I just finished applying a ceramic coating to my 2022 Veloster N. It was tedious, but not difficult. Any mouth-breather can do this but you have to do it correctly. I've been coating all my cars for the past few years. I'm 77 years old so I run out of steam after working half a day so this job took me three half-days.
It involves a rinse, foam canon, rinse, hand wash, clay-bar, rinse, and dry on the first half-day. The next day I used my DA with Meguiar's 205, a lightly abrasive polish to remove the swirls caused by the dealer washing the car and also remove the "paint sealant" they claim to apply but which is really just a scam to get more money from the purchaser. That took up the second half-day.
The next morning I did an IPA wipe-down of the entire car using plenty of micro fiber towels and then applied Adams Advanced Graphene coating. It's the new formulation which comes in a tiny 60ml bottle but that is enough to do two Velosters. The application is the same as the regular Adams Graphene I've used on several cars before; however, the leveling process takes a tiny bit more muscle than before perhaps because there is more resin and more of "the good stuff" in the new version.
With the standard Adams Graphene, a light wipe with a clean towel was similar to wiping a dry car; i.e. hardly any drag at all. The Advanced formula is noticeably more "draggy" and they recommend you use one towel for the initial wiping procedure and another towel for the final wiping/polishing step. That was certainly easy enough but it was different from the previous cars I've coated with Adams Graphene.
On the other hand, the new formulation is supposed to be better and last 2 years longer, so it's well worth the slightly increased effort.
The full Adams kit comes with a UV flashlight and the juice has a UV tracer so you can see where it's applied because the light makes the juice glow light blue. Since my car is Performance Blue, the light is of limited value and I didn't really use it. If you're careful and precise with the applicator pad, there is really no need for the light. Plus, you should not wait too long between applying the product and wiping (leveling) it so fooling around with the light might even do more harm than good. The light and the UV tracer is a cool idea, but I can't say it's of much help. It certainly is not required, so I'd recommend buying just the bottle of juice and a small suede applicator pad.
You can buy the bottle alone for about $120 and easily get the towels, applicator pads, IPA, and other stuff you need and still spend less than $200 total. Since the bottle will do two cars, that's not bad.
If you don't already own paint correction equipment, you can get a Harbor Freight DA buffer, a couple of pads, and some compound for less than $200. Any serious car owner should have this stuff anyway, so it's a long term investment.
When you're done, you will be amazed at how little dirt accumulates on your car. And when it is time to wash, you can usually use your pressure washer to rinse, foam cannon, and rinse without ever touching the paint. Therefore, you don't accumulate scratches in your paint. A quick blast up to 60 mph blows off nearly all the water so all you have to dry is the door jams and around the license plate area. Or you can use a leaf blower to dry the car because the water drops stand up high and blow right off the ultra slick coating.
The claim the new formulation lasts 9 years which seems like a pretty bold claim. But I can say from personal experience that the old formulation was as good after 2 years as it was the day I put it on and that was without any topper or any other kind of rejuvenation. Time will tell, but I can say that ceramic coating my cars is time and money well spent. The effect is literally amazing.
