How To Care For Your New Ceramic Coating!
Congratulations on your new ceramic coating! In this post, we will discuss how to care for your new coating. The methods are a combination of my own personal experience and other methods created by other professional detailers.
Ceramic Coatings are designed to protect your factory clear coat, to provide a protective barrier against the harsh elements, and to keep your vehicle looking its best at all times. With simple care and preventative maintenance, your coating will reward you for years to come.
0-7 Days
The first 24 hours after the coating is applied are critical for its longevity, so take special care of your coating during this period. The coating should not be exposed to water during this time. The longer you can keep your newly coated car clean and dry, the better as the coating continues to cure for the next 5+ days. If you want the coating to cure faster, park your car in a warm sunny area. The heat and UV rays cut down on the curing time.
During the first 7 days, you should not wash your vehicle or use chemicals on the coating. If bug splatter or bird droppings get on your paint then they should gently be removed with a damp microfiber cloth as soon as possible during the first week. Keep in mind that the coating is still soft during this time - be gentle.
Ceramic Coating Wash Techniques
Your car washing techniques will play a critical role in the appearance of the coating moving forward, so you must use the proper methods. If you do not have your installer maintain your vehicle, these are the three methods we recommend.
Washing Methods
Standard Home Washing
This is by far the best method for maintaining your coating. We recommend maintaining a wash routine that consists of a proper hand wash at least every two weeks. As your coating becomes covered with dirt and contamination, you will notice a decrease in hydrophobic properties (i.e. water beading & sheeting). It is important to remove these surface contaminants often. If you do not know how to properly wash your car at home then check out our blog post that explains everything.
Spray ‘n wash self car washes
Not everybody has a place to wash their car, so this is a great second alternative. First, select the high-pressure soap, soap down the car, bring your own wash mitt, and wash the vehicle. Lastly, rinse the car off with a high-pressure rinse. Dry with clean and soft microfiber towels. Never use the provided brushes as they will scratch your paint.
Touchless wash
This is fairly straightforward, only use touchless car washes, never select the “spray wax” option, and never use this method if your car is excessively dirty. Touchless car washes use high pressurized streams of water to blast anything and everything from your car. This aggressive and unsafe method breaks up the dirt buildup and sends waste flying across the surface of your car. Consequently, you end up leaving scratches on the paint and plastic parts of your car.
Washing Tips
For best results, your vehicle should be washed on a bi-weekly basis or when moderate contamination builds up.
You should use a pH neutral soap and no harsh chemicals. Remember, your ceramic coating is extremely slick, this means most things will dissolve and be pulled off by the ceramic coating’s self-cleaning abilities.
Avoid brush style car washes as they are known to inflict marring and light scratches on vehicles.
Wash from the top down leaving the dirtiest sections for last to avoid cross-contamination.
Drying
Using a ceramic based quick detailer is a great drying aid. Using one damp microfiber to first dry the vehicle followed by using a second microfiber to finish drying the vehicle. This process will give you the best results.
Always dry completely and never leave to “air” dry. Tap water contains minerals that may leave deposits creating water spots.
Only use quality microfiber towels for best results and avoid aggressive wiping, allowing the material to absorb the water.
Spot Removal
Never use aggressive products to polish the coating or remove surface contamination.
Never use excessive force to remove spots.
Bird droppings, tar, sap, etc. should be removed as soon as possible to avoid temporary staining or hardening on the coating. Any staining left behind from bird droppings will break down over a few days without affecting the coating.
How to Decontaminate a Ceramic Coated Car
Ceramic coatings are great at preventing contaminants from bonding to the paint, but occasionally you will have build up. One of the reasons we install CarPro coatings is they have a fantastic line of products that are specially designed to work with their ceramic coatings. CarPro offers a fantastic set of products for chemical decontamination of ceramic coated surfaces. If you are specifically having issues with road tar you should check out Tar-X which is a spray-on, let dwell, wipe away tar remover. They also have chemicals to deal with a variety of other issues such as hard water spots, ferrous iron particles (brake dust), and bug guts. These chemicals are formulated so they should not adversely affect most silica (Sio2) based ceramic coatings.
Additional Protection
Many people are interested in applying additional protection on top of the coating. It is important to remember that when you are topping your coating with another product, you are covering or masking some of the properties of the coating.
For example, if you apply a wax on top of your coating, you will be observing the properties of the wax until it wears off and the coating is exposed. If you choose to top your coating you will still have a great base layer of protection beneath your “topper” since the coating will still be present, but the beading, sheeting, dirt/dust attraction and other properties that you observe will be characteristic of whatever product you have used to top the coating with.
It is for the reasons above we do not recommend waxing the coating. Your ceramic coating is far superior to any wax. If you want to add additional protection, use the recommended maintenance and aftercare product for your brand of coating. If you’re unsure, ask your installer what specific products you should be using.
Here at Drive by Detail, we install CarPro and Adam’s coatings, so you would use CarPro Reload and Adam’s Ceramic Boost. You should use these at 4-month intervals for best results. These booster products repair any degradation that your coating has endured, enhance gloss, and keep the coating performing optimally. Boosters are less-concentrated versions of the same formula that your coating is, so it's important to make sure you use the recommended booster.
Conclusion
Ceramic Coating your car is a fantastic decision for almost all car owners. A coating makes your vehicle easier to maintain, protects it from the elements, and enhances its looks. Maintaining your coating can be easy and fast if you follow our guide to caring for your new ceramic coating. If you take proper care of your coating, your car will look the same years later as it did the same day you picked it up. As always, we hope you learned something useful and if you have any other questions, feel free to message us.