I don’t do ceramic coatings.
You may think this an odd way to start a blog about ceramic coatings? Let me explain. I regularly get asked questions and approached for advice on ceramic coatings. The intention of this blog is to answer those questions and hopefully help you to make the right decision.
Ceramic coatings have become increasingly popular over the years and are often something I am asked about. So what is a ceramic coating? Well we could go into huge technical detail about the products, chemical properties and characteristics but that’s no use to the customer who just wants a plain English answer to “What is it and do I need one?”
What is a ceramic coating
A ceramic coating is what is known as an LSP (last stage protection). That means the final product a detailer will put on your paintwork. The layer that provides protection to the paint. If it helps, think of it like a traditional car wax but one that is much longer lasting. One that actually creates a glass hard layer on top of the paint that resists scratches and swirls. A ceramic coating may have a life expectancy of 1 year or more and some products claim up to 9 years. Some of the best products fall into the 3-7yr range.
So do you need one?
There are a few things to consider here before you take the plunge. They don’t come cheap (see more below) and you need to decide if the outlay is a worthwhile investment? How long do you normally keep your car? If you buy a car and run it into the ground then a long lasting coating could be right for you. If you swap out every couple of years why pay for a 5yr coating? Then again if you sell/return your car at 3yrs and the paintwork is immaculate it may increase your selling price. That said, considering the state of paint on many cars your purchaser may not care or even notice. Do you lease/rent/PCP the car? In other words is it going back? Again, it may enhance the value when you return it or at least reduce the risk of penalty charges… but it may not either.
So whether you need one is influenced by a number of factors and you should seek appropriate advice from a number of detailers before committing to a package. Get a feel for who you can trust and what they tell you about the coatings, the pre-preparation, how long it’s likely to take and the cost. Once you have done this research you are in a much better place to make an informed decision on what you want done or deciding not to have one at all.
What is the process to have a ceramic coating applied to my car?
All detailers do things slightly differently. Not all ceramic coatings are the same and many require product specific installation. That said the basic process is to wash, clean and fully decontaminate the car. A good 2 or 3 stage wash process should generally be followed by iron fallout remover and tar/glue removal. The latter are the sticky black blobs on your car thrown up from the road. These post wash processes are called ‘chemical decontamination’. Essentially using chemicals to remove contamination from the paint surface. Despite this process there is still likely to be even more residue on the paint and at this point a detailer should move to using a clay bar or clay mitt to clay all the panels. This is called ‘mechanical decontamination’. A soft clay specifically for car paint is lightly worked across all the panels to remove any other contamination from the paint including things like tree sap that the chemical process has not removed. The car then needs to be dried. Why go through all this decontamination? Firstly. If the car is to be machine polished then not doing so runs the risk of the polishing pad picking up this debris and actually inducing more scratches into the paint. Secondly, if not done, you are embedding this debris, which should not be there, into your ceramic coating.
Look at any car in bright sunlight. There is a good chance you will see lots and lots of light circular scratches on the paint. Often called ‘swirl marks’ or ‘micro scratches’ these significantly affect the depth, colour and gloss of the paint. Some ceramic coatings ‘may’ help in reducing the appearance of these scratches*. However, if you are proud of your car and want it to look the best then these need removing. This involves machine polishing all the panels on the car. There is no need to have this done but if this stage is omitted you are simply burying all those scratches and swirls underneath a rock hard ceramic coating. They ‘may’ be minimised by the coating but they won’t be gone and more likely will be immortalised on your paintwork until the ceramic coating eventually fails. Your car ends up having great water behaviour but still looks a mess!
Machine polishing a car is not simply a case of running a machine polisher over the car as fast as can be done and ‘hey presto’. I will cover machine polishing in more detail in another blog. However, if it is done correctly, it is not a fast process, needs a number of machines, a variety of polishing pad sizes, a selection of polishes and time. Sometimes, the ‘enhancement’ of the paint can be completed with just one pass. This means the panel is polished once with a fine polish and the result is good enough. At other times it may need two or even three stages. Detailers often refer to this as a ‘two stage’ or ‘three stage’ paint correction. Essentially they use a coarse polish to start off with to remove deeper scratches but then need to refine that afterwards with a much finer polish to bring back the gloss and shine. In ALL cases, machine polishing reduces the thickness of the clearcoat (some may refer to this as lacquer) on top of the paint. If your car has seen a lot of machine polishing then the clearcoat could be damaged if polished again. This is what detailers call ‘burn through’. The polisher burns through the last bit of clearcoat and exposes the actual colour/paint. There is only one fix here. A respray. As such your detailer should be fully checking the depth of the paint across the whole car before they even consider starting. If they aren’t doing this, burn through and don’t have insurance you will be in for an expensive bill.
Once the machine polishing is complete the whole car needs to be treated with a panel wipe. There are specific products for this but mostly it is a combination of chemicals including, to a greater or lesser extent, isopropyl alcohol (IPA). This removes any polish residue (waxes and oils) from the paint surface to ensure the panel is completely clean and ready for the application of the coating.
As I do not install ceramic coatings I will not explain here how they are applied. Many have their own specific requirements in relation to application and curing but in simple terms the product is applied panel by panel, allowed to haze over (detailers are often looking for a rainbow effect – much like the colours oil creates on water), gently wiped over to ‘level’ the coating and then buffed off to a high gloss shine. It then needs to cure for a specific period of time in line with the manufacturers instructions.
At the end of this your car looks better than it ever has before.
Who can install a ceramic coating?
Anyone. They are freely available to buy in retail outlets. So someone with lots of training, experience, qualifications and accreditations can do it but you can also have someone turn up in a van who has had no training and only started out in the business yesterday. There are many brands out there with varying prices and quality ranges. The better products are all supplied by the major detailing retailers in the country. So do some research. Ask your detailer what product they plan to use and then go away and do some checks. If you can’t find the product on the major retail websites then it should be a red flag for you. That said, there are some products that the manufacturers will only sell to detailers who are accredited with them as an installer. These are generally higher end products. Such manufacturers will generally have a directory of approved installers. You also need to understand a little about the coating and how it should be applied. There are many detailers out there who will offer a quality ceramic coating and come and install it on your drive. Yet the very first instruction in the packaging says ‘This MUST be installed indoors and undercover’. Any product that is not applied in line with the manufacturers instructions is likely to fail and be a substandard installation. There can be nothing worse than paying for a 3/4/5 year coating only to find after 6 months it has failed because it wan’t applied correctly.
So what should I do now?
If you’ve read this far then well done! As you will have concluded. This is not just a quick decision and something to get anyone to do. Talk to different detailers offering this service. Discuss what they plan to do, what products they recommend and how they plan to do this. You should be seeing red flags if anyone says they can fully decontaminate your car, complete a 2 stage paint correction and apply a ceramic coating on your driveway in under a day.** Don’t be immediately swayed by a cheap price and popularity on social media. Sponsored posts can often push businesses into your feed that would not otherwise be seen by you and it doesn’t mean they are the best or any good at all. Remember the maxim ‘Buy cheap, buy twice’.
I do not apply ceramic coatings. Why? Because I firmly believe that in order to do so I must first be fully trained and recognised by the manufacturer of the product I wish to install. I also fully believe that in pretty much all cases a unit based installation in a dust free (extracted) environment is required. A unit is something I do not have.
Still confused? Get in touch and speak to me. I’m more than happy to help and offer advice. As I do not install ceramic coatings myself I therefore have nothing to gain from trying to win your business. As such my advice is independent and free of charge. Who do I recommend? There are many superb detailers out there doing great work in fantastic studios and turning out a very high standard. In my local area I only ever recommend one business and that is Bespoke Detailing in Nantwich. Simon is a consummate professional with years of experience and a skill level to match in a fantastic studio setting. If after much fact finding and discussions you decide a ceramic coating is for you then you would do well to check out Simon and his work.
Ongoing Care
There are many myths about ceramic coatings when it comes to ongoing care. Some believe that the car will now never get dirty and not need washing. Some believe that the coating is so hard the car will never get scratched.. even if you run into your gatepost! In truth neither of these are correct. The ceramic coating still needs care and maintenance to ensure it lasts as long as the manufacturer says it will. Regular safe washing is necessary with quality pH neutral snow foam/shampoo being used. The car will be, ‘much’ easier to clean in that the dirt and contamination often comes away very easily. The car will also be much easier to dry because of the ‘hydrophobicity’. This is how the water beads and in many cases runs off the car immediately. A good microfibre drying towel will be great but if you have a blower that filters the air then drying becomes and absolute breeze as per the video below.
As a final observation and thought. Main dealers and other car suppliers often offer a ceramic coating to the purchaser. Be wary of main dealer/supplier applications. Check which product they are using, how they will be applying the coating and follow the advice above. If not sure, call me! In a recent case a ‘quality’ coating was agreed and installed on a car yet within 2 weeks there was no trace of this coating whatsoever. In this case I provided evidence to show that a coating had not been installed at all. Presented with the facts the vendor returned the funds immediately without quibble.
- Choose wisely
- Do your research
- Ask lots of questions
- Enquire with a number of detailers before choosing
- If in doubt. Call me.
* Products vary and are changing all the time. Some coatings are now designed for DIY or ‘enthusiast’ application and are suitable for outdoor application. Some even claim to ‘help’ reduce scratches/swirls without matching polishing. I’ve not found this to be the case. However, they are the lower lifespan products normally 1 or 2yrs and do fit a certain need within the marketplace. Ultimately you need to be sure that your chosen product is being applied correctly.
** Of course.. if a detailer turns up with 3 of his mates and they all machine polish the car then it could be done in a day but, as above, you still need to be sure the chosen coating is being installed correctly.