As I've alluded to before, the whole subject of car paintwork maintenance and detailing is totally subjective.
I am an admitted complete obsessive nutter that is bothered by the slightest imperfections. I have shown pictures on this forum of my now three and half years old Genesis Electrified G80.
Last year in late March corrosion was identified on the underside of the bonnet, which required a replacement bonnet panel to be fitted, painted and blended in, with the adjacent front wings and with even blending into the A pillars.
The work, of course under warranty, could have been carried out by an approved Genesis/Hyundai bodyshop but 'me being me', I insisted the car goto the bodyshop I have been using for the last fifteen years.
Based in Sunningdale Berkshire - Fastlane PAB are the official bodyshop for amongst other Rolls Royce UK in Goodwood, who send their own factory cars there from even elsewhere in the world, and more importantly
have done paintwork for me on my previous Maserati and before that Jaguar.
They pulled out all the stops, and get their top two painters to work on my car. Genesis UK had to add them to their list of approved UK bodyshops to get the work completed under warranty.
Upon completion, and after PPF was reapplied (by Autoprotek in Minley Hampshire) the work was excellent, and completely indistinguishable from the factory OEM finish.
However it didn't take long for my OCD to spot the minnutist of imperfections, nothing like dirt nibs, or colour or finish differences, but a few tiny anomalies in the surface of the lacquer! These of which at best are only marginally visible in certain lights, with a certain type of reflection on the bonnet, and then only if you know where to look, and even then only from the right angle!!!
I have pointed these out to the guys at Fastlane, who all know me very well, to the point of jokingly (I hope!!) calling me psycho! I even found imperfections on the underneath of the wings only noticeable if you lie on the ground and feel if you place your fingers between the underside of the wings and lower sill panel!!!
As they pointed out on a half a million pound Rolls Royce Spectre that was sitting there, you can find imperfections in any car whatever the price, it just depends how far you want to look. Indeed my Genesis has imperfections in the OEM finish from the factory.
The problem is, when you suffer from an OCD issue, imperfections which any reasonable person would accept and consider perfectly normal, play on the mind of the OCD sufferer to an abnormal degree.
Having bored everyone with this whole story, the point that I would like to make on the subject of this thread. Ceramic coating and PPF applications plus an inexhaustable range of other car care products, that cover every aspect of the appearance of your car, are all designed to appeal to a vehicle owner who to a greater or lesser degree, is trying to achieve keeping their car as perfect as possible in THEIR eyes.
At one extreme you have those like me who are suckers for the latest product sold by my local car detailing stockist, or the professional work carried out by my chosen PPF application and detailing company, who are on an impossible mission to strive for absolute perfection in maintaining their car to even beyond factory standards, and then at the other extreme the owner who takes their car maybe to the local car wash every few months!
How much you want to spend on any of these products, is down to what you are personally looking to achieve. Just be aware, none of these products offer the magic bullet to never needing to wash or polish your car. The Ceramic coating are all reliant on the products you subsequently wash your car with - if you want to maintain the coating you ideally need to use a PH neutral shampoo, and if you want to avoid swirls and light surface scratches (all but impossible to avoid, again it's how close you want to look, and under what lighting conditions), it helps to follow the things like -
The two bucket method with grit guards
Sheepskin wash mit
Snowfoam
Quick detailing products to help preserve the coating etc etc etc.
I suppose, what im trying to say, if you've read this far, once you start down this rabbit hole, if you're not careful, you ultimately end up like me - a total obsessive who can't enjoy car ownership because im always obsessing about the tiniest little thing!!!
