Ceramic coating

zeus79 said:

Anyone know of a good place in South FL or even Broward County that does ceramic coating? I know what the pros are but any cons doing this?

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Only place I found is hot shot performance coatings in Davie.

I've ordered new long tubes and am considering having this done myself.

The benefits of ceramic coating are really just reduced engine bay temperatures, which would result in slightly better intake air temps (the cold air kit dam is already protecting from ambient engine temps).

The cons are:

1) Cost.
2) The heat is going somewhere, which means rather than radiating out from your headers, it's simply traveling down to your uncoated exhaust sections and increasing the average temps there. If you don't have proper heat shielding elsewhere it can be an issue and also increases the heat disparity between the exhaust and adjacent parts.

I once had a custom exhaust installed on a Toyota Tundra. Later in the week, I hauled a trailer with a Ford Fairlane on it about 300 miles. On the trip, I heard what I thought was a loud pop, but it didn't seem like anything was wrong when I stopped for fuel. (that's how good the brakes are on the Tundra btw). Later, I realized that the idiot installer had placed the exhaust bend too close to the brake lines, so with the truck loaded/squatted, and under hard duty (like hauling up and down hills with 4 tons in haul) the exhaust melted a section of the brakeline assembly and thank goodness the yota has two different lines/cylinders (one for the front and one for the back).

My point is, Ford tested our cars with no ceramic wrap. They heat shielded the areas they noticed got heat soaked or thought it needed it. If you ceramic coat and you send MORE heat through the exhaust, it's going to raise the temps and might expose a proximity-heat concern that wasn't there before (during testing with non coated headers). The chances are slim, but it could melt or give problems to some other component with the higher heat. God knows the undercarriage of our car is busy busy and crowded.

Like my story above, when exhaust is either too hot or too close, stuff melts/fails and hopefully it doesn't kill anyone in the process. I completely screamed at the exhaust installer because they should know better. He adjusted my exhaust bends over the axle (for free obviously) and apologized profusely.

zeus79 said:

Greyghost thanks for the reply. I was actually meaning for the outside of the car. I should have specified that. Either way your correct on coating the headers!

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Ceramic Coating - headers and paint.

Good points were made re Ford doing some heat shielding. But when I did headers, granted these were on Corvette Z06's, I always had them coated, and not with that shiny jet hot stuff either. My coatings were always done by Swaintech - the coatings were not pretty, but they were extremely functional. Which is why Swaintech does these coatings for the professional racing world, not just us "gentlemen racer wannabes." As for what it does - well, it obviously reduces levels of heat billowing out from the pipes, but it also improves the scavenging of the headers by keeping more heat inside the pipes. Not sure if I am going to do headers in addition to a custom tune and JLT airbox - there seems to be a wide variety of opinions and not enough facts that I have found to-date re how much power you will actually get for the 2k you will spend for the headers and install. The factory headers seem fairly impressive for stock. I would keep the stock rear part of the exhaust in any case.

As for ceramic car coatings, I do not know anyone who does them. I was thinking of putting expel on the front and following the advice of a guy on you tube called "Obsessed Garage" regarding protecting the rest of the car. He is kinda OCD re detailing, but I starting using some of the products he was recommending, and so far so good. Plus, his you tube vids are not only informational but pretty entertaining - interesting chap... His video following got so large, it even secured him an invite from Jay Leno - and that was a very interesting video!

Ahhh,

Okay, new ceramic coatings for exterior paint and surfaces do a number of things.

1) Beyond the actual coating/product, what most specialty applicators do is a thorough "paint correction" before hand. Thus if you have scratches, swirls, minor blemishes, etc in the paint, they'll "correct" these defects before applying the ceramic product.

2) Most of the visible benefits from ceramic coating are the paint correction above, but the final coating creates an ULTRA smooth surface that acts hydrophobically (just like a wax layer) and helps to repel dirt and dust and contaminants that would otherwise penetrate your clear coat and begin to cause a rough, uneven surface (which dulls the finish over time).

3) You can get your wheels done as well, which helps with brake dust removal (and a bit with it actually sticking to the wheels).

4) all this results in a finish that's more lustrous and makes the color "pop" more and helps to extend time between washes and make washing much easier because again, the finish is ultra smooth so contaminants have a harder time sticking and just slide right off.

Cons are

Obviously cost. To do it correctly, the paint correction and prep takes time (which means man hours) and the material itself isn't cheap. Depending on how many coats you apply, you could be talking a few hundred just in material costs.

So what you're really trading here is your time for your money. No ceramic coating means you'll have to wash more often and wax more often (and more intensely with other products/layers), clean your brakes more often, etc.

Some guys claim the ceramic actually helps protect the paint from rock chips and such, but I think that's either exaggerated or a myth. Any hard object that strikes your car is going to leave a mark. Unless you apply some vinyl or poly based layer protectant (like Repel) it's going to scar up paint when road debris and rocks fly up and hit the paint. The poly coatings are a sacrificial coating.

If you're interested, I have a guy I met at cars and coffee who quoted me a reasonable price and I've seen his work and it's very high quality. PM me if you're interested, I'm going to probably get the car coated next month, but I'm waiting to do a bunch of wrench work before I get the car finish dialed in.

zeus79 said:

Thanks for the replies. Yes I?ve seen the Obssesed Garage videos. He actually sold his Gt 350.

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Yep, I saw that he did. He can afford to go through cars more often than I can. And judging from his earlier comments, I think the decision to sell his GT350 came about pretty quickly as he was getting another new car ) Porsche, I believe. He seemed to genuinely like the Shelby, so I do not think he traded the car because of his unhappiness with it.

If you have seen some of his videos, than you know he is an OCD detailer. I am trying some of his recommended products, i.e. Ammo Reflex and Skin and just finishing applying layers of these products and finalizing this detailing with a coat of PS21 100% carnuba (100 percent of the wax component) which I have had good results from. I probably would add a coat of PS21 once every two months and re-detail twice a year. I bought my car new, and was impressed with the paint quality - not so much with body panel fitment. No comparison to the body panel fitment on my Audi SQ5 - but I am ok that given the choice at this price point, they put the money into engineering. I do think the factory could stand a little more body QC for the Shelby's since Mustang GTs seem to have superior fitment. I do realize the rear panel supports more weight than the GT.

Even though it was new and I had it sent to me via covered transport, I still clay barred the whole car before starting with the AMMO stuff, as my paint correction phase.. According to the Obsessed Garage Guy, this stuff held up really well after 6 months - and it is supposed to last a year. If he is right about applying all of these layers, it may be comparable to ceramic coating - maybe not? I can tell you the car positively glows in the dark! Since my car is garaged, I am optimistic at this point that the paint may have sufficient protection. Of course, I am still probably going to put some Expel on the front up to the windshield as this kind of protection is necessary to protect from flying debris. Since I plan to track the car, I am sure to do this sometime in the next couple of months.

YRMV

EvansT said:

I put XPEL on the front of my car and then had Ceramic Paint Protection put on the whole car. I am very happy with the results.

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I finally pulled the trigger and had the ceramic coating applied. It makes the Ruby Red pop! The wheels look a lot better also. Thanks to Relentless Shine, San Antonio.