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Originally Posted by ROCKY700
1. Detailing Mafia- 77k
2. Autotriz- 48k
3. IGL coatings- no call back (very annoyed)
4. 3M coating- only 2 yr plan for 24k
I am thinking of getting a 5 year plan with exterior coating including alloys, windows and glass area. Please suggest and give your opinions. ![Thumbs Up](https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/images/smilies/thumbs up.png) |
Congratulations on the new car. Without knowing what brand is being used by detailing mafia, it’s impossible to compare direct quotes. I’d never go to 3M considering all the bad experiences people have had with them (including my own) across different cities in India. They don’t even use flashlights to check paint during machine correction. IGL is a good brand, try going to the physical store once before writing off. Also, that 77k can be negotiated down further.
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Originally Posted by Cresterk I would say go for the 3m coating for 24k. Considering labour charges, around 25k is what ceramic coating a car of this size costs so this is a good price. |
You cannot lump all ceramic coatings under one price, it’s like saying a Swift costs 10L so any cars that cost more are a ripoff and overpriced. There are vast differences in formulation, quality and durability of different coating brands out there, and also quality of labour and prep done by different shops.
To illustrate, plenty of pro ceramic kits like Kamikaze, Optimum Pro+, SystemX and many others that cost 18-20k for the kit alone. Also will say in the pro ceramic world, 3M is nowhere as a brand.
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Originally Posted by Cresterk Repainting the entire car will only cost about 1 lakh max. Why in the world would you spend 77k just on ceramic coating? |
The same reason many people spend upwards of 2L to protect the factory finish with PPF. Repainting is never as good as the original paint, and repaint from a high end body shop will be upwards of 2.5L for a mid size car (you still won’t get the factory finish but it’ll be close).
Also, apart from paint protection a coating also helps make maintenance very easy. Water just runs off the surface that makes washing and drying a breeze. You never need to use wipers again if the glass is coated, you never need to use aggressive brushes or strong wheel cleaners as brake dust just comes off with a pressure washer alone, etc.
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Originally Posted by Cresterk So basically you pay them 3x upfront for a 25k job just for the privilege of a warranty that they can void if you don't also send the car to them every quarter to be washed for 1k. This is very lucrative business indeed. |
Warranty is only as good as the detailer who has done the coating, they can void the warranty for a lot of reasons, quarterly wash or not. Most common being improper daily washing and resulting scratches, no ceramic (or PPF) mfg warrants against abrasion.
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Originally Posted by amit_mechengg Since this is a ceramic coating thread and our members are discussing the variety of pricing by professionals and few here would love to save cost and do a DIY I am sharing my video where I have explained a simple and step-by-step process of ceramic coating that anyone can do at home using off the shelf great products and achieve great results without breaking your wallet. |
Good effort but misleading title, it’s going to cost a lot more than 1000 even if one is doing everything by themselves, as the products alone will be over twice that easily (even with the cheapest brands).
One very important point you missed, paint decontamination. Chemical with tar and ferrous removers + physical with a claybar.
Skipping these steps will ensure you grind all the bonded contaminants deeper into your paint when machine polishing at a few thousand RPM. Your coating also won’t bond as well to the clear. New cars also come with such contamination, due to the way they are transported and handled post production.
Plus, these steps can easily be done at home with the right products.
Also, please don’t use 50% IPA as panel prep, use a max of 20-25% with distilled water. Too much alcohol can cause issues with modern soft clearcoats on most cars.
Finally, that CMX bottle is a ceramic infused polish, not a compound. If you compound, you’d need to finish down to remove the haze/swirls left behind. Another point, Turtle hybrid is a ceramic spray, not a full blown ceramic coating. There are marked differences in performance between even a consumer grade liquid coating (like Carpro CQuartz UK) and a spray coating like the one used here. This is closer to something like Capro Reload.