Has anyone done a DIY ceramic coat 'refresh'?

[Simon50s]

I'm aware that you shouldn't use any conventional waxes on top of a ceramic coating, but can anyone recommend a particular 'topper' or SiO2 sealant product as these are designed to 'refresh' or boost an existing ceramic coat.

My ceramic coat has been on for two years and holding up well but was thinking of doing a 'refresh' myself. The place that did my original ceramic coat quoted me €150 but I'm thinking it can't be difficult to do this yourself as it doesn't need curing like a full-blown ceramic coat.

Has anyone done this themselves?

 

[alps26]

You could do a decontamination wash, I use Bilt Hamber Korrosol to remove any iron deposits and wash it with CarPro Reset. Then you could use Gtechniq C2v4 as a topper. Remember that the ceramic coating will then take on the properties of whatever is on top of it, so it may bead/sheet differently.

I have a Gtechniq ceramic coating so I try to keep the "topper" within their family of products as C2v4 behaves like Exo.

That said, I've had good results with Sonax BSD on top of the ceramic coating when I use it as a drying aid (it's not a drying aid product but works well as one). It doesn't last very long though (2 weeks max). Makes the colour look deeper.

 

[Simon50s]

I decided to go for an 'easy' option and choose between two products compatible for a ceramic coat and available at my local car spares shop.

Autoglym Rapid Ceramic Spray 500ml €22.90
Korrek pro TFC Ultra Finish 350 ml €16.90

I usually buy Autoglym products and have always been happy with them but this time I decided to try Korrek, which is a Finnish brand.

I was pleased with the result and the deep sheen has returned.

 

[JKP]

Looks very sharp!

I decided to go a bit different route this time with the white car. I still didn't get the ceramic coating since I thought it would be less useful on white than on darker colors, and now I didn't even wax it. I applied the Korrek Pro TFC Polymatrix coating and use the TFC Reload shampoo when I wash it. So far it seems that it's much more effective against dirt than traditional waxes, and way less laborous to apply. When I was using waxes, I needed two full rounds of washing after the winters to get the car completely clean, even though I had washed it occasionally during the winter too. This time most of the dirt was already gone after the pre-wash and certainly didn't need anything but one easy wash using the mitt.

 

[Simon50s]

I think today's car products have improved greatly. I remember years ago buying turtle wax which was a thick white creamy paste. It was an effort to apply and would often leave white residue in the panel gaps or on any black plastic trim.

 

[JKP]

Indeed. I also remember when the first Korrek Pro product came out with a huge hype. It was supposed to be a DIY-almost-ceramic coating, but turned out to be not much else but a shiny finishing agent. Also instead of making the washing easier it felt like the dirt stuck almost worse than before applying it. This new stuff is complete opposite. I first bought it out of curiosity because there was a crazy cheap offer that caught my eye in Motonet. Since then I've not been using anything else. There's also a ceramic wax available of the same product family but I never found out any real profits of it, just way more expensive and needs much more work to apply.