kstateskier

Don't correct a entire vehicle without doing a test section...

Recently dove into the ceramic pool with a bottle of the spray ceramic coating.  
 
Was pleasantly surprised and impressed with how easy on/off it went.   Then after it cured the wash and rinse was literally effortless.  My foam cannon soap barely stayed on the truck!
 
Yesterday did my wife's Audi.  Really starting to enjoy this product, hope it gives me 6+ months of protection like my standard 2 coat application of machine super sealant.
 

Recently dove into the ceramic pool with a bottle of the spray ceramic coating.  
 
Was pleasantly surprised and impressed with how easy on/off it went.   Then after it cured the wash and rinse was literally effortless.  My foam cannon soap barely stayed on the truck!
 
Yesterday did my wife's Audi.  Really starting to enjoy this product, hope it gives me 6+ months of protection like my standard 2 coat application of machine super sealant.
 

I just saw this new 'chart' on Amazon listing SiO2 percentages for some of the new ceramic products and some are a little different, not much, from what we've seen elsewhere.  It shows the Ceramic Paste Wax as 5% more than the liquid ceramic wax and that the paste offers a little but longer protection, but minimal.  It also needs to be updated to show that the Ceramic Waterless is 7% and not 10%.  It is also interesting to see that in this chart, Ceramic Boost now gets a percentage attached to it.
 
In the end I agree with falcaineer and feel it's more of a personal preference thing, does one prefer applying a lotion/liquid wax or a paste wax.
 
Here's that chart for the heck of it:
 

 

Guys once you have a Ceramic Coated car you won't want to go back, its 10 times easier to take care off.
And you can Boost every month if you feel the need to detail.

I'm on the fence. I love maintaining my car with more traditional products...and PS and HGG are my favorite for white cars like mine. But as others said above, you still need to maintain coatings. With the new ceramic line, you can get the same feel for washing and waxing, just with more advanced, better protection, and longer lasting products. Ceramic Boost is like a Spray Wax and can be used once a month; the Ceramic Waterless is like DS but silica based and gives awesome shine and hydrophobic properties; the Ceramic Past Wax is like Patriot or Americana for application but lasts longer and still gives incredible shine; Wash & Coat is like Wash & Wax (another favorite of mine) but on steroids; and don't forget the new ceramic liquid wax, which is similar to buttery in consistency but works with coatings
 
The more I think about it, it's almost as though Adam's realized making the switch is harder for some old schoolers, myself included, and designed their ceramic line to make the transition feel more comfortable yet more advanced.
 
Wait, did I just talk myself into a coating??!! 🤔

I vote yes.  I did a Ford Focus ST,  a crew cab F150, and a couple of small projects with some left over in the bottle.  Not enough to provide confidence to start on another car, but leftovers for sure.  Thus I safely could have done two trucks on a new bottle.  And I'm the worlds worst for using too much product of anything.  

I wanted to do a short write up on my first experience with the Adams Ceramic Paint Coating kit.  My wife purchased the Ceramic Paint Coating kit for me for Christmas, and since we were living in Pennsylvania at the time, I decided I would wait until the spring to test it out.  As luck would have it, we have recently relocated to Florida, so even though it is still spring, I was able to get out and test it this past weekend.  Much like some of my other posts on here, I will let you know up front that I've used Adams products for well over 10 years now, and my cars in the opinion of most people (family, friends, co-workers, etc.) are never "dirty" in their opinion to begin with.  That being said, I was able to do a full detail on my 2016 Dodge Dart this weekend (I've got some other cars I want to use this stuff on, but figured I'd test it on the dart first.)
 
Car Info
 
Year:  2016
Make:  Dodge
Model:  Dart
Sub Model:  SXT Rallye, 2.0 liter 6 speed
 
Adams Products Used:
Adams Strip Wash
Adams Total Interior Detailer (dash, door panels, console, etc.)
Adams Leather Conditioner (dash, steering wheel, door panels, leather boot around shifter)
Adams Invisible Under Carriage Spray
Adams Tire Shine 
Adams VRT (rear diffuser, splash guards, engine compartment)
Adams In and Out Spray (grille, engine compartment, cowl area by windshield wipers)
Adams Visco Clay Bar
Adams Swirl Killer 15 MM
Adams Orange 5.5 inch foam pad
Adams Microfiber 5.5 inch cutting pad
Adams Brilliant Glaze
Adams Detail Spray
Adams Ceramic Paint Coating Kit (Ceramic Prep, Ceramic Coating, Ceramic Boost)
Adams Glass Cleaner
Adams Glass Sealant
Adams Tire and Rubber Cleaner
Adams Wheel Brush
Adams Wheel Woolie
Adams Tire Brush
Adams Wheel Cleaner
Adams All Purpose Cleaner
Adams Metal Polish #1
Adams Metal Polish #2
Adams Paint Correcting Polish (Orange)
Quite a few microfiber towels and applicator pads
 
 
Process:
Just a quick run through of the steps in the order I performed them.
 
Thursday (4/19)
 
Cleaned interior with Adams Total Interior Detailer, Adams Leather Conditioner, a vacuum, and Brilliant Glaze on the inside of all of the glass.  I also applied detail spray to the touch screen and sun-visor mirrors, as well as the gauge cluster. Pulled the floor mats out and sprayed them with All Purpose cleaner, scrubbed them with a tire brush and hosed them off Sprayed a wheel and brake caliper / brake rotor with Adams Wheel cleaner, while that was soaking, sprayed all purpose cleaner on the tire and wheel well.  Scrubbed tire and wheel well with Adams Tire brush, and then after the wheel cleaner started turning from blue to purple I scrubbed the wheel with the Adams wheel brush, then hosed the wheel well, tire, and wheel in that order.  (I did one wheel, wheel well, and tire at a time) Washed car using two bucket wash method and Adams Strip wash, following the directions, I DID NOT use detail spray or any other drying agent to dry the car off, I just wiped it down with one of the drying towels. Moved car into garage  
Friday (4/20)
 
Jacked up the car and sprayed Adams Invisible under carriage spray into the wheel wells, and sprayed Adams Tire shine onto a black hex grip applicator pad and worked it into the tires.  After approximately 20 - 30 minutes, I wiped any areas in the wheel wells with a utility towel to avoid any streaks in the under carriage spray. Treated all trim / rubber seals (weather stripping) with VRT. Treated engine compartment with VRT and In & Out Spray (engine compartment wasn't very dirty to begin with so rinsing with All purpose cleaner was not necessary) Sprayed grill and cowl area with In & Out spray. I cleaned the exhaust tip with Adams Metal Polish #1 and #2. Took a clay bar all painted areas on the car, and the windshield.  (The car really did not need to be clayed but figured I would take all necessary steps since the coating was going to be applied).   Applied Adams Glass Sealant to the windshield. Ran the Swirl Killer over the entire car using the Orange foam pad and the microfiber cutting pad as well as some of the Orange correcting polish.  Again the car really did not need a thorough polishing, there was one area on the trunk lid that had a few minor scratches from some snow removal this past winter, I did not feel the need to use the white polish / pad to polish the car.  
Saturday (4/21)
 
Starting with the roof I applied the Adams Ceramic Coating Prep.  Once I finished the roof, I gave it a few minutes to finish drying, and then it only made sense to me to prep one area, and then apply the coating instead of prepping the entire car and giving it a chance to get dusty / dirty since I was doing this with the garage door up all day.  Anyways, after applying the prep and giving it a chance to dry, I applied the Ceramic Coating.  I watched the video a few times on the website and applied it to 1/4 of the roof (the section from the middle of the roof to the to the back glass to the sunroof.  I then did an "L - Shaped" section of the roof from beside the sunroof to the front of the sunroof (between the front edge of the sunroof and the windshield).  I then moved on to the tops of the doors, the trunk lid, and so on.  Again, I would prep whatever area I was working on, wait a few minutes, and then apply the coating, this method seemed to work well for me, until I finished the entire car (roughly 6 hours stopping for lunch / water / going to the bathroom)  
Sunday (4/22)
 
Around 6 PM (roughly 26 hours later) I pulled the car out of the garage to look it over and then I applied the ceramic boost, again starting with the top of the car and working my way down.  I did not see any spots that required re-application.   I applied Brilliant glaze to the outside glass I applied tire shine one last time I took the floor mats and sprayed them with Tire and Rubber cleaner, scrubbed them with the Adams Tire Brush and then hosed them off and set them aside to air dry.  
 
Lessons Learned / Helpful tips
 
First of all, I will say that I was a little bit intimidated by trying to take this on, normally I have a second set of eyes to at least look things over with me when I detail a car (wax, polish, etc.) but with my wife and I still being in the middle of moving, she was not here.  The other problem was that the lighting in our current garage is less than ideal, literally one LED light bulb, hence the reason for doing this with the garage door up, not to mention the heat / humidity of Florida, however, it wasn't that bad this weekend.  
 
I agree with the video that the more time you spend on the prep work, the better the results.  At times I felt like I was moving pretty slowly when it came to claying the car, or polishing the car, but just kept telling myself that the prep work was key.  I'm also not very good at visualizing things sometimes, so when the video for the ceramic coating referred to doing a 2 ft. X 2 ft. section I grabbed the tape measure and would often hold it up to the body panel and measure just to give myself some sort of reference in my head to say (okay, I can do this section of the door, or this section of the hood, etc.)  I would definitely recommend not trying to push it and do anything larger than 2 feet by 2 feet, as the coating starts to "rainbow" within 30 seconds and is noticeably more difficult to remove (not impossible, just takes a little more elbow grease).  I also laid out some additional Single, Double, and Triple soft microfiber towels ahead of time for help in applying the coating prep, and kept a bottle of Brilliant glaze handy (although I did not need to use it) to help with wiping off the coating (at the recommendation of the back of the bottle).  I'd also say be incredibly thorough in wiping off the coating, I made pass after pass after pass it seemed with the single soft towel working from a few different angles to make sure that I got all of the coating wiped off after it had "rainbowed", this definitely added to the time I spent, but I feel it was well worth it.  
 
All in all, I feel the car came out well, unfortunately, it is hard to tell exactly how much of the coating you have used because the bottle is dark, so you have to go by weight / feel, but I would guess that I used somewhere between 1/4 to 1/2 (definitely feels like less than 1/2) of the bottle to do my dart.
 
What questions do you have?  Let me know your thoughts, and enjoy the pics!  Hopefully this will help with anyone who is on the fence about trying this.  I have not had it out in the rain or anything yet to see how the water beads up or falls off of the car, or the longevity, but if this stuff works even half as well as advertised I will be very happy! 
 
Thanks for reading!!
 
P.S.  Sorry I don't have any before pics, I was so pumped to try this stuff out that I didn't take the time to take them :(
 
-Kory
 

I frequently only run 2 coats of LPS on my everyday driver (Tundra).  I'm getting about 6-7 months of beading protection out of a double application.  The Machine super sealant is probably the most durable LS I've used to date.  
 
My jar of Americana just sits in the cabinet now all lonely like!  

So I just picked up the new polish system and I must say I'm kinda disappointed.  Maybe my expectations were too high but I felt like after the orange and white I still had a slight haze to my paint.  I even taped off my hood (two parts) so i could compare the current condition to the freshly polished and it was noticeably hazy on the new polish side.  The other side was 5 months since my last M205 on an Orange finished with an Ultima PPP. 
 
That being said the new polishes/microfiber pads took out some of my washing/drying DD damage from the past months but it took a pass with Menzerna 4000SF on an LC Finish pad to really bring out the complete shine with no haze.   Maybe I didn't work it long enough but I doubt it.  I didn't try and finish the polish with one of the all foam Adams pads (which maybe my paint will need that rather than the microfibers in order to finish nice and glossy??)  I'll try that on another panel and see what my results are. 
 
OK enough about that, I did like the low dusting the new polishes bring to the table.  M105 dusts awful but its hard to argue with its results. 
 
In addition this was my first application with the Machine Super Sealant, and I must say its application, haze time and then removal was IMPRESSIVE!  Paint is super glossy, super smooth and slick!  Looking forward to topping it with some Americana.  Will post pics later. 

Erik is right. Darker colors especially (or those with soft clear) may see some haziness when finishing with MF. It should clean up using a foam pad.

This week we released for presale our new Paint Correcting Polish, Paint Finishing Polish, and Microfiber pad system. The videos below are part of a larger series that will be released later this month with even more new products and tools.
 
Some basic FAQ questions that have come up so far:
 
Does this replace the old SSR, SHR, and FMP system?
Yes. The new 2 step system is more effective and faster.
 
Are you discontinuing foam pads?
No. Adam's foam pads will still be sold. The only pad being discontinued is the green pad since Severe Swirl Remover is no longer needed/offered.
 
 
Will the new polishes work with my current foam pads?
Yes. The foam pads are not changing. The same orange and white foam pads you currently use can be used with the new system.
 
 
 
Which is better, microfiber or foam?
There is no one size fits all answer. Different conditions call for different pads, we suggest watching the videos below and perhaps trying both systems to see what works better for you. Each system has pros and cons.
 
 
Can you use the old polish system with the new microfiber pads?
Yes. While the results may not be consistent or as effective as the new polishes, the current polishes can be used with the new system.
 
 
 
Will there be a 4" version of the microfiber pads?
Yes. Look for the 4" microfiber system to be released near the end of June - beginning of July.
 
 
 
How do I clean my Microfiber pads?
Adam's Microfiber Cutting and Microfiber Finishing pads are machine washable! Start by using the pad brush to break up any caked on polish from the fibers. If very dense polish contamination is on the pads surface spray a few squirts of Adam's Microfiber Revitalizer & Brightener into the face of the pad and agitate lightly. Wash on a warm (not hot) setting separate from all other materials (including your microfiber towels).
 
Air dry the pads somewhere clean and with plenty of airflow. If faster drying is needed the pads can be machine dried, be sure to use no fabric softener and the lowest heat setting possible.
 
EDIT 7/1 - Replaced the individual videos with a single playlist link below.
 

I know what mine is. Adams Glaze and Americana wax. After a machine polish. I cannot believe the results.

Common it's Friday,
New products please

I wonder how many of our Dealers and Affiliates played with this stuff over the weekend?  
 
Answer:  ALL that attended the Dealer Invitational!  Thanks to all who came out!
 
Mook

My back always says no, but my OCD always says yes.

This thread needs more pictures

We are in the final stages of approval for these.  What's the mean to the End User?  You could see this as soon as the end of the month, or you could see this as soon as the end of the year!  We have a lot that goes into a New Product.  Lots more than simply identifying then testing it out.  Labels, presentation, videos, etc...all that has to happen first.
 
Stay patient, and I am sure you will be happy!
Mook

Welcome

Welcome.  Cleanest Tundra ive ever seen!

Welcome! Nice looking truck, I love Americana as my LSP also, I just add in BG. Keep an eye out for the release of Adams new compound and finishing polish. Many of us here looking to drop our 105/205 or menz combos for the new improved Adams. Word is you will be impressed.