Quote:
Originally Posted by kwarden13
The back of my car looks drastically different from the rest. It has dirt stuck, does not bead, I hosed it and nothing happened it. My car was new and ceramic coated less then 3 weeks ago. Wondering if they just missed the back.
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Well ... a couple of things:
(1.) Maybe (?) you need to get your money back
No detailer misses a major portion of the car ... that said ...
(2.) Beading vs Sheeting
On a new car, water should sheet off a clean car even better than if it's treated!
Be that treatment ceramic, a polymer LSP, or carnauba wax, those will bead & retain water while a new car will sheet most all off .. until it gets dirty! Which will happen fairly quickly ... "Sheeting" means, when the water runs off, it looks like large irregular-edged sheet and all flows off the car. Beading means that sheet will bunch up into many bubbly-looking beads. Again, on a new car, the beading will usually leave more water on the car than no-treatment sheeting.
So when you say you "hosed it and nothing happened" what does that mean? Do you mean the car is dusty/muddy/dirty and when you hosed it the dirt didn't come off? If so then ...
(3.) Ceramic is just a surface protectant
It won't repel dirt, but it will make it easier (for awhile depending) to clean off ... but, like you said, you still have to routinely wash your car to clean off the dirt - there is no way around that with any known technology.
As you pointed out, for anyone who wants the shiniest car always, even with ceramic you still have to wash it.
Having been through all of it, that why, for anyone willing to put in 20-30 min every few weeks for the always-shine, ceramic is just so not worth it - a waterless wash is pretty dang simple & if you tack on an extra 10 min every few months for some meguires hybrid wax or bead maker it's so much easier. $4 of bead maker 3x / year will look better than $1500 of ceramic, just my 2 cents.
After having been a 2-bucket-foam-gun guy, then bringing my car to a fancy detailer for a few years, I finally realized I could do a waterless wash in less time than it took me to drive to the detailer's and it looked equal or better with fewer scratches.
With my last car, 20 min / month of waterless wash for 3 years and I had almost zero swirls.
Just so much easier & better to do it yourself.