[1-Year Update!] Avalon King Armor Shield IX Ceramic Coating Reviewed!
Can Avalon King Armor Shield IX ceramic coating fix bad paint? Nope, but follow the directions and your Corvette will shine!
1-YEAR UPDATE: Scroll to the bottom to see a quick Armor Shield IX one-year durability update (with video evidence)!
What We Love. Avalon King Armor Shield IX is extremely easy to install (after proper prep) and produces a luscious glossy shine. It also makes treated surfaces easier to clean and repels water more actively than waxed surfaces, especially when the vehicle is dirty.
What We’d Change. The cost, around $70 per bottle, is certainly debatable. But we only have two minor suggestions. First, we’d like to see more applicators included in each kit. And, one of our two review bottles flaked some dried ceramic coating that could have caused marring. (NOTE:after first publishing our review, Avalon King announced plans to include MORE applicators with each purchase.)
Intro
There’s a moment when you park. Maybe it’s your garage. At work. A car show. Wherever. You lock the door and glance back at your ride to marvel at the shimmering, glossy beauty of it all. This is the moment we fall back in love again and again. The moment we hope to preserve with detailing and paint correction and sealants of all kinds…
My car looking its absolute best.
(American Racing Wheels help too.)
With this in mind, today we’re looking at Avalon King Armor Shield IX ceramic coating. According to Avalon King, Armor Shield IX utilizes “the latest in nano-technology” to form “a strong glass-like protective layer above your paint.” In laymen’s terms, ceramic coatings are made up of millions of teeny-tiny particles that fill in and bond to the microscopic spaces in and above your paint. This, in turn, creates a scratch-resistant (keyword) coating that’s also extremely hydrophobic.
Ceramic coatings have a reputation of being both expensive and difficult to install. But Avalon King hopes to change this by taking aim at the DIY marketplace. Does Armor Shield IX live up to the hype and is it worth the premium pricing? Let’s find out together!
Editorial Disclosures
First, Avalon King sponsors this site. As part of that sponsorship, they asked me to review their product. But as a writer who places a priority on ethical product reviews, it has been my goal to remain objective throughout the entire review process.
Second, I didn’t have a Corvette on hand, so my humble Buick Roadmaster Estate Wagon served as our test subject. I believe my results should translate to a variety of applications despite its age and imperfections. (We’re also hoping to do a full LS swap build on it, so stay tuned if you care about such things.)
We’re going to publish an in-depth, dedicated post about how to prep your car and install ceramic coating in the near future, but here are the basics.
Prepping Your Car For Ceramic Coating
Preparation is the key to yielding excellent results with any ceramic coating. It’s also a very time-consuming process depending on the quality of your paint. But after a few hours and a polisher (or a metric ton of elbow grease), you can remove as many defects as possible and enhance your vehicle’s gloss factor considerably.
Here’s how it breaks down.
- Park your car in a cool, dry, shaded location.
- Remove waxes and other contaminants using a dedicated “strip wash” or gentle dish shampoo.
- You may also want to do an iron remover.
- Clay bar painted surfaces to remove microscopic junk embedded in your paint.
- Correct your paint with products like rubbing compound and polish to remove blemishes and swirl marks while enhancing gloss.
- Wipe down any surface you plan to coat with alcohol or a dedicated prep solution.
Installing Armor Shield IX
Now the easy part. The actual install is a breeze and I found this product very forgiving for a ceramic coating novice. Here’s what you do.
- Place a fresh applicator cloth on the applicator pad and then add 10-12 drops of ceramic coating.
- Pick out a small section to coat. Then wipe your coated pad across the painted surface in a side-to-side motion.
- Once covered, go back across the same surface in a side-to-side motion that’s perpendicular to your original path.
- Wait for it to cure. This varies based on ambient temperature, so read the instructions. For 70-plus degrees, I waited 1-2 minutes.
- Buff off the rainbow haze.
- Repeat steps 1-5 until every surface is coated.
- Don’t get the vehicle wet for 48 hours or feed it after Midnight. Keep it away from dust, but feel free to bake it in the sun.
- You may drive the vehicle, but it’s a good idea to avoid washing for a full week.
As you can see, the only thing you need is time to wait for curing. I was able to save a little time by leap-frogging sections as I applied the coating, but make sure not to do too large a surface at once.
The only negative I experienced was that, on one of my two bottles, little bits of dry ceramic coating flaked off onto the applicator and could have marred the paint if I didn’t notice. Thankfully, it was only an issue with one bottle and was easy to work around if I avoided touching the cloth to the bottle itself.
A note on wheels. New wheels naturally require far less prep than older wheels, but ceramic coating wheels is extra time-consuming because of all the nooks and crannies and odd angles. For older wheels, make sure to clean off all of the brake dust on the outside surfaces and inner barrel, which will help you clean off future brake dust more easily.
Impressions & Experiments
If you watched my video review (above), you saw my genuine reaction to pulling the car out into the sun for the first time. If you haven’t, I sputtered out variations of “wow” and “holy smokes” a good dozen times because my wagon looked better than ever.
Naturally, the paint correction helps, but Armor Shield IX’s gloss factor is extraordinary.
More surprising were my experiments. Once the surface cured 48 hours, I did a quick water bottle test, comparing ceramic coated and waxed surfaces while documenting the results. Despite having fresh wax on the roof, the ceramic-coated hood shed water slightly quicker. Definitive results, but not dramatic.
That came later. After the wagon sat outside under the California sun for a week.
With a thick layer of dust and grime and bug droppings, I redid the comparison. First, a water bottle. Then a hose. And finally a pressure washer. Not only was the ceramic coated section hood noticeably cleaner than the waxed roof, but water still sheeted off the hood effortlessly, just as it had done when the surface was clean. By comparison, the waxed roof held water in a large puddle.
It was also noticeably easier to remove dirt and bug droppings from ceramic coated surfaces. In contrast, waxed areas required extra agitation.
In summary, the car looks better than ever, repels (some) dirt and water, and is easier to clean.
The only thing we aren’t able to test now is durability. How long will this product last, precisely? But if you look around online and YouTube, you’ll find folks like VinWiki’s Ed Bolian who had Armor Shield IX on a Porsche for over a year while retaining positive results. Avalon King claims 2-5 years depending on how well you prep, install, and care for your coating.
Cost-Value Analysis
As I write this, Avalon King sells the Armor Shield IX DIY Kit for a penny under $70 for one bottle. Or $105 for two. Or $140 for three. (All prices include shipping). With each bottle covering one small-to-regular car or half of a larger vehicle.
So, if you buy in bulk, the minimum cost to protect each car is roughly $47-$93. Every two to five years.
Before this install, I was using Meguire’s Hybrid Ceramic Liquid Wax, which costs around $20 per bottle. While Meguire’s doesn’t make a specific durability claim, they describe the product as “the most advanced technology, longest-lasting, most durable wax in our consumer line.” Now, it’s hard to make a direct comparison because the variables are the same — I use the Meguire’s products as needed on multiple vehicles, while outside vehicles require more maintenance than garaged, for example.
In my video review, I spoke about wax products being a “little easier” and “cheaper.” And while it’s certainly easier to spray-on a wax than this install and I think that’s still true for those who only protect their vehicles once or twice a or for those who buy discount products.
Yet, in my case, and for detailing enthusiasts, when it’s easy to spend $30-40 annually per vehicle in waxing products, the numbers favor Avalon King after the second year. That said, even if when Armor Shield IX is more expensive overall and upfront, we should also factor in time savings (of not having to reapply wax), ease of cleaning, superior gloss factor, and extended durability. It’s hard to figure an exact dollar on these savings, but as the saying goes, time is money.
Overall, it’s hard to call Armor Shield IX a bargain at $47 to $70 per bottle, but it’s also not budget-killing expensive for the type of enthusiast who regularly details their vehicle(s).
1-Year Update
A little over one year ago (June 2020), I installed Avalon King Armor Shield IX ceramic coating on my Buick Roadmaster Estate Wagon and produced the above video about my experience. This past weekend (July 2021), I was washing my Buick and couldn’t help but notice how well Armor Shield IX held up from a durability perspective.
Full context: my wagon sits outside — sometimes with a car cover, sometimes not — under the blistering Southern California sun. From the look of many SoCal daily drivers, the sun not only destroys paint and plastics, but devours protective coatings like waxes and sealants. Even one of my favorite current ceramic sprays, Chemical Guys Hydro Charge, needs to be reapplied every month or two for vehicles that don’t have garage protection.
I’m excited to announce that Armor Shield IX, by comparison, is still going strong as you can see in the YouTube clip above, retaining all of the hydrophobic properties I witnessed upon installation.
Final Thoughts
After a few weeks with Avalon King Armor Shield IX ceramic coating, I’m completely sold on this product and plan to install it on all of my vehicles.
Yes, there were a few hiccups and we could probably debate the pricing, Still, Armor Shield IX won me over completely. It’s easy to install — just take your time and prep well. The gloss factor is extraordinary. It’s holding strong after one year in the elements. And now my car’s even easier to keep clean.
In other words, if I can make a 28-year-old car with imperfect paint sparkle and look this good, imperfections aside, I can only imagine what you can do with a new car or a car that’s been professionally paint corrected. Avalon King Armor Shield IX is a home run. Full stop. If you can afford it, get it and install it. Cheers and thanks for reading!
Click HERE to purchase Avalon King Armor Shield IX!
Photography by Michael S. Palmer
