Ceramic Coating Maintenance and Its Importance
Congratulations!!! You just had a ceramic coating installed onto the exterior of your vehicle. You now have a vehicle that is beyond shiny that will look better than brand new for quite a while. Not only that but you now have supreme protection from the environment and minor flaws that get introduced from daily activities. Isn’t that great? It really is. However, just the presence of a ceramic coating on your vehicle doesn’t mean you don’t have to continue to maintain the cleanliness of your vehicle’s exterior. A ceramic coating is a highly durable, sacrificial layer applied to the various surfaces of the vehicle. To get the maximum performance and duration of the ceramic coating’s benefits, it must be maintained by you, or the detailer who installed it. As a vehicle owner you can’t just park it under the messiest sap bearing tree you can find that has a flock of birds constantly sitting in it. You can’t go mudding with your 4X4 and let the dirt and debris picked up just sit there afterward. You also can’t just park your vehicle outside in the rain and expect it to just wash everything off and it will be fine. What now? What do you need to do to keep your vehicle’s coating performing the way the manufacturer intended?
First off, make sure coating on your vehicle is allowed to cure properly. Depending on the manufacturer that means keeping the vehicle from getting wet for 24-48 hours after the install. Also, don’t wash your vehicle with any soaps or detergents for at least one week or seven days. Rinsing it off with a hose to release surface dirt is fine if the vehicle is dried off afterward with a microfiber drying towel or blown off with compressed air. Otherwise, taking a new microfiber and some detail spray to the exterior will do well to gently remove dirt from the surface as you delicately move the microfiber towel across the surface in straight motions.
To keep the ceramic coating on your vehicle performing the way it is supposed to after the curing period, it needs to be maintained properly. How do you do that? The most important thing is to wash your vehicle regularly, especially if it’s your daily driver. Generally, every two weeks or so unless the vehicle gets dirty more often. Even though it may not look dirty, it is. As we drive our vehicles and they sit outside, they constantly pick up contaminants. Dust, airborne debris, pollen, acid rain, tree sap, bird droppings, brake dust, and other environmental contaminants get onto the surfaces of our vehicles. A ceramic coating doesn’t necessarily allow them to bond to its surface. However, if left to sit too long damage will start to occur. For this reason, washing the vehicle preferably by hand will give the biggest benefit of maintaining the appearance and performance of a ceramic coating. Using an automated carwash is a big no-no as put forth by ceramic coatings manufacturers. I agree, but I understand that isn’t necessarily realistic for everyone. If you must use an automated carwash, make sure it is a touchless wash with ONLY the basic wash selected. Better yet, go to self-serve carwashes and use the spray gun and soap only. The other chemicals are so far to one end or the other of the pH scale that they will immediately cause irreparable damage to the coating. Not only that, but the waxes used in the automated carwashes will often clog up the coating causing it to lose its hydrophobic qualities altogether. Whatever you do, DO NOT use automated carwashes with spinning brushes! They are the absolute worst for your vehicle whether there is a ceramic coating on it or not. It is the strict policy of Eagle Custom Detailing to NOT stand behind any work that was subjected to automated carwashes that employ brushes to “clean” vehicles. For information on how to safely wash your vehicle by hand visit my other blog post dedicated to that topic.
After time you may notice just washing alone is not doing the job and the ceramic coating doesn’t seem to perform as well as it once did. At this point one of two things have occurred. The first is the coating has failed or reached the end of its useful life and the vehicle needs to be coated again. The second is the ceramic coating has gotten clogged by environmental contaminants that have been allowed to bond to the coating reducing its performance and hydrophobic characteristics. A ceramic coating isn’t completely fool proof and won’t totally prevent contaminants from adhering to the coated surfaces. This is a completely natural occurrence and part of why coating maintenance is necessary. At this point, the exterior of the vehicle needs to be decontaminated to determine what the issue truly is. What is done here is a thorough wash to clean the surface. After that an iron remover is applied to help rid the surface of any metallic particles embedded into the coating. In addition, a water spot remover is applied to help remove any mineral deposits that have built up due to acid rain and hard water used in washing the vehicle otherwise. Once this has been done, if the coating was simply clogged up you should see performance return with tight beading and sheeting action returning when you rinse the vehicle. This is something the installer is most equipped to handle, but not out of question for able and knowledgeable owners who desire to perform their own maintenance.
The most acceptable and ideal maintenance of ceramic coatings according to ceramic coatings manufacturers and detailers is to have the installer perform all washes and maintenance activities to assure the coating has been installed properly and performs to specifications consistently and for the duration the coating is rated, maybe even longer. Most detailers who install ceramic coatings will offer some sort of maintenance program to help them monitor their work and maintain customer satisfaction. Eagle Custom Detailing does indeed offer such a service.
Another item used in maintaining a ceramic coating is the use of a topper product. Each coatings manufacturer in most cases has a spray sealant/topper that is designed to be used over an existing coating of their making or as a stand-alone product to protect the paint between trips to the detailer. These products are suggested to be applied once or twice a year. There is some debate within the detailing community as to the necessity of using such a product. Some feel it’s a sacrificial layer to go on the sacrificial layer and isn’t needed if the coating is maintained properly. I would tend to agree to an extent. Some vehicles like work vehicles and vehicles that see many more miles than normal are subjected to rough use and the coating takes a beating. Applying a topper will give it the boost it needs to continue doing its job. Another feature is the added slickness the topper provides to the coating. You may notice the original slickness of a coated surface may diminish over time without losing any luster or hydrophobic performance. A topper after decontamination of the coating can restore the slickness of the coating. For those who like the slickness it’s a good reason to apply the topper periodically. However, some coatings like IGL Kenzo with Graphene, the manufacturer specifically states their topper/sealant Premier is not needed at all.
To conclude, maintaining the ceramic coating on your vehicle is paramount to protecting the investment you made on one of the largest and sometimes most emotional purchases you ever make in your lifetime. Allowing the coating to cure properly, keeping the vehicle washed regularly, performing periodic decontamination of the coating, and potentially applying a topper to boost performance will give the coating the best chance to perform as long if not longer than the manufacturer claims. As always, isn’t it time you did something really special for your vehicle?