Halos in Ceramic Coating?

[BrandonL]

I polished and ceramic coated my car with Adams products a couple of months ago and it looked perfect when it was done. I park it outside and after a couple of months of exposure to the elements and spraying it down with waterless wash every day (I don’t have access to wash my car where I live) there are some light scratches and halos. Has anyone experienced this? Would the sprayable compound work to polish the ceramic coating and remove those without removing the coating? Would a top coat of one of the ceramic waxes help hide it?

[falcaineer]

Coatings can scratch, swirl, etc. They're more resistant, but not impervious, so it's not necessarily something you did wrong.

 

Sprayable Compound will degrade and almost certainly remove the coating, as would Correcting Polish. But that would also resolve your light scratches and the halos if they're in the coating. Waxing may help hide them, and BG has some light filler properties to fill in small swirls first, so it's worth a shot, but it's not a permanent fix.

[Dan@Adams]

As Chris mentioned, I wouldn't recommend Spray Compound, as it is fairly aggressive and would at least weaken the coating if not fully remove it. The light scratches could possibly be due to the Waterless Wash Towels if you are not using clean towels as you wipe it off daily. I will typically use 3 or more Waterless Wash Towels to clean a vehicle, depending on how dirty it is, and I am folding the towel over to a new side every 2 or 3 passes or so across a panel. 

If you are seeing halos in the finish, what machine and compounds/polishes did you use to polish it out before coating? Typically halos will be from a rotary buffer, uneven pressure on a machine polishing pad, or a heavier cut compound that you would then need to step down to a more fine polish, e.g. Heavy Correcting Compound and a Microfiber Cutting Pad may leave some slight haze that the Orange Foam Pad and orange Correcting Polish will then typically take care of.

If you wanted to try to polish the ceramic coating without fully removing it, I would recommend Finishing Polish with a White Foam Pad on a slower machine speed, about 3 or 4. Then you could follow it up with Ceramic Spray Coating to re-up the protection of the coating - or go with Ceramic Boost or Ceramic Liquid Wax for a bit of extra protection.