Ceramic Coating Tiers
by Ian MartinezA Detailed Image customer wrote in and asked us:
“I want to coat the car. I would love to use CSL plus EXO but I will probably remove and re-coat within 18 month and I don’t want to spends $115+ for that amount of time. So that led me to looking at Cquartz but I can’t decide on UK3.0 or SiO2. I am in Texas and I plan to apply it in my garage where ambient temps, late spring or early fall, will be close to 90 degrees F. Please recommend a product, it can be anything less than $75. I will maintain with either ech2o or Beadmaker after washing.”
When it comes to ceramic coatings and products with SiO2 in them, I break them down into tiers. There are a ton of coating and coating topper options and they all have their pros and cons.
Enthusiast/Maintenance – Products that are super easy to apply, relatively inexpensive yet still have great protection, typically last around 4-6 months. These below are used after washing and are coating toppers, not traditional coatings. They have sio2 in them, just at a lower concentration. They are great for some quick protection layers, or to top an existing coating layer for more protection.
Semi-Pro/Experienced Enthusiast – Products that are applied in typical coating fashion, but either last around a year or aren’t as difficult to remove if there was a mistake. Also usually priced lower. Cquartz UK is the same as Cquartz, but formulated for cold weather applications, as seen in the UK. So if that applies to you it may be a better option.
Professional – Products that are professional grade and can have some very difficult issues to fix if applied incorrectly. Getting on the higher end of pricing bit still retail available. Lasting around 3-5 years.
- Gyeon Pure
- Gtechniq CSL Black (CSL + EXO)
- 22ple Insanity
Of course there are a ton of options and you may prefer others, but these are ones I’ve personally tried and tested and could confidently recommend to someone looking for a coating in each category.
Buy Products From This Article
Great post Ian!
What about Avalon King? Where does it fall?
Personally, I use CQuartz UK. But I would never use Beadmaker on a ceramic coating. In my mind, once you put ceramic on, you are leaving things like Beadmaker & many other quick detailers behind.
Adams Ceramic Spray Coating would be another option. It’s less than $30 on sale and lasts for up to one year. It can also be used on all types of surfaces. As Ian suggests, regularly maintain it with a topper such as GTechniq C2V3 and that should safely get you to 18 months.
Gyeon CanCoat seems like a good recommendation for this user.
Since the question asked about CSL and Exo, but they want to remove it after 18 months, I would suggest just going with Exo alone. You should get about 18 months to 24 months out of it and it performs great all by itself! Go for the Exo and apply 2 coats, you won’t be disappointed!