Hi,

My 2014 LS does need some paint correction to be up to par on what I want it to be. It looks like the past owner just washed it at auto car washes and let the dealer wash it, YUCK ! It shines really nice, till you close to it.

It's just very time consuming to do a correct paint correction. I also have REALLY bad case of OCD. I have done this type of stuff before with great results. With this being said I have NEVER done a ceramic coating before. I have watched enough on YouTube and a lot of reading to know how it works, when to wipe to make sure it's applied correctly.

The question I have, Can I do panel by panel not at the same time? Meaning, for example, I can work one or 2 panels a night, do correction, fix little issues, get it looking great, THEN apply the ceramic coating to those panels. Then work on the next panels the next day/weekend, etc.

My thought is to spend a lot of time on each panel to make sure it looks perfect before moving on. This will solve my OCD problem and I believe this will give me the best results. It's also the reason why I have not started because I can't really get a good 10+ hours in one sitting.

As I am talking about not applying the ceramic coating to the whole car in one sitting, Is this ok to do ? Is there any downfall doing it this way ? Any problems you see from possibly finishing up the car in 10 different sections (for example) ?

Thanks in advance !

 

You can ceramic coat in stages but your car MUST be in a dry, dust free environment. If not you'll have to wash the car before coating it which of course introduces risk of scratches and other contaminants. First time I did a ceramic coat it turned out about 80% of ideal, which I didn't care so much about since it was on my winter beater. But if you want a perfect job the first time, probably not going to happen. Also it greatly depends on the product you are using.

 

I have a garage, It's kept fairly clean. I'm not too worried about that side of it. I would be clean, dry and reasonably dust free. I know it needs like 48 hours before water can really hit it. So I would do it on a Friday night, and then let it sit over the weekend.

I would be washing it before doing any correction, then bring in the garage, dry, do correction, wipe car clean with microfiber cloth, once perfectly clean and up to my standards, meaning "finished panel" then I would apply the ceramic coat to that panel right away.

As for what I got for the ceramic coating, it's the Armor Shield IX It comes with fairly good reviews, it's why I selected it.

https://avalonking.com/ref/amasson/

 

You don't want to polish while also ceramic coating panels that are drying, polishing causes a lot of dust, you have to wash a car thoroughly before ceramic coating and make sure you get all the polishing oils off the finish along with the dust, I just don't see a way where you can ceramic coat a panel or two, then polish other panels the next day or two, have to wash them off without possible ruining the setting of the ceramic coating, if you were to wait a week or more you could probably do it but with many ceramic coatings I think they say wait a week or two if you can before the car is washed, wait a few days before it sees water/rain.

My advice would be to polish out all the defects first until you are happy, then carefully with new clean microfibers thoroughly wash the car with a degreaser/rubbing alcohol, get the whole car prepared first, keep it in the garage and then the next day apply the ceramic coating to the whole car. It does take a while to do but it is worth it trying to all the prep at once and then all the application at once, you can certainly take breaks doing panels and do a set a few hours or a day later. If you try doing polishing and also application together or at the same time you are just going to run into problems likely or have a ruined finish. Ceramic coatings are very sensitive to water when applying or curing, same with polishing dust or polish sling. Once good way to apply ceramic coating is when wiping off after application, have 3 new microfiber rags, use the same one for the initial wipe which will get the most wet parts, then use the 2nd for the rest of the residue, and the 3rd that will be the driest to make sure you got everything, do it for each panel, it really helps.

 

Thanks for the thoughts, this does help a lot.

My real world thoughts were to prep a few panels, Clean it all up, wipe it down so it looks epic, THEN clean with 70% rubbing alcohol (according the the manufacture), THEN do that area ceramic coating. The car would not be touched/moved for 48 hours after this is done. The NEXT part, I would wait for 3-5 days, and I would do a section wash on the car (not hitting the part that was already done besides maybe a splash of water) and move on.

I am working from home because of COVID-19, I start going back to the office in 3 weeks. If I can get this done soon, it could be complete, otherwise I am waiting the week, then have the weekend to do, and back to work on Monday.

Still getting a whole day to do the whole car is really hard.....

 

Seriously, I’m not sure how well it could be done even in a whole day. The guy who just Opti-Coated my pickup kept it nearly an entire week.

 

I wouldn't do a panel at a time with ceramic. Echoing what others have mentioned, do the paint correction panel per panel, but try to coat all at once. Each time you ceramic coat a panel they'll be some waste of the coating, and you'll also need the items to apply. You do not want to reuse what you're applying with as it will harden and scratch. In addition the paint correction will dust a bit and that dust will likely stick to the ceramic coat.

I did the paint correction over the period of a few nights after putting the little one to bed. Then wiped the entire vehicle down with alcohol and applied the first coat panel by panel, and then after 24 hours the second.

 

That's the most honest answer you can get about coatings.

This is great advice.

It can be done, but it's exhausting and the risk of making a mistake is high. I did it once, I started at 9AM and finished around 4AM the next day. It had to be finished in that time frame, so the coating would be cured enough to wash for a car show the following week.

This is a great point as well.

Once the bottle is open, it starts curing in the bottle. Your working time is kind of limited once it's open (depends on ambient temperature and how much air the coating is exposed to). If your bottle has a dropper, never leave that dropper in the bottle when storing the product.

 

One thing I might add is that some coatings require a cure time. Let's say you prep and coat the hood and two front fenders on Monday. On Tuesday you begin prepping the roof and driver's side doors. If you don't wait long enough for the coating to cure, there may be a possibility of the polishing dust getting embedded into the uncured coating.

If you won't really be going anywhere, I would suggest that you take your time going over the entire car doing paint correction first, then do a full rinse/wipedown for a clean base, then spend a day or two applying the ceramic coating. Then you can just leave the car alone for a couple of days and you're done.