I read part of your thread on your experience with coatings. I only made it about halfway through before my eyes went crossways. When I quit reading it appeared you had gotten more into toppings then coatings. Did you finally find something that performs (beads) like it did on day 1 (for more then 2 years) without toppings?
I understand claying when the surface becomes contaminated. That definitely helps some.
Longevity, for me, is something best measured in in ways other than the mere passage of time.
We have 2 cars with considerably different usage patterns; both protected with same set of products and getting the same maintenance; product combo was rated 24-36 months. One car met the longevity expectations, the other far exceeded it (or would have if I didn`t re-do it early)
Car 1 was at 3 years and coating performance was probably 85% `like new` when I removed and redid it. Likely easily coulda gone another 2 years barring any changes to usage patterns. About 17k miles at time of redo.
Car 2 was at 2 years and was recently redone as coating had reached it`s functional endpoint with regards to hydrophobic/self cleaning performance. About 43k miles at time of redo.
Car 1 is about 5500 miles a year, no freeway, sits outside from April thru November but only really driven daily November thru April, short trips, no freeway.
For 1st 2 years it sat outside 24/7, 365 days a year. We live on a wooded lot so it would spend weeks in Spring and Fall covered in debris from Maple, Oak, Cottonwood and all manner of other trees, mixed with frequent rain, snow and frost.
Car 2 is year round daily driver, generally always garaged, 20k miles a year, 95% freeway.
All are in NE Ohio.
Same protection, varying usage far different likely outcomes. Freeway use, especially during winter, is very, very hard on a vehicles finish.` Merely sitting static outside as Car 1 has done most of its life seemed to have relatively little detrimental effect on coating. Here in the wintery NE, mileage w/ the consideration of how the car is used seems to be more indicative of longevity as opposed to the passage of time.
That said, I`m a `topper guy` so for my personal cars, I`ve probably never gone more than 3-4 months (Winter) without putting a little something extra on the paint, both for functional and entertainment reasons. Summer, maybe once a month.
Many of the coatings I`ve tried I applied on fleet vans at work, which *maybe* get a touchless tunnel wash 3 or 4 times a year and coming up on 3 years (I started all this madness in 2016-2017), the quality ones are still doing well. They stay `3ft away clean and shiny` with little to no intervention. They surely don`t bead as well as when applied but aside from something to take neat pictures of, beads/beading is functionally irrelevant to me.
Coatings to me are really no different than sealants with the added benefit of `supercharging` the characteristics of a really good sealant. Better protection for longer with less ongoing effort.
I kinda got all of our personal cars `set` last Summer and don`t really expect to do much to them for the next 3 to 4 years; wash, a little booster/topper now and that`ll be it. And the Summer-only toys will probably get to 5 years easy.
Everything begins degrading the moment after it is applied, coatings are no different...they just do it far more slowly than other LSP`s I`ve tried. Like aging, time takes its toll in everything but coatings help me `prolong the inevitable` as best I can.
Perhaps I should start thinking of boosters/toppers as Botox for my paint/coatings.
