into the surface to get it smooth and clean and ready to accept the coatings.  Anyways, I like it so far, but it's not even been a year yet and obviously I'm not using the boat a lot over the winter.  It'll be nice to see this thread throughout the coming summer.

My 2017 T23 was new last year.  At the end of the year we got hit by a tornado while the boat was on the lift.  The boat didn’t capsize but it did sustain a lot of gelcoat damage while the lift blew over and was totaled out.  It’s in the shop now and they had to completely buff out the boat to find all of the scratches in order to fix them.  I’ll need to take a look at it when I pick it up but I am hopeful I wont need to do much buffing or prep work before I apply the ceramic coat.  Figured it would be a good time to apply a ceramic coat. 

The Liquid Crystal is from the Marine Nano shop, thanks for the reply on that.  How many bottles did it take for your boat?

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9 hours ago, Slurpee said:

@longlake, I think above I said about 3 for two coats on the whole boat. And I have about half a bottle left over. 

As stated earlier, I also used Marine Nano Shop. The owner was helpful for supplies, but do your research for prep. You still have a significant amount of prep even on a new boat. It took me 2 12 hours days of prep. I used all of 2 bottles.

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  • 8 months later...
On 1/16/2019 at 11:08 AM, Slayer said:

Searching on youtube, I found several videos that explain the process.  None of those that I watched showed clay.  All showed cleaning and polishing prior to application of the coating.  On a new boat, I'm not sure you'd need to do much other than a quick polish prior but ICBW.  I'm interested in this as well for both of my boats, which have black hulls.  On the '17, I think it's going to be easier than the '06 due to much less correction needed prior to application of the coating.  FWIW, all the videos I saw were of hulls needed correction prior to the application of the ceramic coating.  This season however, I think I'm going to use the @ibelonginprison recipe that he's had great success with.  Considering both of my boats live on a hoist, I think it's the best, most cost effective option for me.  I'm not yet 100% on my decision though.

What'd you end up doing?

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4 hours ago, UWSkier said:

What'd you end up doing?

I ended up following the @ibelonginprison recipe.  He uses a polish and sealant by Menzerna.  I ordered some of their polishes and used them on the RLXi followed by 2 coats of sealant with awesome results.  I used a medium compound and a fine compound followed by the Jescar sealant.  On the VLX, I used a light polish primarily for cleaning as there was no correction needed.  That boat is was only a year old when I got it.  Then I did 2 coats of sealant and it performed very well.  Waterspots were never an issue as long as the boats were wiped down after use.  Barely used any boat candy at all during wipe down and they still look pretty darn good.  I'll be doing it again in the spring.  Fall layup is going to be wash only.  The boats live inside in the winter, so they'll be fine until the beginning of the season.  I think I spent about $200 on products IIRC.  Highly recommended. 

 

I was hesitant to DIY the ceramic coating as I've never done it before.  I didn't want my first shot to be on my new boat.  

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9 hours ago, Slayer said:

I ended up following the @ibelonginprison recipe.  He uses a polish and sealant by Menzerna.  I ordered some of their polishes and used them on the RLXi followed by 2 coats of sealant with awesome results.  I used a medium compound and a fine compound followed by the Jescar sealant.

I did the same and love the results.  The Jescar went on and off so easy I was skeptical it would work.  I did use a spray wax on top of the two coats but it probably wasn't necessary.  It took me 5 times as long to do the correction as applying the two coats.  I would recommend it to anyone. 

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27 minutes ago, wakesonthesnake said:

 I did use a spray wax on top of the two coats but it probably wasn't necessary.  

Using wax as a topper certainly won't hurt, but then you get the hydrophobic properties of the spraywax, not the coating.  They have washes and detailer sprays now designed to go over coatings as well as other toppers.  

I also absolutely love the way Gliss works as a topper on my coated cars (slick as snot and crazy water behavior and resists water spotting):

https://www.autogeek.net/carpro-gliss-v3.html?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIhLeP7dPe5AIVciCtBh25ugNeEAAYASAAEgKBBvD_BwE

If you want to stay in the Jescar family and just use a quick detailer they make this:

https://www.autogeek.net/menzerna-paint-refresh.html

I also use this on my coated cars as a quick detailer:

https://www.amazon.com/CarPro-ECH2O-Waterless-Detail-Spray/dp/B076KNF38C/ref=sr_1_4?hvadid=78409021917572&hvbmt=be&hvdev=c&hvqmt=e&keywords=ech2o&qid=1568956806&s=gateway&sr=8-4
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by jjackkrash
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  • 1 month later...
On 9/19/2019 at 10:04 PM, wakesonthesnake said:

I did the same and love the results.  The Jescar went on and off so easy I was skeptical it would work.  I did use a spray wax on top of the two coats but it probably wasn't necessary.  It took me 5 times as long to do the correction as applying the two coats.  I would recommend it to anyone. 

I just came back to give @ibelonginprison more props for the jescar recommend.  My car looks friggin great.

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11 minutes ago, shawndoggy said:

I just came back to give @ibelonginprison more props for the jescar recommend.  My car looks friggin great.

Yup. I swear by this sealant. My boat hasn’t had a scum line in 2 years and it stays in the water. 

Edited by Cole2001
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  • 4 months later...

After reading this thread, just applied my first layer of Jescar Power Lock + sealant.  Pretty excited to see the difference of the 3M carnuba wax I was using in a muddy river we run in.

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3 hours ago, hawaiianstyln said:

After reading this thread, just applied my first layer of Jescar Power Lock + sealant.  Pretty excited to see the difference of the 3M carnuba wax I was using in a muddy river we run in.

Be sure to report back.  I love the stuff!!  the @ibelonginprison recipe is a winner.  

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  • 4 weeks later...

I recently purchased a 2018 22 vlx. It only has 30 hours but the previous owners seemed to neglect it a bit. I don't see any damages to the paint other than what appears to be some slight bumper rub and some rub where the nose hits the trailer stop. I did use goo gone to remove all the warning decals and registration numbers.

 

Based on @ibelonginprison recommendations I purchased menzerna 400 and jescar power lock plus sealant.

I have the porter Cable polisher with lake county pads. 

I don't mind putting in the work for it to come out the best. Should I go over it first with the menzerna and then a coat of the jescar? Or should I only apply the jescar? 

I plan to give it a power wash with foam Canon chemical guys soap first. 

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Is your Porter Cable a random orbital or a rotary?  

Foam pads and a random orbital won't correct much on gel.  If you need any gel correction I'd look at a medium or course wool pad and compound and use a rotary or gear-driven orbital to start (borrow a rotary if you don't have one), then finish with a course or medium foam pad and the random orbital to take out the rotary holograms.  A course or medium foam pad on gel is like a fine pad on paint.  But the foam pads will take off the wax or other sealants , so I would use those at minimum do some sort of mechanical polish with a random orbital before coating.  After buffing, you need a good wipe down with an IPA (Iso Alcohol) solution of between 10% to 50% IPA to take the oils out of the gel from the polish or compound.  Then coat. 

Good luck!  

 

 

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23 hours ago, jjackkrash said:

Is your Porter Cable a random orbital or a rotary?  

Foam pads and a random orbital won't correct much on gel.  If you need any gel correction I'd look at a medium or course wool pad and compound and use a rotary or gear-driven orbital to start (borrow a rotary if you don't have one), then finish with a course or medium foam pad and the random orbital to take out the rotary holograms.  A course or medium foam pad on gel is like a fine pad on paint.  But the foam pads will take off the wax or other sealants , so I would use those at minimum do some sort of mechanical polish with a random orbital before coating.  After buffing, you need a good wipe down with an IPA (Iso Alcohol) solution of between 10% to 50% IPA to take the oils out of the gel from the polish or compound.  Then coat. 

Good luck!  

 

 

Porter Cable 7424XP Dual Action Polisher is what we have.  

So your saying apply menzerna 400 using a medium or course wool pad?

Then apply a second coat of menzerna 400 using a course or medium foam pad? 

Then wipe down with an IPA

Then apply 1-2 coats of Jescar?

 

 

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