[Shaunz]

Hello!

I recently picked up a 2023 x5m50i in black sapphire metallic and trying to decide on ceramic coat or not. My last car was 2022 m550i that I ceramic coated but only kept for 16 months.

I estimate I’ll keep my x5 for maybe 2-3 years as it’s a lease and not sure what to do. I love the posts that share info on the diff options but wanted to get some feedback.

If I plan to keep the car for only 2 years would it make sense to do ceramic coat?

What about just getting a full detail with paint correction then apply something myself every so often? If I did that that could cost $500x2 per year so $1000/year vs ceramic coat one time for $1400 or so.

In Bay Area California so prices are high. Happy to take any referrals for places here too! Thanks so much

[careyd38]

If it's a lease why do anything? I would think for 2 or 3 years it would still look good with just washing.

[GrussGott]

Originally Posted by Shaunz

What about just getting a full detail with paint correction then apply something myself every so often?

What about your paint do you think needs correcting? Do you see/notice actual places where you think, "damn, that panel need correction" ?

If you're satisfied with how the paint looks now, then do:
* a decon wash,
* decon (iron, maybe other things like water spots & tar)
* paint prep (like with a panel wipe)
* Put on a great water-based coating like Nova Lustre (or Turtle Wax's Seal-n-Shine is an insane deal with 6-9 months of protection for $10 bottle that'll last you forever)
* OR do a resin-based ceramic yourself - it's not hard; something like Car Pro Lite is easy & doesn't require flashing or any of that BS

A noob / first-timer can do this no problem. If you're smart enough to get into a position to buy a BMW, you can do a car decon

Then just keep it washed with good technique every 2-3 weeks.

Functionally there's zero difference between a water-based coating you apply and a $$$$ multi-year resin-based ceramic coating.
That said, I would ceramic coat wheels if you can take them off the vehicle. If not, use TW Seal-n-shine on them, including the back of the spokes.

Nobody likes hearing this, but for anyone willing to wash their car at least once/month, multi-year ceramics and "paint correction" are mostly a scam.

And for the same price as ceramic you can buy the most sweet-ass home detailing setup imaginable.

This stuff:
* shit-tons of korean microfiber (not the garbage chinese stuff),
* tons of product,
* ego blower,
* Worx Hydroshot
* 12 marolex pump sprayers, etc

including that Kranzle pressure washer w/ mosmatic gun & wand + CR Spotless water de-ionizer cost about 50% what a full ceramic would cost in the bay area

[P1]

You're leasing it. Wash it and dry it.

Why on earth go beyond that?

[myers64d]

Do you see any appreciable different between Nova Lustre and the TW products?

[Shaunz]

Thanks! I’m gunna try that and post a pic soon.

[GrussGott]

Originally Posted by myers64d

Do you see any appreciable different between Nova Lustre and the TW products?

definitely when it comes to hiding swirls.

The best stack on TW I've found is Seal-n-Shine + ICE Spray Wax, at least on my ametrin X5 the spray way REALLY throws on the warm pop that you don't get from seal-n-shine alone.

It's very hard to tell in these pics but this is just Seal-n-shine:



And this is Seal-n-Shine topped with Ice Spray Wax:



You might see that SnS alone is a bit more "sharp" whereas topped with Spray Wax it get a warmer glow to it. hard to see in the pics I know, but in person it's noticeable. Even my wife who couldn't care less about this stuff noticed it.

As for Nova ...

Nova lets you stack Lustre + Jet + Boost, and while Boost does add some ... boost, I'd say the best bang/$ is Lustre + Jet and then topping up Jet ever month or so. you can go a lot longer if you don't drive in rain / snow.

On properly prepped paint, Lustre does a great job of hiding any light marring or swirls while also really making the paint pop. It's one of the few products I've used and and been like Jet then gives you slickness & hydrophobics without altering the look of lustre.

It's probably my top choice right now for a water-based coating ... I don't see much of a reason to use longer-lasting ceramics so in few months I'll do a polish and full application of Lustre + Jet

[myers64d]

GrussGott, extremely helpful? Any recommendations on how to best prep the paint before first Lustre application and follow on Jet applications?

[GrussGott]

Originally Posted by myers64d

GrussGott, extremely helpful? Any recommendations on how to best prep the paint before first Lustre application and follow on Jet applications?

Sure; of course a lot depends on how contaminated the paint is to begin with, that said the process is fairly simple:

(1.) A good pre-wash, then a thorough contact wash
Ideally with both with "strip" shampoos and/or APCs / degreasers. Ideally rinse with de-ionized water (which you can get at Whole Foods in the bulk water section)

(2.) A chemical decon
* Iron remover & rinse
* Maybe a tar remover (e.g., Final Sol or TarX), especially if you have old coatings on there
* Maybe a water spot remover (e.g., Car Pro Spotless) if you have water spotting
* Another quick wash to ensure all chemicals are gone, rinsed with de-i water

(3.) Physical decon
Only if needed: e.g., put your hand in a thin plastic bag; do you feel a lot of bumps on the paint like sand? Then you probably should clay with a fine clay (not medium or greater).
NOTE: this will create some marring, hopefully light, but maybe not, and then may require polishing to remove.
Thus if you don't want to take the chance, or you try a spot and there's more marring than you'd like, skip this step.

(4.) Blow out!
If possible you want to blow out all the cracks because you don't want any water to run out onto the surface while your coating. Don't forget to dry & blow out the doors jams, i.e., opening each door and drying the sills.

(5.) Panel wipe
You can use a brand name product like Car Pro Eraser or simply mix 50% isopropyl alcohol (90%+) and 50% de-i water.

That should get you about as pristine as can get!

On a new car you might choose to just do a really thorough pre-wash & wash, blow out, then panel wipe.

As for chemicals ...

For a pre-wash you can go with something cheap like do There's a company that's mostly a commercial chemical manufacturer for automated car washes and fleet companies called Superior Products, but they do make consumer stuff that you can get at O'Reilly's, but you have to order them by calling ahead. It's so cheap that you can buy a bunch of different products and try it all to see what you like.

Here's the catalog and each product has a code like C63 and a size like 1 gallon; to order a 1 gallon bottle you'd call O'Reilly's and order "C63-1", then go pick it up the next day.

All their stuff is GREAT and it's equal or better to any namebrand stuff I've tried with the exception of their rinseless wash (McKee's is best IME) & coatings where I find Turtle Wax to be the king of GREAT cheap products. With that, they don't make it consumer friendly so here'd be my primer:

Special Use
* Purple Prep, D12, is an iron remover
* Fire Power, C58, primarily a carpet cleaner for extractors

SP shampoos & soaps
* Dirt Buster, C60, great for hand washes
* Cherry Foam, C62, like Adam's, great for foam cannons

SP has a rinseless (Waterless & Wax, C47) and another shampoo (Wash & Shine, C44) but both have a gloss enhancer they leave behind which I don't like as I add that later

APC
* Green All, C59, great APC

Pre-washes / Bug / Road Film removers in increasing power (all are dilutable based on need; usually 4:1 or less)
* Pink Perfection, C67, basically a car shampoo + Green All, good for bugs & road film
* Road Warrior, C46, GREAT road film remover, wheel cleaner, & pre-wash

Degreasers / Tar Removers
* Dark Fury, C66, the road film and wheel nuke option, use with caution
* Muscle Magic, C77, Similar to Dark Fury, but more for oil & grease, also great in the garage
* Final Sol, D50, NOT water-based, great on tar, glue, and removing coatings, but you gotta be careful and work section by section using caution!

Sure you can use namebrand stuff, and most of it is good or great, but SP stuff is cheap, available, and allows you to try lots of different things for good price and then if you want to see if, say, Car Pro is better, then you can get that.

My favorites are

* Pink Perfection: great in a spray bottle, bucket or foam cannon for a wash and removes road film and bugs, and decent on wheels! so it's a 4-for-1.
* Road Warrior: great step-up in degreasing for road film and wheels
* Cherry Foam: great out of a foam cannon

And you can mix them, so sometimes I'll do 70% Cherry Foam, 30% Road warrior.

Anyway, I mention this because when you're starting out buying all these products from, say, Car Pro or Gyeon or gTechniq can get really spendy and SP stuff is a great way to the get the same results and then you can swap in a spendy version and see if it gets you better results.

$100 can pretty much set you up for product for at least a year.

[myers64d]

Thanks again for a thorough an incredibly informative response!

[myers64d]

Grussgrot, I stacked Lustre and jet. Looks great! I think I’ve seen you post your thought that you’d need to reapply Jet monthly. Can you confirm? Also, any idea how long before reapplying Lustre as the “base” sealant?

[Glen e]

I’m a huge fan of Gyeon CanCoat Evo.. It’s a light ceramic coating, but much easier to apply and lasts about six months outside, a year if garaged. I can do an entire car in about 15-20 minutes.

[Ljn21]

Adams Graphene Spray, Griots 3-in-1 Spray, Turtle Wax Seal-n-Shine. All super cheap and would be fine for a short term lease.

You could also do a DIY ceramic coat. Adams Advanced Graphene coating is nice and easy and right around $100 or so. I prefer Kamikaze Miyabi or ISM for about the same price, super easy to use.

[Shaunz]

Ended up going with the advice on this thread and washed and Decon then did turtle wax seal and shine. Took me 4 hours and I had to apply the turtle wax at night with poor lighting. Luckily it turned out great! I am def gunna do this every 6 months vs paying for ceramic moving forward for my leases and will invest in a polisher and better lighting for next time

Thanks for the advice !

[Nettles]

Originally Posted by Shaunz

Ended up going with the advice on this thread and washed and Decon then did turtle wax seal and shine. Took me 4 hours and I had to apply the turtle wax at night with poor lighting. Luckily it turned out great! I am def gunna do this every 6 months vs paying for ceramic moving forward for my leases and will invest in a polisher and better lighting for next time

Thanks for the advice !

Car looks great. Honestly most people fall into this category as long as you want to invest the time and have all the right materials to get the job done. Otherwise marketing hype leads everyone to believe they NEED ceramic/ppf.

[Shaunz]

Thanks to Grussgot and this video by pan: https://youtu.be/49DtbUBHMpg

[TheMidnightNarwhal]

Originally Posted by careyd38

If it's a lease why do anything? I would think for 2 or 3 years it would still look good with just washing.

Some people just like having the flashier car and cleaner looking car like myself. You know that crisp looking finish idk how to explain it. A perfectly polished and swirl free car with a wax/sealant/ceramic is going to look much better. Most cars from the dealer are swirled already.

[GrussGott]

Originally Posted by TheMidnightNarwhal

Most cars from the dealer are swirled already.

Every ED car I've had has been perfect and mostly how I dropped it off when I picked it up in the US.

My X5, I peeled off the white protection myself and underneath it on the hood was a nice scratch.

So yeah, cars can come from the factory with scratches but personally I'd never pay a detailer $1000s for correction and 5+ days of work.

You can buy a full set of top of the line Rupes DA polishers, pads, and product for less and even a total noob can do the job in a day.

[Shaunz]

Also… light dust on the car from driving it today and then I tried to remove a wet spot with a microfiber and now there are scratch marks…oops. How do you remove the scratches?

[TheMidnightNarwhal]

Originally Posted by GrussGott

Every ED car I've had has been perfect and mostly how I dropped it off when I picked it up in the US.

My X5, I peeled off the white protection myself and underneath it on the hood was a nice scratch.

So yeah, cars can come from the factory with scratches but personally I'd never pay a detailer $1000s for correction and 5+ days of work.

You can buy a full set of top of the line Rupes DA polishers, pads, and product for less and even a total noob can do the job in a day.

For sure I DIY to. I DIY because the price "pros" charge are insane lol.

[LivingInSalt]

Originally Posted by Shaunz

Also… light dust on the car from driving it today and then I tried to remove a wet spot with a microfiber and now there are scratch marks…oops. How do you remove the scratches?

With a random orbital polisher and polishing compound

[Soply1990]

Originally Posted by Shaunz

Hello! terraria

I recently picked up a 2023 x5m50i in black sapphire metallic and trying to decide on ceramic coat or not. My last car was 2022 m550i that I ceramic coated but only kept for 16 months.

I estimate I’ll keep my x5 for maybe 2-3 years as it’s a lease and not sure what to do. I love the posts that share info on the diff options but wanted to get some feedback.

If I plan to keep the car for only 2 years would it make sense to do ceramic coat?

What about just getting a full detail with paint correction then apply something myself every so often? If I did that that could cost $500x2 per year so $1000/year vs ceramic coat one time for $1400 or so.

In Bay Area California so prices are high. Happy to take any referrals for places here too! Thanks so much

If you decide not to ceramic coat your car, there are still other options available to help protect the paint and maintain its appearance. A full detail with paint correction can help remove any imperfections in the paint and restore its shine. You can also consider applying a wax or sealant regularly to help protect the paint from environmental factors.