'Nismo' S15 Silvia | How I Ceramic Coat Cars

So welcome back to another episode of Broken Silvia, where today we are working on my friend's S15 Silvia that we call Nismo, even though it's not an original Nismo car. So previously you guys have seen me detail R34 GTRs at work and they've been like cinematic videos but have shown no instructions. So today I'm going to be specifically concentrating on the topic of ceramic coatings, what they do and how to apply them. Today we are working with the Avalon King, specifically ceramic coating. They've sent out a bit of a package to review and check out, so yeah, we'll see how it works. Let's get started. So the first thing you are going to have to do is give the car a good wash. Make sure that all the dirt has been removed off the car before going to the next step. Personally, I like to start off with the wheels, then move on to the paintwork. Begin by washing the car from the top down. The roof will always have the least amount of dirt compared to the bottom of the car which is closest to the road. In our case, this car does not have a catalytic converter in the exhaust system, so the rear bumper and the back of the boot were also left for last as there was a lot of soot in that area. Using a foam gun before making contact with the paintwork is also a good idea as the soap can loosen up a lot of the dirt before hand washing. Now comes the commonly asked question of, do I have to polish my car before applying a ceramic coating? And the answer is no you don't have to. In our case, I decided to polish the bonnet, roof and boot of the car to remove any heavy scratches the spray pan has left after painting the car about 2 years ago, while the rest of the car was left untouched for a good comparison to see how the ceramic coating reacts with paintwork that has been polished and paintwork that has been untouched. At the start of the video, I mentioned that we are concentrating on the topic of ceramic coating, but I will briefly describe to you guys what I did to remove some of the heavy scratches that were found within the paintwork. The first step was to use a heavy cutting pad, along with the cutting compound to remove the scratches, whilst the second stage I polished the paintwork using a softer foam pad. By using the softer foam pad you will be able to remove any haziness the cutting pad could have left, which also means you end up with an overall nicer finish and higher gloss. As I mentioned in the start of the video, it is not mandatory for you to correct the paintwork before applying the ceramic coating, even though there are a lot of advantages if you decide to do so, in improving the overall finish of the paintwork. Not everybody will have the tools, time, experience or even confidence in performing a paint correction, and that's fine. What you want to make sure is you want a clean surface for the ceramic coating to properly bond to the paintwork, and that can be achieved in three simple steps. Step number one is the obvious, wash the car. Step number two is clay the paint, if it needs to be clayed. As I mentioned, this car we did not have to clay because it was very very smooth, but 95% of the cars I've worked on, they've needed to be clay barred. Now by clay barring the surface, you'll be removing surface contaminants that are usually felt by hand, but sometimes can't be seen by eye. And finally, step number three is grab the alcohol wipe. This one is specific that came in the kit. Now by using the alcohol wipe, you'll be removing any polishing residue or old waxes that could be on top of the paintwork. This is the final step, and probably one of the most important steps for the ceramic coating to properly bond to your paintwork. Now before we ceramic coat the car, I might as well show you guys what's under the bonnet. So it's a built 2 litre, hyper-tuned plenum, big turbine, stuff like that, so it makes just over 400 horsepower. That's Australian horsepower if you're in America, it makes like 650, so yeah. Let's get coating! Avalon King has packed this small little box full of goodies for it to be a true DIY project that you can do at home. As you can see, we're in my friend's garage. The kit consists of the ceramic coating itself, an applicator pad, microfiber towel, suede applicator cloths, and gloves, along with instructions. A neat little trick is to grab the applicator pad along with the razor blade. Use the razor blade to cut two slits on the side of the applicator pad, which you can squeeze the suede cloth into, and then your cloth won't keep falling off the applicator pad. When applying the coating itself, you want to make sure to cover all surfaces. Now when do you know whether you've put too much or not enough? Well, a simple rule that I'd like to go by is, if it starts becoming a bit grabby, add a little bit more product until it's nice and slippery. So in the instruction manual, it says to leave the product on for one to five minutes, depending on the temperature. So I decided to leave it on there for a minute, expecting that the product would by now be rock hard and impossible to wipe off. But as you could probably see by my facial expression, I was actually quite surprised to see that it wiped off really easily. So I decided to push it even further, past that five minute mark, and see how hard it was to wipe off. I'm actually so surprised how easy the coating comes off. I was watching another few videos of people using the Avalon King, and they were saying like how sticky it is and stuff, but honestly, six minutes on top of the paint web, and it came off really, really easily. With some of the coatings, especially with the stickier ones, you're better off taking it off slowly instead of buffing off quickly, but this came off easy, like I've got nothing to stress about. I can just cruise along and coat the whole car. Now I know this car is silver, so it is quite forgiving, but we've got that light showing us the streaks, and it's small as well, so it's probably going to take a bit less time compared to other cars, but for something that you can do in your own garage in less than two hours, two hours in terms of just the coating stage, you still have to wash the car and decide if you want to polish it or not, is great, because if the coating does actually last you, let's say, three years, that's three years that you don't have to worry about polishing or waxing your car. Now waxing your car can take anywhere from 10 minutes to 25 minutes, let's say, but unfortunately in Australia, because the heats are so strong during summer, the waxes actually just melt off, so ceramic coatings are really the only option before you go for like film paint protection and stuff, but then you're talking thousands of dollars, and that you have to get professionally applied compared to this, a kit for under $100 that you can do in your own garage, or your mate's for this matter. So let's talk about ceramic coating in general, and a little bit about the product itself. So we'll start with the product. The product comes packed full of goodies in this small little box, and as I mentioned, it's super user-friendly as it doesn't harden quickly. Now in saying that, what I've found with other ceramic coatings is you apply them, and you don't have much working time between applying it and buffing it off. Now if you don't buff it off in time, and you're left with streaks, those streaks harden, which means you can't just wipe it off. You actually have to use a machine polisher to polish those streaks off, and then you have to prep it and reapply the coating in those sections. So it's a really, really good thing that this gives you a lot of working time, so you don't stuff up your paint job in a way. But because you have more working time, my theory is that this coating will take a lot longer for it to harden compared to the other ones. But in the instruction manual, it pretty much says keep your car indoors for about 48 hours, which I believe would be more than enough time for the coating to properly cure. So if you have the weekend off, start on a Saturday, and you can drive your car on a Monday sort of deal. Once the coating has properly cured, all you're going to have to do is wash the car to maintain that coating. No need to polish it or wax it. Washing your car afterwards will now be a breeze, as things won't really want to stick to the paintwork. So foaming the car up and rinsing it off will get rid of the majority of the dirt. So that makes sure when you go to hand wash the car and dry it, you minimise the risk of putting scratches in your paintwork. So this is how I apply ceramic coatings. I hope I've kept it really simple and basic so everybody can understand the step-by-step on how to do it. And finally, I have added a link in the description where you can get your own kit if this is something that might interest you. Next time on Broken Sylvia, I'll be showing you the process on how I wash cars, and we're also going to see how the Armour Shield 9 holds up with a bit of dirt thrown at it. Bye!