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Posted

Some of you may recall that a couple of months ago I asked some questions about doing a paint correction (i.e., buffing) and ceramic coating my plane. 

Here is the bind I am in. After a lot of comparisons I found a shop nearby that was willing to do the job for 2/3 of the original quote I had gotten ($3500 versus $5000). However, maybe they did tell me and I did not register, or maybe they did not tell me and I found out only afterwards, but the product they applied is PermaGard, which from what I can tell is a polymer based coating, not a ceramic coat. The plane looks very nice now, but I wonder how durable this product is, and how I can proceed going forward.

From reading on the internet, this product needs to be applied every year, or else it becomes useless after a year or two. (This seems to be in contrast to what ceramic shops told me, which was that their product was expected to last 3-5 years, and on the longer side if the plane was hangared.) 

Two questions:

a) Is there a way I can maintain this polymer coating with products available to the general public, so that it lasts me a long time (without needing to pay $2000-3000 every year to get it commercially reapplied)? I know that a ceramic coating cannot be put on top of this without a new polishing and chemical stripping of the Permagard product.

b) What products would people recommend using on top of the Permagard? Wax (like WashWax All), or some of the other coatings like Triphene or pther graphene based protectants from Amazon?

I am pretty discouraged that I did not do a bit more research beforehand to understand the difference between the polymer and ceramic coatings...

Thanks, Andrei.

Posted

You may also consider checking what UL fuels will do to this coating. There are few posts about the possibly detrimental effects of unladed fuels on aircraft paint.

Posted (edited)

Personally I’m a skeptic of how long do ceramic coatings last, I don’t believe they will last 3 to 5 years, but I guess that depends on the definition of last.

“Ceramic” coating is apparently a polymer.

https://cardetailingplanet.com/is-a-ceramic-coating-worth-your-money-should-you-get-it/

This is ceramic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceramic

I don’t know how the paint coating is a ceramic, perhaps a marketing thing maybe or ?

Edited by A64Pilot
Posted

I think the biggest benefit from ceramic coating is that they are much easier to clean which translates to less work, less pressure, and less scratches from scraping the surface.  The "better" the coating, the longer the protection lasts.  The "professional" grade products last longer but part of that is that the surface is properly prepared so that the product adheres better, and the other part is the quality of product.  Base preparation and paint correction is time intensive and requires some degree of technique/equipment.

Most professionals would probably recommend a touch up or refresher every few years...a good rule of thumb is when you notice a different in water beading, slickness or gloss.

Most paint shops I've spoken with recommend ceramic coating.  Of course the "value" of this, like most things in aviation, is dependent on the eye of the beholder.

@AndreiC it's interesting that Permagard advertises as not needing paint correction and so seems like it should have been way cheaper than ceramic with paint correction.

Posted

Well, I talked to PermaGard and got some slightly better news. They said that their product is relatively easy to apply after the initial preparation and application (so just to maintain it), and for a small plane like mine/ours they would be able to sell it to me directly. They said that just watching a 1-2 hour video that is available on YouTube would be enough to understand how to apply their product, and that one could get a Mooney-like plane in a day of work, taking it relatively easily. So I can, with relatively minimal cost, do the yearly maintenance of the coating, and with that things should last a while.

My concern was that I did not want to be stuck with having to pay a specialized contractor to do it every year for a large (~2 AMU) expense.

@Marc_B: my plane needed paint correction anyway, the paint was old, badly oxidized and just plain dirty (with dirt embedded in the paint). So that is how I explain the high cost of what I got -- they needed to go over the paint at least twice with their buffing/polishing before applying the PermaGard product.

Apparently GulfStream uses the PermaGard product for their planes. Maybe it's not so bad... 

  • Like 2
Posted

@AndreiC most of the money you spent towards the labor of the actual paint correction. The coating most likely took about a 1/5th of the time and the cost of the coating itself couldn't of been any greater than $200. 

You're still in a good spot really. Since the paint correction has been completed, and you have protection applied, your paint will continue to look good. You could apply another ceramic coating on top of the poly earlier than a year to ensure continued protection without having to get a full paint correction as well. 

Coming from a guy who has done a paint correction or two ...

image.png.259411b1f15df768442be1c22f0f12fa.png

  • Like 5
Posted

I think a good quality coating on a hangared aircraft should last at least 5 years.

I did my M3 with Zaino about a year after I got it in 2002.  It is garaged.  It still looks good and water beads on it.

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