KoryMiller340

5th time I've applied a ceramic coating to a vehicle (4 times on my own stuff and once for a friend). This is the second time this car (my 2015 Challenger) has been done, I originally did it in 2018 with the 9H Adams kit. I feel like it came out even better this time around. I applied the coating last Saturday (4/09/2022) and let it "cure" in my garage for almost 6 full days before applying the ceramic boost. This stuff continues to impress me, especially in the Florida heat! Close to 30 hours start to finish with strip wash, clay bar, trim, engine compartment, interior, polisher, coating, boost, and cleanup.

Hello, In May of 2018, I applied the original Ceramic Coating (7H) to my car. Approximately 1 year later the car was involved in an accident, and after getting it back from the body shop, and giving the paint some time to cure, I applied the coating (9H now because I ran out of the 7H) to only the part of the vehicle that had been involved in the accident. I have been logging my washes / applications of ceramic boost since 2018, and I've had approximately 40 washes, and applied the boost just about every 3-4 washes. With all of that being said, I recently purchased the Graphene coating and would like to apply it to this vehicle. My question is, do I need to polish the whole car again prior to applying the new coating, or can I simply just clay it, use the coating prep and apply the coating? The only reason I ask is because I know you can apply the coating in layers, like you can wax if you choose, and anywhere that would still have the old coating would essentially be getting a new "layer" of coating, and anywhere that the coating has already worn off would be getting a fresh application of coating. I'm not trying to cut corners, but unless it is absolutely necessary to polish this whole thing to ensure that all of the old coating is gone, the car really does not need to be polished again because it is in great shape. Also, Anyone that has used the newer ceramic coatings, back when I initially did this, you had to be careful not to get the coating on the trim, plastic, etc. What has your experience been with the new stuff? Does it work well? Are there any prep tips in order to make this look great on non-painted surfaces? Or should I just do what I did the last time, and be careful not to get it anywhere that isn't painted? Just looking for opinions / advice on this. I can send pics or anything else that would help if necessary. Thank you!

Glad we are all on the same page. I'll post some pics tomorrow prior to them picking it up. Thanks for the reassurance guys!

As luck would have it, I was able to hand polish them with a combination of rubbing compound and one-step polish. I didn't have to actually use the polisher (was hoping not to have to, as I have it pretty much done, and didn't want to get dust all over everything if I didn't have to).

Just a quick question. I'm detailing a car for a co-worker, and he's picking it up tomorrow. If all goes well, I'll be done later today and might have some extra time in the morning to touch up a few areas. I've washed, clayed, polished, and waxed, so I was going to top it with something for that extra "POP". If you were given the choice, would you hit it with brilliant glaze, or would you put a little ceramic boost on it? The car has never been ceramic coated before, so I'm leaning towards the brilliant glaze, but wanted some opinions. Thanks!

Sorry, I'm sure there are 1000 topics on this, but just wondering if anyone has any suggestions for removing water spots on windows. Long story short, I'm detailing a co-workers car (I've had it all week, and I'm almost done), but didn't notice until after claying the windshield that it has some bad water spots at the bottom. Not sure if it is from hard water, rain water baking on in the sun, etc. etc. Either way, I'm just looking for something that might work. I've tried a mixture of 1/2 water and 1/2 distilled vinegar, spraying it on, letting it sit a few minutes, and then wiping off with a microfiber towel. What do you suggest that is readily available (I'm giving him the car back tomorrow, so if I can't get it at a local store, then I won't be able to try it). THANK YOU!

Thinking about purchasing a pressure washer, I know there are tons out there, can anyone share their experience? This would be dual use, driveway, sidewalks, back porch (screened in lanai) and washing cars. I was leaning towards an electric, just so that when I'm washing cars, I'm not feeling like I am playing "beat the clock" because of using fuel while it is running. I'd say I'll probably use it quarterly to clean stuff around the house, otherwise, weekly to wash cars if that changes the recommendations. Just worried about not having enough PSI if I go electric. Can anyone weigh in on both? Thanks!

@tlbullet great job! Crazy how similar I feel about the ceramic coating. I've done three cars now, both of mine are blue, and my wife's is a dark red / almost maroon. I felt like it was easier to see the coating as I was applying it on her car, much like you did on the black car vs. the white. Her's was the third car I applied it to, so I thought I would / should be getting better, but hers is the only one I saw any high spots on (on about 1/2 the hood). I also thought that using the ceramic boost on her car was more difficult, maybe it was all the same, and the darker paint just shows the imperfections / excess product more easily than the blue. I live in Florida, it was much more humid this time around as opposed to the other two times I worked on the cars, so I'm thinking this may have been a factor as well. Glad to see I'm not totally crazy........

The first car I did with the 7H ceramic coating, definitely "tacky" after applying the coating / during the curing process. After applying ceramic boost, it was very slick. I just did 1 car and a small section of another with the 9H coating, it's slick, but I almost feel like the 7H was more slick after applying the ceramic boost. Maybe it's the humidity in Florida that has me thrown off though....

I've applied the old formula (7h) twice now, most recently this past weekend on my challenger. I actually got about 90% done (I have 1/2 the hood and the entire front bumper remaining) and I ran out of coating Anyways, with the old formula, I did notice that waiting a little longer, it was tackier and more difficult to remove, the paint after buffing with the towel wasn't exactly smooth, if you remember the video Adam had when the coating was first released, where his fingers didn't really glide over the finish, that is exactly how mine felt. I waited 24 hours (it was more like 26) and I put the Ceramic Boost on everything that I'd already done the previous day, things seem pretty great so far. I'm waiting to get another kit (it'll be here Saturday) so that I can finish up the challenger. As for the applicator pad, the side that I used, it wasn't exactly "hard" but it felt a little stiff, after waiting for a few hours. I didn't toss it or the towels, as directed, what I ended up doing was rinsing them on their own and they have been designated for doing things inside the house, such as using detail spray on the counters, or glass cleaner on the mirrors etc. I couldn't bring myself to toss them after one use, not yet at least Much like VetteDream, I applied mine in a garage that was very warm, and low lighting, I'm in Central Florida, and it was in the 90's this past weekend, humidity was up there too, no "high spots" that I've seen so far, I did have the car out in the sun after I applied the ceramic boost. I did have fantastic results on my dart a little over a month ago and posted it on this forum, it literally blows me away when I wash it, the water drops look like they are literally racing each other to the ground as they fall off of the car. I'm drinking the ceramic coating koolaid for sure.

LMAO HAHA!

And my wife thinks I'm nuts for trying to clean the cars while we are "on vacation" haha. I would echo what some others on here have said, seal the glass, it's a definite must! I'd bring along detail spray and a few drying towels, glass cleaner / brilliant glaze, and either total interior cleaner or leather conditioner, just in case someone spills something in the interior along the way. Coin-Op car washes unfortunately can be your best friend for long trips like this one, just to keep things from getting too gross. I'm from Pennsylvania originally, not sure which route you are traveling, but if you happen to get near / around Pittsburgh check out one of the original Primanti Brothers locations (downtown), they have their chains in other states now, but from my experience, nothing beats one of the true original downtown locations. If you have the time, swing by Gettysburg, PA (less than 90 minutes from Baltimore) if you want to check out any of the civil war / battlefield stuff, July is when the re-enactments of the battles take place, so if you go before that it won't be as crowded, definitely worth taking the time to check out.

Not exactly the same for me, but similar, don't drop or lightly drop the hose, it will land on the nozzle and it will spray all over your recently rinsed / dried car..... Done this too many times haha

Good to know, my wife often tells me that she "wonders if some of the products taste as good as they smell" lol.

+2 on this. I had a similar thing happen probably 10 or so years ago, stayed in Manhattan for a weekend, and when I came out had stuff all over my hood and roof, I remember washing and claying, car was do for a full detail anyways... Glad to hear you got it off!

I've been in a similar position before, so maybe I can weigh in some. I've kept Adams products on all of my cars for years, and all of my family / friends know the lengths I go to in order to keep my cars looking great. We had an issue where the factory hood on my wife's Chrysler 200s was starting to bubble around the headlights. We took this to our local Dodge / Chrysler dealership, and it was indeed covered under warranty. They said it was a common issue, something about the factory welds on some of the hoods not being done properly and allowing moisture to build up and basically rust / corrode from the inside. Long story short, they took it to their body shop and it was fixed. The point of my story here is this... when we dropped the car off to the dealership, they were instructed both verbally and in writing that under no circumstances were they to wash the car, attempt to wax it, detail it, etc, I explained that I was very meticulous and touchy about our vehicles, and while I understood it is typically a courtesy for them to at least wash the car, I did not want it done. They respected my wishes, and kept me happy. I wouldn't trust anyone to clean / detail my car, even using my preferred products, it just isn't the same, and if you are like me, no matter how good of a job they do, it won't suit you.

@Nickfire20 Thank you for the compliments! Also, to be honest, I was just incredibly careful around the emblems, the red applicator pad for the ceramic coating is small, and multi-sided, so on two of the ends, they are a little shorter, I used those in any tight spots such as around emblems, around the mirrors, etc. I'm sure I got a little bit of coating on the emblems, I don't know if it is totally avoidable, but I was cautious and made sure to thoroughly wipe over each section that I applied the coating to several times just to make sure. Thanks for the tip on the leather conditioner, I'll definitely have to give that a shot!!!

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

Sorry if this is in the wrong forum, but we've recently moved into a rental property, the lighting in the garage is less than ideal for detailing. Just looking for suggestions on what to purchase that might be relatively cheap? Just anything that would help, maybe even some mobile setups. I'm thinking about trying out the ceramic coating my wife got me for Christmas, but wanted to see if I can get the lighting in order first before I dive in. Thank you!

Sounds good to me, it'll be nice having another Adam's person so close by. I was definitely in the minority in Pennsylvania.

@mc2hill I am living in Winter Park.

All, I've been detailing for a few years, but just recently relocated to Florida from Pennsylvania. I washed my car this past Sunday, and while it isn't "hot" yet, I definitely struggled to get it dried quickly enough while trying to avoid water spots. I used the wash & wax, and the car was mostly in the shade for the duration of the wash, however, the sun came out as I was rinsing. Any tips anyone can recommend? I've worked hard over the past few years to make my stuff perfect, I want to maintain it here. I'm sure the general rule of thumb applies, wash / wax in the shade if possible, etc. etc. but if there are any other tips anyone wants to provide, feel free to chime in. Thanks!

@sahls01gmc the car in the reflection is a 1972 Dodge Challenger, it's also B5 blue, and yes you caught the chrome gas cap haha.

@gemini70 I would highly recommend it! I know I didn't notice it as much last year as I do this year, or maybe I did and I forgot, but I'm still amazed at how slick the paint feels after using this stuff, the other great thing is that like other Adams products, a small amount goes a very long way, especially with this product! Try it, there's the 110% guarantee, so you really can't go wrong!

@gemini70 I don't have one of those LED swirl finder lights, however, I've been the only owner of the vehicle (owned since the end of September 2016) and it has had nothing but Adams products applied to it, paint sealant before last winter, waxed this past summer, and sealed again before this winter, it's washed regularly with a two bucket wash method, not that you can't introduce swirls / scratches. I've also applied H20 guard and gloss once or twice too just for good measure, probably overkill, but I'm a bit anal when it comes to my cars. I'll try and get a good look at it, it is my daily driver for most of the year, but I'm very happy with how it looks so far. As a side note... I have to tell you that the rinseless wash feels almost as smooth or smoother than waxing or sealing the car, it is super slick!!