How to Maintain Ceramic Coating – 5 Easy Tips
Ceramic coating is basically a coating which acts as a protective layer over the paint surface.
This protection mainly does the duty of protecting the paint surface or the clear coating from different kinds of harmful pollutants like dirt, dust, mud, chemical components, UV rays, rainwater, natural acid, bird droppings, etc.
But the fact is that still ceramic coating being that strong also needs special care. Proper washing, keeping way from sun other certain daily maintaining process makes the ceramic coating last long and give the best service possible.
This article will mainly provide tips and information regarding proper care for ceramic coating and what will happen if you do not take proper care of it.
Maintaining Tips for Ceramic Coating
Your ceramic coating is very strong, probably strong like the man of steel and will protect your car from all kinds of harmful pollutants like dirt, mud, dust, derbies, chemicals, UV rays, etc.
But even your ceramic coating is strong like the metal it will still need some care.
With proper care and maintaining you can get the best possible service with high-class protection and glossy shine from your ceramic coating. This part of the article will mainly focus on the tips and ways of maintaining ceramic coating.
1. Regular Washing
Washing is one of the major and very basic ways of treating your car well. No matter you keep your car outside or in a perfectly maintained garage a regular wash is mandatory.
Even if you do not drive it regularly rather keep it in the shades still you have only one option that is a regular wash.
Day by day the surface ends up developing harmful contaminants even if you do not drive much or even if you use a cover and this will ask for a regular wash.
A decent regular wash should be given every two weeks.
2. Washing the Car inside a Shade
You have to keep in your mind that washing in the open and under sunlight is very harmful and you should not do this at all. You should always find a shade which can be your garage for washing your car.
This is because sunlight is the source of heat and this heat is the nemesis of ceramic coating. Heat and ceramic coating never go too well.
This heat ends up rising the surface energy which ends up harming the ceramic coating by reducing its protective qualities like hydrophobic quality.
This is why shade is the best option but if you fail on that early mornings can be a good option for washing.
3. Two Buckets Method is the Way
The two buckets method is probably the most useful way of cleaning your car. This method very useful in removing swirl marks and gives proper washing.
As the name suggests you will need two buckets for this process. One of these two buckets will have the duty to soak the washing mitt and the bucket will have the duty to wash the mitt.
The second bucket will contain fresh and clean water in which you will just clean the derbies and pollutants from the mitt.
The process will be more like soak the mitt in the first bucket and the rub and clean a particular section of the car and then you will have to wash the mitt in the second bucket.
And the fact is that you will have to follow the same circle for the whole process of washing.
4. Automotive and Specific Soap and Shampoo
For cleaning or washing your car you definitely will need soap or shampoo. While choosing your soap or shampoo for the car keep this one thing in mind that you will not choose anything harsh for your ceramic coating.
And for making this easy most of the manufacturers also produces automotive or specific soap or shampoo products which are sold as secondary maintenance products.
And these products are more or less automotive and specific with being very light in their agents and do not have any kinds of harsh or harmful chemical contaminants.
5. Separate Bucket and Washing Kit for the Wheels
The fact is that you should know that you should always keep the washing kits for the surface of the car and the kits for the wheels different.
This is because tires and wheels not only collect different kinds of pollutants on them but also collect brake dust which is nothing but microscopic metal particles.
Now you can imagine that if you use the same mitt and bucket for both the ceramic coating surface and the wheels you will be able to see that the metal particles will end up harming the ceramic coating.
As a result, make sure you have separate washing kits for the ceramic coating and the wheels.
Why Proper Care of Ceramic Coating is Necessary
Ceramic coating is nothing but a stronger version of the clear coating under it. The maximum hardness of ceramic coating mineral will be around 9H.
And this hardness is basically fixed according to a pencil scale and 9H hardness means a 9H pencil will not be able to put any scratch over it.
And this is why the coating needs care. A regular exposition towards different derbies and pollutants will end up harming the surface but for a certain time, the coating will protect the paint surface but still, you will need to maintain the coating with proper care otherwise it will wear out quickly.
What Happens If You Do Not Maintain Ceramic Coating
There can be a lot of myths roaming around about how strong and the indestructible ceramic coating is but yet your ceramic coating is not bulletproof. It will get warned out after a certain time.
But still, proper care will make it last longer. But if you do not maintain ceramic coating properly you will go through certain problems.
1. Losing Shine
If you say ceramic coating most people will hear high gloss or high quality shine. This is because one of the most basic features of a ceramic coating is the shine it produces.
Most of the vehicle owners mostly rely on ceramic coating just for the shine it adds to a surface. Sometimes a vehicle surface looks so glossy because of the ceramic coating that it looks totally wet.
But as we know that ceramic coating is basically a protective layer over the paint surface so if you do not take care of it properly or you ignore its maintenance then the protective surface will start to get thin and in this process, the shine it produces will also start to fade with time.
2. Hydrophobic Quality Getting Reduced
Ceramic coating has another quality which makes it so popular in the market of protective coating. This the hydrophobic quality of the ceramic coating.
Hydrophobia of the ceramic coating doesn’t mean that the coating will get afraid of water and will start to scream. But rather this very quality makes the ceramic coating surface to slide off all the water type pollutants, dirt, dust, mud, etc.
But if you do not take care of your ceramic coating regularly then this quality will also get reduced.
If you neglect your ceramic coating surface for long unwashed then long exposure to UV rays then what happens is the surface energy gets increased and this results in ceramic coating losing the hydrophobic quality.
Now the question arises that what is surface energy. Surface energy is basically the reaction of any liquid when it touches a surface.
Here ceramic coating acts as a layer that reduces surface energy and thus making a surface hydrophobic because lowering the surface energy ceramic coating stops water, mud, dirt, etc to sit on the surface.
As a result, all these harmful components get the slide off the surface. But if you do not maintain your ceramic coating properly then this surface energy will get increased and for which different pollutants and derbies will start sitting on the surface.
This is why these specific products work the best on these specific surfaces enhancing the durability, shine of the ceramic coating. As a result you will not need any kinds of other kinds of stuff like wax or sealant type products.
3. Surface Getting Worn Off
There is a very common and popular proverb that even good things fade or they come to an end. As a result, you can see that this is also very true in the case of ceramic coating. Even the best ceramic coating has a deadline.
And in-between this time you will get its best use. But to get the full use of your ceramic coating you will have to very careful in maintaining ceramic coating or your ceramic coating will wear off quicker than ideal.
Wrap Up
As you have already gone through the article you can now guess why ceramic coating needs proper care. Why for getting the best use and shine you will need to take proper steps of ceramic coating. And also this article goes through certain tips for maintaining ceramic coating properly.
