It’s sad how dealerships treat your car and how soft these water-based paints are that a few wrong washes and your car will be covered with swirl marks.
BHPian Mariner_sky recently shared this with other enthusiasts:
Ceramic coating done on Onyx
Long before buying the car I started my research about Paint protection options available and after going through a lot of threads here on TeamBHP I understood the pros and cons of both PPF and ceramic coating.
My requirements were-
- Ease of maintenance/cleaning
- Protection from intentional damage done to paintwork by some random individual ( why they do this is beyond me)
Why i didn’t opt for PPF
- Cost – Initial cost of a quality PPF is very high compared to ceramic coating and even a full repaint job.
- Application process – For a seamless application of PPF many panels are pulled apart, logos are taken out for the perfect fitment of PPF. I didn’t want to lose the factory finish level of panels so this also dissuaded me into getting PPF.
- Protection offered – There’s no denying that PPF offers better protection from stone chips and small scratches but it’ll not provide the water repellency, chemical protection a ceramic coated surface provides.
- Product life – Experienced detailers do advice for a re-application after 4-5 years as after that time there’s a chance that PPF will start to bond with paint and removing it after that can result in paint peeling and can be a major headache.
In conclusion, high initial cost and reapplication after 4-5 years didn’t make a good case for PPF.
The decision was made for ceramic coating as it ticks 2 out of 3 of my requirements.
Now the search for a good detailer begun and i came across a TeamBHPian Anish who goes by the name of AJ56 here and is owner of the 5C car care in Gurgaon. I must say his posts were very informative and his work speaks volumes about his passion in detailing.
Handed him the car 3 days after the delivery, i was under the impression as this is a brand new car and i haven’t washed or dusted it so it will be an easy task for them but while inspecting the paint work with Anish i understood how WRONG I was. Bonnet had a combination of moderate and some deeper scratches, swirl marks were very much visible, adhesive residues at some places and stains from bird poop and tree saps.
Scratches on bonnet:
Major swirl marks on bonnet:
Side view mirror heavily swirled:
Swirl marks on tail lights:
Swirl marks on driver side door handles:
It’s sad how dealerships treat your car and how soft these water based paints are that few wrong washes and your car will be covered with swirl marks.
Now some parting shots after the job was done-
Before and after comparison:
Before and after comparison:
Reduction in orange peel effect after removal of swirl marks:
Side view mirror after paint correction and coating: 
Alloys protected with ceramic coat:
Better then the condition i got it from the showroom:
Made a note that after the coating
- I’ll be only opting for contactless wash, after the coating it should be a 15-20 minutes job tops.
- While servicing i’ll ask them not to wash the car.
P.S- I’m not associated with 5C car care in any way.
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