My previous silver SLK had Clearbra and after 15 years I removed it and the paint looked perfect while there were some scratches and chips in areas not covered. I have the Rapid Blue and I know that color with no "metallic" in it is going to show any/every small scratch. Looking at my first day driving in the rain results I could see this car will kick up a lot of debris and the rear was filthy. Plus I need to manually remove the coupe top and that will get scratched up so I decided on PPF full cover.
However I have never ceramic coated a car and reading a lot of posts and videos it appears ceramic does 2 things: It will help the paint gloss and reduce wash time. Thats about it. Because I have full cover PPF, I dont really need more protection. You still have to wash the car and most ceramic installations require a yearly maintenance. So I decided I would try Turtle Wax Hybrid Solutions Ceramic Wax spray (DIY $15. It went on easy and much quicker than wax. A week or two of rain here and I washed the car again and not much difference but drying time was 1/4 so I am happy.
Fortunately I have met JCWP (see previous post) and he had his car professionally coated about the same time I IY. I am not expecting the results he will get but it will be fun to compare results, right Jim?