Hi everybody

 

I’ve been a very happy Skoda owner since 2002

 

2002 Fabia 1.9 Tdi                  bought new in UK

2008 Octavia 1.9 Tdi               bought new in UK

2012 Yeti 2.0 Tdi                     bought new in France

 

I’m waiting for

Octavia Estate/’Kombi’

150 bhp automatic

 

Ordered in France:                   February 2025

Estimated delivery date:          November 2025

 

Given that I am 70 and tend to keep my cars for…err decades, I think it would be over optimistic to think I’m likely to buy another one.

 

I’m pretty paranoid about looking after bodywork and so on and having cars serviced very regularly.  Luckily, I have an absolutely brilliant two-man French garage for mechanical stuff – independent, but specialising in VW, Skoda and Mercedes.

 

My question is, what is the very best way to provide long-term care of the bodywork?  I’ve heard of ceramic coating and also another technique that I can’t just remember the name of.

I would be really interested in any thoughts – most of all, I’d welcome any experiences you’ve had with these or other methods.

I would be quite inclined to get anything done in the UK, as I’d say that the whole French car market and philosophy of car ownership is pretty different from the UK, especially in a very rural area, like here; any specific providers/reviews would therefore be great, as well

 

Thanks in advance for any advice, comments, general or specific views.

 

Paul  

Hi, I tend to keep my cars a while too! My current vRS is a 16 plate. At first I had something called Diamondbrite put on it which was pretty good. After a few years I took a clay bar to the car and was surprised with how much rubbish came out of the paintwork. After rinsing and drying the car I applied some wax from Bilt Hamber. This provided great beading , protection and cover. I recently applied again and the car looks great. Apparently you should clay bar every year but I haven’t. My car still looks lovely. Anyway I am getting a new vRS in November. No paint protection from a dealer this time - I will do it myself, with a clay bar again, then wax, and maybe an ‘easy to apply’, decent ceramic coating, but not 100% sure yet. Somebody on here may have a different/ better idea. Good luck! Oh and I reckon you have another couple of cars in you….💪🤞👍🙂💥

If you really want to protect the paint and try to minimize the physical damages, PPF (paint protection film) is the best solution. But also quite more expansive than ceramic coating.

Another thing is also to take care of places on the car where rust is most common. Underbody - you could do an additional rust protection to the underbody. I saw quite a lot reports about the rust forming on the back (hatch) door. Including myself. Resolution is by doing additional anti-rust impregnation of the inside of the door and removing the plastic covers on the bottom of the door. Another place where rust is also quite common is under front fenders behind the fender liner (between the wheel and the front doors) where all sort of dirt can accumulate over the time. Regular cleaning is recommended. Some pictures below.

I got my Octavia RS in February. I had never used ceramic coatings before or PPF. My research led me to realise that only PPF is actual protection but it is so expensive I can see what it really only makes sense in a Porsche etc..

Ceramic coatings mostly make the paint look better for longer with less wash maintenance needed to keep it shiny but doesn’t really provide any real protection. If you are giving to choose this you don’t want it done by the dealer but by a reputable supplier after delivery.

I decided to make it a point to just wash the car well and frequently myself and buy into a system of good product including a synthetic sealant. So far so good and the paint looks better than when I picked the car up.

@TheUltraRunner what wheels are those? They look very nice.

I would argue that PPF makes sense only on a pristine, garaged car. As soon as the car is outside 24/7, my opinion is that the benefit of the PPF starts to wear off, as the wheels, plastics and the like are exposed to the elements anyway.

If I were to buy a new/almost new car, I would likely PPF the front end, just to avoid stone chips, and call it a day. It would be different if it were a 911, as above, but in the real world for a daily driver, I think the car is exposed to too many risks to justify PPF or the like. If it's a garaged, weekend car then sure, that's different.

Ceramic coating is a different story, but as @travs can confirm, it is not a magic solution (in the same way that PPF is).

It's also worth noting that cars tend to come from the factory a little worse for wear (even Porsche!), simply due to the transportation and manufacturing processes. A good top down detail, decontamination and paint correction would be my first port of call, before applying any PPF/Ceramic/etc

Just to tidy up a few things:

There are 3 methods to decontaminating the paint:

1. Iron Fallout remover - removes tiny iron filings stuck in the clearcoat from brake discs or railway lines. Works by dissolving the iron and turning red/purple.

2. Tar/glue/sap remover - organic hydrocarbon (ie a petroleum-based product) which dissolves little tar spots which are flicked up from the road and stick on the paint. Pity us black car owners.

3. Clay bar. This manually removes both types of contaminants from the above as well as any others. This will cause damage to the paint as you are rubbing across the paint.

The above is decontamination. As opposed to just cleaning. For that you want to do 2 stages:

1. Prewash - this can be in the form of snowfoam, a citrus prewash or a traffic film remover. You don’t need to do more than one, get the dilution ration right and it’ll be fine. Spray on, let it dwell without drying and give it a good blast off with the pressure washer

2. Safe Contact wash. 3 methods - 2 bucket method (clean suds and rinse water), and 2 x single bucket methods: either using a pump spray to put the product on the car and a rinse bucket. Or a clean bucket and 7 or 8 microfibre wash pads/washmitts. Get one out; use it on a panel, then leave it aside not in the bucket. Get the next one out etc etc.

5 minutes ago, travs said:

Just to tidy up a few things:

There are 3 methods to decontaminating the paint:

1. Iron Fallout remover - removes tiny iron filings stuck in the clearcoat from brake discs or railway lines. Works by dissolving the iron and turning red/purple.

2. Tar/glue/sap remover - organic hydrocarbon (ie a petroleum-based product) which dissolves little tar spots which are flicked up from the road and stick on the paint. Pity us black car owners.

3. Clay bar. This manually removes both types of contaminants from the above as well as any others. This will cause damage to the paint as you are rubbing across the paint.

The above is decontamination. As opposed to just cleaning. For that you want to do 2 stages:

1. Prewash - this can be in the form of snowfoam, a citrus prewash or a traffic film remover. You don’t need to do more than one, get the dilution ration right and it’ll be fine. Spray on, let it dwell without drying and give it a good blast off with the pressure washer

2. Safe Contact wash. 3 methods - 2 bucket method (clean suds and rinse water), and 2 x single bucket methods: either using a pump spray to put the product on the car and a rinse bucket. Or a clean bucket and 7 or 8 microfibre wash pads/washmitts. Get one out; use it on a panel, then leave it aside not in the bucket. Get the next one out etc etc.

your cleaning method is wha I use, snow cannon attachment for pressure washer. You are trying to minimise the chance of rubbing dirt across the paint and thus scratching it and then leaving water on it to make water stains afterwards. a good synthetic sealant used every few months helps with water beading. I love the large rapidly towel beach towel sized microfibre cloths for drying. For my wife's older car I've bought the stuff to do the decontamination which is a more complex multi step method as you describe.

I use citrus pre wash and then snow foam. I know they're both technically pre-washes, but I used the citrus to break down everything, and then the snow foam to lubricate the car for some action with the detailing brushes.

I've yet to find a sealant that I can put down the lance like I did when I used to work for a detailer. It would be nice, as a little spray bottle gets tiring.

Technically you could also count a Pre-Rinse as the first stage too, before the Pre-Wash - a good technical method is to knock-off anything with the jetwash that stops the colour of the paint showing - mud splatters, birdbombs etc. Knock those off with water so the prewash product has less obvious dirt to remove.

As far as prevention - yes you want to minimise the amount of dirt that gets moved across the paint to prevent marring as much as possible, but also removing the amount of dirt/grime that the shampoo has to cope with as well.

Synthetic Sealants are part of Paint Protection - I did a topic on that in the Styling and Car Care Forum: here

Just to clarify (pun unintended): Water Beading/Hydrophobicity isn't an 'aim' as such, its a by-product. It has become the go-to look for a clean wet car but having water bead means it sits there on the bodywork and if it isn't DI water then you're going to be left with water spots. Ideally you want water to gather and sheet off, leaving as little on there as possible. You also want to aim for a product that protects the paint as best it can - you then decide whether you want something quick and easy which you'll repeat; or a bit more involved (such as a ceramic coating or PPF) but lasts longer.

On Microfibre cloths - they're very very small fibres made of 2 types of plastic - Polyester and Polyamide. One is good at picking up water, the other is useful for picking up oil. That's why they're better than terry towel or chamois etc. etc. But...because they're plastic, you have to wash them at max of 40 degrees so the plastic fibres don't melt together, and with no other materials as the shed fibres will be collected and clog up the MF cloth.

9 minutes ago, OccyVRS said:

I've yet to find a sealant that I can put down the lance like I did when I used to work for a detailer. It would be nice, as a little spray bottle gets tiring.

You're welcome

Edited 12 August, 202512 Aug by travs

Wagner Tuning Intercooler. Wagner Tuning Boost pipes/hose (turbo to intercooler, intercooler to throttle body). RS3 Brake Ducts. SHW Clubsport discs. HEL braided lines

You're welcome 🤭

Getting it wrong and trying to take credit for brake discs which you were dead set against because you thought they were fakes and I'm going to die. Oops...

And get a new cannon if you're going to use a LSP in it. Last thing you want is contamination between pre-wash to paint protection.

Also, I use Carpro Hydro2 because its easy and lasts fairly well (car's currently filthy but still beads so its still on there) - but you could also go for this which is a snowfoam version of it.

Seriously, how hard did you look?!?

(for anyone else, I know this idiot which is why I talk to him like this)

Just now, travs said:

Getting it wrong and trying to take credit for brake discs which you were dead set against because you thought they were fakes and I'm going to die. Oops...

And get a new cannon if you're going to use a LSP in it. Last thing you want is contamination between pre-wash to paint protection.

Also, I use Carpro Hydro2 because its easy and lasts fairly well (car's currently filthy but still beads so its still on there) - but you could also go for this which is a snowfoam version of it.

Seriously, how hard did you look?!?

(for anyone else, I know this idiot which is why I talk to him like this)

For the record - I've never spoken to this man before in my life... bit of an aggressive way to speak to a stranger, but each to their own I suppose.

My current cannon/lance is on the way out, so will probably use that as the sealant one when I get another. I didn't look very hard because I knew I'd just ask you when I remembered.

I'll take credit for the idea - the fact that your execution of said idea is poor, frankly, is beyond the scope of my genius.

1 hour ago, OccyVRS said:

I didn't look very hard because I knew I'd just ask you when I remembered.

When you worked for a detailer before you met me you mean.

Hydro2 will definitely hold better but it’s pretty pricey. The concentrate stuff does last as you dilute it 6:1 and you don’t go through much on the car; but the 1litre bottle of concentrate was about £70.

@OccyVRS Japan Racing SL01 in gun metal color.

Thank you all so far – further contributions very welcome! – for your comments and suggestions:  I knew Briskoda would be the place to ask.

I think that you’ve succeeded in putting me on a much more common sensical path.

Everything you’ve all mentioned has been useful, but I’ll pick up on a few points:

 

Paint Protection Film honestly seems OTT in general and both too expensive and not practical for the real world, so I’m going to ditch that thought.

 

If ceramic coating isn’t primarily protective and also ideally needs to be done at delivery, I can’t see the point of that either.  As an aside, Skodas are not common here in France and the (relatively few, anyway) dealers are often in the hands of very few businesses.  Sadly, my supplying garage is pretty awful in all respects – there wasn’t really a practical alternative - and I wouldn’t trust them not to make a massive mess and charge me a ridiculous amount.

 

Like whippersnapper, travs and others, I think that regular, careful attention to cleaning and bodywork preservation is the only thing that makes sense.

 

Interestingly (to me!),  stubev156 mentions ‘something called Diamondbrite.’ Although I am pretty sure it won’t be the same product, this takes me back to …….  A Long Long Time Ago (1980s) and my first car, a Golf Diesel (one of the very first – these were the days when I was given a map of the UK with stations that sold diesel for cars marked on it and people looked, as though it was a tractor, when they heard me coming through the streets of Bournemouth!)

I bought something called Liquid Diamond and, after a not very professional wash, simply applied coat after dried coat for about 5 days.  It seemed to provide a definite and quite thick patina and, when I sold it many years later, the only significant rust was where a dealer had backed it into a vehicle hoist and bashed in the rear end (thank you John Fox, Basford, Nottingham)

 

With my subsequent cars – all VW and then Skodas – I’ve followed the same regimen, but using Collinite instead.  It is insanely dry and dusty here (37 at the moment – midday) and washing is out of the question, which is a pity, because my Yeti (bought in 2011 and which I intend to keep, as I’d get no more than £3,500 for it here) still looks really good.

 

I’m going to read all this in more detail, as there’s a lot I want to follow up, but thanks again very much.

 

 

Ceramic coating can be done any time. It absolutely does protect the paint - but it depends what you think the preotection is from (or what's marketed as such); it's not bulletproof. Paint protections basically have developed by chemists as follows:

• Wax - we all know wax. Originally paste, but spray waxes developed for quicker easier application

• Polymer Sealants/Paint Sealants - Artificial version of a spray wax with a different chemical left on the paint

• Ceramic Wax/Ceramic Spray/Hybrid Ceramic Wax etc etc - development of the above with the inclusion of Silica/SiO2/Silicon Dioxide (all the same stuff) as the protective component. Lasts longer but, and the detailing industry cannot stress this enough, it is not a ceramic coating

• Ceramic Coating - the strong solvent carrier (the fluid that has the protective component suspended in it) breaks the bonds of the outer layer of the clearcoat so that the ceramic molecules crosslink with themselves on and, critically, partially absorbed within the clearcoat. This alone is unique to coatings and aids in the longevity.

• PPF - clear (or coloured if you want) film that sits on the outside aka Wrap. You can get self-healing versions which, under heat, melt and swirlmarks disappear.

Ceramic coatings will protect from chemicals, grime, bug splatter, birdbombs, sap etc. You can remove all of these without the coating degrading but you can still run the car down a country lane and cause shallow scratches. As said, it can be done any time - you just want a long-lasting paint protection to be on paint which is looking its best so getting a detailer to clean, decontaminate and machine polish the paint will have the swirlmarks minimised, the paint look clear and with full colour depth so you can maintain that condition under the coating.

(Btw I'm IDA-certified - trained at UK Detailing Academy and ran it as a business for a while)

Edited 13 August, 202513 Aug by travs

Thanks for all the expert info travs. I am very much a beginner in the whole field but enjoying it and how my car looks. After I applied the sealant the next time I applied the spray foam I thought there was something wrong as it mostly sheeted straight off the vertical surfaces instead of clinging and slowing succumbing to gravity then I realised oh it’s the sealant.

If you wash the car frequently enough so it doesn’t become that dirty it isn’t that much effort to keep it looking new including things like keeping the brake calipers nice and red and free of ugly brake dust build up

44 minutes ago, whippersnapper said:

Thanks for all the expert info travs. I am very much a beginner in the whole field but enjoying it and how my car looks. After I applied the sealant the next time I applied the spray foam I thought there was something wrong as it mostly sheeted straight off the vertical surfaces instead of clinging and slowing succumbing to gravity then I realised oh it’s the sealant.

If you wash the car frequently enough so it doesn’t become that dirty it isn’t that much effort to keep it looking new including things like keeping the brake calipers nice and red and free of ugly brake dust build up

I'm not certified and definitely not a professional, but I did moonlight as a helping hand at a supercar detailing place for a summer during uni. Okay, so I did mainly just snow foam G-Wagons and hoover Ferrari floor mats, but I did pick up some good tips and earn £130 a day while I was at it! One good tip is to always make sure the lance is securely on the pressure washer, before using it. Don't ask me how I know - definitely didn't chip a Urus wheel shooting the metal lance at it.

Luckily though, I know this guy that is going to help me do a paint correction on my car in September.

The only thing I'll add, with regard to sealant, is if the car is a few years old and hasn't had much in the way of paintwork love (like mine), you might find that the behaviour after sealant isn't that good (or at least, not like Instagram). You'll need to hit it with a clay bar to remove all the small bits of rubbish.

A good rule of thumb with cleaning a car is to never let anything dry - sealant especially, but general soap and stuff too. It's nice to apply snow foam/pre wash when the car is dry, but there's no shame in cooling the paintwork off beforehand, if it needs it.

Regarding brake calipers - lots of people use acid but I actually prefer, as you said, to do a gentle bit, little and often. I use citrus pre wash and a detailing brush for the calipers - the paint isn't the best and it does a nice job whilst not being too aggressive on anything. I will hit it with a wheel cleaner every few months, but I try not to make a habit of it.

One nice benefit of not using wheel cleaner (fallout/iron remover) is that it doesn't completely strip your discs. This means they don't rust, and the first drive you go on, the wheels don't turn orange as you brake!

Oh, and tyre shine is overrated. Whoops.

Some really good info on here. So when I get my new vRS, should I use the decontamination spray and then clay bar it, or just use the decontamination spray without clay bar? Just wondering if clay bar is required as well on a new car? Thanks.

On 13/08/2025 at 21:29, OccyVRS said:

The only thing I'll add, with regard to sealant, is if the car is a few years old and hasn't had much in the way of paintwork love (like mine), you might find that the behaviour after sealant isn't that good (or at least, not like Instagram). You'll need to hit it with a clay bar to remove all the small bits of rubbish.

A good rule of thumb with cleaning a car is to never let anything dry - sealant especially, but general soap and stuff too. It's nice to apply snow foam/pre wash when the car is dry, but there's no shame in cooling the paintwork off beforehand, if it needs it.

Regarding brake calipers - lots of people use acid but I actually prefer, as you said, to do a gentle bit, little and often. I use citrus pre wash and a detailing brush for the calipers - the paint isn't the best and it does a nice job whilst not being too aggressive on anything. I will hit it with a wheel cleaner every few months, but I try not to make a habit of it.

One nice benefit of not using wheel cleaner (fallout/iron remover) is that it doesn't completely strip your discs. This means they don't rust, and the first drive you go on, the wheels don't turn orange as you brake!

Oh, and tyre shine is overrated. Whoops.

Just on these paragraphs:

The point being sealant won’t bond as effectively is there are still contaminants but if a sealant isn’t hydrophobic straight away then the car is still dirty to the effect the sealant hasn’t bonded at all which I’ve never seen. On a contaminated paintwork it’ll reduce the longevity of it but not to the point of being straight away.

Snowfoam/prewash on a wet paintwork isn’t an issue in reality. Technically it changes the dilution ratio but it would have to 99:1 to be changed to 100:1 and that just wouldn’t have an impact. Point being a wet car is fine. Most times it’s been pre-rinsed to knock off loose dirt anyway.

You don’t let chemicals dry as sometimes they’ll bond, and sometimes they’ll create additional run-off. If the paint is hot then the outer layer bonds have broken and there is a danger of absorption in the same way coatings cause to happen by design.

Wheel cleaners don’t cause discs to rust, water does; mine go orange after I’ve driven in the rain. Bilt Hamber does a product that you spray on to stop it (which no doubt has been tested not to reduce friction) but I wouldn’t bother. You can just roll the car forward and back a couple of times but RE Performance also noted that R8s are prone to seizing-up because the car isn’t driven enough to drive water out of the nooks of the caliper and actually driving to warm the brakes and dry them out fully is needed. Maybe aluminium parts…

Not all tyre dressings are over-rated. Just the silly jet-black super-glossy ones that don’t dry and sling lots of stuff all over the wheel arch. I use Carpro Darkside which is a little bit on that side. But tyre dressings can also act as UV inhibitors stopping the tyre wall from drying out. You can actually see where mine is wearing off though which sorely needs cleaning and reapplying when I get the time!

On 14/08/2025 at 08:40, stubev156 said:

Some really good info on here. So when I get my new vRS, should I use the decontamination spray and then clay bar it, or just use the decontamination spray without clay bar? Just wondering if clay bar is required as well on a new car? Thanks.

Don’t assume that the paint has been well cared-for on a brand new car. It looks good as it hasn’t been there long enough to get many scratches. But let’s face it, from the end of the production line to your driveway it’s been handled by a number of employees who aren’t paid quite enough to care much. It’s just another product to them.

When you say “the” decontamination spray, there isn’t such a thing per se. There is a fallout remover and a tar remover which are the two decontaminating chemical groups. Either way, yes use those products first.

The mantra for any detailing is “least aggressive first”. Meaning use a chemical product before manual intervention. Or use a softer ph-neutral product first before an aggressive strong acid or alkali (ph14 Sodium Hydroxide is just as damaging as ph1 Hydrochloric Acid).

So yes, pre-wash and clean the car, then use fallout remover and tar remover to get rid of any iron/tar spots that they can, then on occasion use the claybar to get rid of more stubborn contaminants but claybars will cause swirl marks as they’re abrasive. If you’re not going to polish (as in, get a machine polisher with compound), then a claybar is unnecessary.