Ceramic coating you can do yourself?

Yes you want the prep spray and aftercare topper.

I have done quite a few over the years. Usually used CQuartz. If you daily drive it year round and have to use automated touchless washes it will wear off in under two years. If your car only sees nice weather and you wash it with soap that isn’t too harsh on the coating, it will likely last close to 5 years. My black Hellcat still beaded water and paint was perfect after 5 years on two original coats of CQuartz. My wife’s SRT Durango that saw the elements and touchless washes over winters, it was almost all gone after two years. Used the same product, same application method.

Biggest thing is don’t let it dry at all between application and removal. Seen a few buddies make the mistake and it took so many hours to get the product back off the paint.

I have no experience with Avalon king but most of these products are similar in composition. CQuartz is not very fun to put on and get back off in my experience. Avalon king stuff I have seen on YouTube make it look much easier to be honest. But being your car is black, prep will likely take the longest if you want it to look perfect. Hope that helped a little

Turd McGavin said:

no on the prep spray and no on the booster spray. However I am by now means an expert. I feel the prep spray can be skipped as really the only thing you are attempting to is remove any wax or oil. Dawn dish soap can do that, or a grease and wax remover solvent for painting prep. And i'm not sure what this booster spray is all about, so I can't give an opinion

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You want to wash it with dawn dish soap, do your prep work, then use the prep spray right before you coat. Sure you can use a more generic product, but if your gonna commit the time to this what are you trying to save? $10?

And the aftercare/booster is more important than you might think. You apply this after the initial cure time to be sure your keeping water off the ceramic base coating you laid down until full cure time is done. I know as time has gone on this step has become less important as the ceramic coatings have gotten better. But there are horror stories of people that got the car wet in the first few days and it water spotted/etched into the ceramic coating. The companies claiming this boosts the ceramic protection I don’t really buy into but it does add a temporary/sacrificial layer. My issue is most want to do the coating to ease cleaning, not add more work. I haven’t ceramic coated my last few vehicles and they honestly look just as good as the ones I coated and I don’t spend any more time washing or polishing them. I suppose it depends how you look after your paint. But this stuff doesn’t work any miracles even though you hear people
Say a simple garden hose will make your car sparkle better than new once it’s applied. Maybe for the first few months it will if you don’t put many miles on…