Detailing: Wash and wax/sealant or ceramic coating

I had a few looks at ceramic coating when getting quotes for PPF. It looked to me like snake oil. Went the PPF route. If you do get ceramic, let me know if it's really worth it.

 

All I can think is “someone’s always finding a new way to to extract money from folks”. I’d categorize this with dryer sheets, pedicures and so on.

Is there no way you can just wash an’ wax the car? It entails a wash bucket and sponge, bottle of car wash liquid, bottle of liquid car wax (aka “polish”, typically come with applicator pad), and some flannel cloths for buffing (soak in dilute ammonia after, with a bit of soap, rinse and wring out thoroughly, then add to laundry load).

You’re dealing with condo rules? Any way you can access a driveway and hose, preferably someone’s carport?

“Respirator” has me thinking I’m trampling around in Chris Farley mode, let me know.

 

I'm not that particular about my paint; as long as it looks half-way decent.
The price seems high, though I guess labor cost is high these days.
I detail my car annually and do a ceramic coating - not that expensive marketing bougie stuff - I do it myself. The benefit is that all I have to do is hose-off and maybe use a brush on the car, then dry it. Any stubborn stains gets the brush; then a spray of ceramic waterless detail; to restore any lost coating. I don't get really harsh weather here and they only sand the roads when needed. The worst I get is when they're repaving roads. Most tar will wash-off/rinse-off with that ceramic base coating.
I had some nasty water spots once. Had to polish the entire panel and recoat it. Don't park near automatic sprinklers.

YMMV

 

Or at surprisingly free and convenient parking spots, under "certain trees"...

 

Then I'm dealing with hood and roof stains
We have a lot of trees around here that are infested with aphids. Those droppings are like pin-head tree sap - they really stick to hot car surfaces.

 

Take a look at using a "rinseless wash". Optimum No Rinse is one such product that get tons of props in the detailer blogs online. It's a polymer cleaner. I use it a lot and it gets better every time I use it. Regardless of that, you'll still have to wax it, put ceramic on it, or use something like ICON Rockclear (like additional clear coat). Wax is cheaper, ceramic is very slick, ICON works but expensive. If you do the ceramic yourself you'll need to prep the surface and use a polisher. The detailer world has holy wars about all these things so I won't really get into it. Like stated previously it depends how long you plan on keeping it. No matter what if you want to protect it you'll be washing it every two weeks. There are all kinds of products out there and it depends on your level of involvement with your car. There are also plenty of "hybrid" cleaning and polishing products out there. One for example is Turtle Wax Hybrid Solutions - it's a bit gimmicky with "graphene", but it gets a lot of really good reviews. It's not the same as a ceramic coat, but it may work out good enough. It's a big, crazy, multi-opinioned world out there for paint care, just pick something and see how it goes.

 

Heck, don't forget the water you use also contributes to staining, I have to used 5 gal containers of water that has been run through an RO machine and which is soft. My water at home is sulfur and hard water. Even rain water can be an issue. Again the ONR helps me a lot here.]

 

That’s a little presumptive, lol. Depends a lot on usage, location, weather, storage conditions.