[PS702]

What brand of ceramic coating? How many layers?
The good news is that the I-Pace does have a template for the PPF. It helps a lot for how it fits on the car

 

[PS702]

It's a very good idea to get PPF & Ceramic Coating.
For those that purchased their car, I would get a 5 year coating to protect the paint as long as possible.
PPF is also very important to prevent rock chips and scratches. The more places you put the PPF, the better

I would caution against using Ceramic Pro (most commonly used). It doesn't last as long as Other brands.
When you see it has a warranty, it usually means the installer will just put a lighter coat (Sport coat) as protection.
Also any qoute you get must include the proper paint correction stages. A Ceramic Coating is a sacrificial layer, but the paint underneath must be as close to perfect as possible. This portion is what can change the price so dramatically

 

[PS702]

I was quoted the ceramic coating without their seeing the car or how much paint correction they'd have to do.

However, he did ask the model year and how it looked in general. (And a low mileage 2019 looked good to my eye.) He did later say they had to do 'a lot of' paint correction when I picked it up, but the charge remained the same for that part of the service.

Even new off the lot with no miles will need pain correction. Our paint is very soft so just the dealer washing it will cause marring. I wont let the dealer wash my car, ever

Glad it all worked out. Do you notice a difference in the look? Ceramic coating looks different to a wax. Wax is warmer, not as synthetic looking. I personally love how ceramic looks

Please post pictures

 

[PS702]

Anybody else get or look into XPEL film or ceramic coating? With my car only 6 days into ownership, I might be looking at one or both of these options. Experiences out there always help!

Thanks!

Paint is thin and soft on the I-Pace, so it a very good idea to get PPF at least on the front bumper. There templates available for our car.
I'M a big fan of protecting as much as possible, but it gets costly.

I used PPF on the front bumper, ceramic coating everywhere else because my cars a lease

 

[PS702]

Thanks, I'm a buyer not lease, but I usually keep my cars for an extended period, so I have no problem trying to keep it in great shape for a long time.

I'll search out installers in my area and see what I find.

Any thoughts from anyone on the type of ceramic coating that seems to be best?

I have Ceramic Pro which is a common yet very weak coating
CS-II is very good, but not carried everywhere. Definitely don't DYI, get a pro to do it.
Lots of marketing gimmicks out there so be careful

 

[PS702]

Thanks. It looks like XPEL does ceramic coating too, "Fusion Plus". Any thoughts on that?

I haven't heard much about Xpels coating. Please post what they are offering to get a better understanding.
The more layers, the longer it last, better protection, deeper the shine.
Warranty is usually based on the installer, so they require an annual inspection and if necessary, a reapplication.

Ceramic Pro doesn't last that long even though they claim 3 years. In reality its a year, with a lighter application that's applied as time goes for the warranty.
The installer is very important

I'm still wondering why a ceramic coat is desirable on top of a self-healing PPF. Here's my thoughts:

When heated in even just outdoor sunlight self-healing PPF will heal over light scratches and swirls and restore itself to a smooth surface. I can confirm this worked well with the SunTech Ultra PPF I used. The dealership that sold it to me for my Porsche had a test you could do. They had a small sample piece of painted "hood" and a brass brush. You could use the brush to visibly scratch the PPF. Once scratched, they had an IR heat lamp to heat the surface. With your own eyes you could watch the PPF heal itself back to a nice gloss in around 30 seconds or so.

So then why do you need to add scratch-resistant ceramic coat on top of that? It just seems like an unnecessary extra expense. I've used both and like both in their place, both help prevent minor scratches and swirls and both make bug splat removal much easier. I have full-body ceramic coat on the I-Pace and it seems to do well. But it certainly doesn't protect against chips from small gravel like PPF does, yet full body PPF is very expensive. It was just shy of $5k on the Porsche. So a reasonable approach in my mind is to use the expensive PPF in forward facing chip-prone areas and more cost-effective ceramic coating everywhere else... but again... I don't see the need to use ceramic on top of the PPF since it can just take care of it's own scratch resistance and healing.

By the way, with bigger deeper hits even PPF will take damage that does not heal, but it will usually protect the paint underneath it from chipping. Then it can be removed and replaced by the piece if the damage is enough to bother you.

Here's a YouTube video of someone demoing the self-healing of the XPel PPF equivalent of the Suntek Ultra I used... it's pretty amazing:

I agree on this.

When you Cermatic Coating your car, it also eliminates the need to wax it as the coating has the same properties of the wax, with much more benefits
For PPF putting a hybrid ceramic coat on like Turtle wax Seal and Shine or a Mcguires are good enough.

 

[PS702]

This is the corporate "propaganda page" for the XPEL ceramic coating. Let me know if you have any thoughts.

FUSION PLUS Ceramic Coating

Introducing FUSION PLUS Ceramic Coating from XPEL, the industry leaders of surface protection. Get hydrophobic, ceramic protection for paint & PPF with FUSION PLUS Ceramic Coating.

www.xpel.com

Hard to tell from the marketing materials. The difference is durability and depth of shine.
The coating dealers put on are notoriously the worst and only last 6 months

 

[PS702]

I have been trying to get info on where to get it done and what to use etc, but the info has been little overwhelming and then Covid happened, so I temporarily halted my research. Just yesterday, I received an email from my BMW dealership saying that they can do Ceramic coating on any vehicle at their collision center and this is what it says:

1. A ceramic resin coat is applied to all surfaces of the vehicle
2. A ceramic coating is applied to the wheels
3. A ceramic coating is applied to all trim and rubber moldings

Pl. let me know if this is what I should get or what details do I need to understand first.

It's not uncommon to coat the wheels, windows, plastic.
Whats most important is the quality of the coating, how many layers, warranty, prep and cost.
Dealers and body shops use the cheapest coating for the most part

If your coating starts to lose its durability, who is responsible for reaplying under its warranty period? What will they use? A light coat or a the heavy duty coating?
Do they require maintenance washing with the installer to honor the warranty? Is there a charge to maintain it?

What brand do they use?

 

[PS702]

It's not uncommon to coat the wheels, windows, plastic.
Whats most important is the quality of the coating, how many layers, warranty, prep and cost.
Dealers and body shops use the cheapest coating for the most part

If your coating starts to lose its durability, who is responsible for reaplying under its warranty period? What will they use? A light coat or a the heavy duty coating?
Do they require maintenance washing with the installer to honor the warranty? Is there a charge to maintain it?

What brand do they use?

Thanks @PS702

I just talked to the manager and here is what he told me:

2 layers; second layer is thicker than the first, 7 year warranty, ~$900
Brand: ECP - Entire Car Protection
No maintenance required by the installer.

That's a really low price. Not that expensive is always better, but it comes down to hours spent on the car.
From what I see with ECP, it's a spray on solution, with a clay bar to help the application process.
This a very fast process which makes it less expensive than other ceramic coating solutions.

Just to prep the car should take hours. Even from the factory, the paint will require a correcting before the ceramic coating process even starts.
True ceramic coating isnt just for its hydrophobic properties, it's a sacrificial layer of clear coat.
If you just want to show hydrophobic properties, you can use Mcguires hybrid ceramic wax for $15 to get those results

I would find a professional detailer and get estimates to compare.

It's like washing your car. You can go to a drive through car wash or you can get a professional detailer to spend 100 hours on your car to have zero orange peel.
It all depends on what's acceptable to you.

 

[PS702]

Just curious why you would do this for a lease? These cars lose value so fast id never worry about chips or scratches.

I like the car to be perfect while I have it. I have a habit of focusing on the flaws of a car

 

[PS702]

Light smoke on front and rear lights.
Black leaper and Jaguar letters, removed other rear badges
More PPF!
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You're the man. You did everything the proper way