Ceramic Coatings

[jorgeinmiami]

So my boat will be done soon in Awlcraft and was wondering a out all these new ceramic coatings

Good ? Bad? Anyone had any experiance with them?

[PigSticker]

Hey Jorge, I detailed boats 20 years before going to UPS. I use a ceramic on aluminum which is a permanent ceramic, the ones being used on paint/gelcoat is a semi-permanent coating. You need to mindful of how/what you use to wash your boat and it requires a less concentrated spray version periodically to extend the life of the coating. It will last longer than conventional sealants if you maintain it. Its worth doing if you do it yourself as what people are charging for a semi-permanent coating is not worth it. It doesn't hold up well at the waterline either

[jorgeinmiami]

It's on a trailer and won't be in the water more than 5-6 days at anyone time.

What would I use to wash the boat with? Best product?

I since it's a brand new paint job I figure it's the best time to do it

Thanks

[thealife]

Captain on 140' yacht here, been in the big yacht game for over 15 years, managed multiple multimillion dollar paint jobs on much larger yachts all over the world

Ceramic coatings are all good and well until you have to remove them or they start wearing out, do not use a ceramic coating on a new paint job, think of ceramic down the line when you want to extend the life of your paint an extra couple of years, most painters will charge you a premium to remove it when it comes time to do a re-spray,

if you are about to spray awlcraft, use the money you would have spent on ceramic and do Awlcraft SE with an HDT clear coat on top, this will be a tough long lasting option over conventional Awlgrip/awlcraft,

if you then choose to protect it, (awlgrip recommends awlcare which is just a polymer sealer) the best results I've had so far has been with the Sea-Shield system, especially exhaust guard, but look at their videos online,

A new paint job should not be polished period, it's also very important to make the distinction between polyurethane topcoat (awlgrip) and vinyl urethane topcoat (awlcraft) as awlgrip should never ever be polished but awlcraft can,

But if you ask me what I use to protect a brand new paint job, then my answer is sea-shield's nano shield on all of it and exhaust guard sealer on the trouble areas (flats, waterline, near exhaust)
Another very good option is permanon yacht supershine,

I love nano-ceramic for non anodized aluminium parts and welds on anodized alu structures,

Hope this helps,