Maintaining Ceramic Coatings with our car care products

What is a ceramic coating?

Ceramic coatings are a true wonder of modern chemistry, and there are now literally thousands of ceramic protection products and brands on the market. Most fall into the category of a semi-permanent protective coating that can be applied to paint, wheels, lights, glass and other exterior surfaces. Important to note that each of these surfaces will have a very specific type of coating for that surface - a glass coating for example, uses a different type of technology and chemistry to a paint coating.

They're made from a blend of highly engineered ingredients that work together to form an extremely thin, yet durable protective layer over the surface. When applied and looked after correctly, a quality ceramic coating can continue protecting for many years. Neglect it, however, and its performance and lifespan can be significantly reduced.

 

What does a ceramic coating do?

Ceramic coatings provide a sacrificial layer of protection against environmental contamination, chemicals and the general punishment your paint is exposed to every day. Their super hydrophobic properties also help repel water and grime, making the car much easier to wash and keep clean.

What they don't provide is significant physical protection. Despite claims around hardness and scratch resistance, a ceramic coating won't stop stone chips, deeper scratches or damage caused by poor washing techniques. For that type of protection, you need something physically substantial like Paint Protection Film (PPF).

 

Is a ceramic coating worth it?

For many cars and owners, absolutely.

A ceramic coating gives you a great, super hydrophobic surface that will make your every day driver easier to wash and maintain, and help it keep a nice shine. It's not a magic force field though, and will require regular maintenance to keep it looking and performing its best. It will also degrade over time and may require top ups, or perhaps even re-application after a longer period of time.

Ceramic coatings are best applied by reputable detailers. The application of the coating itself is quite simple, but the crucial preparation process before application is something very laborious and time consuming. It's something that many regular enthusiasts don't always have the time, knowledge, equipment and patience to do. So, getting an experienced detailer to do it for you makes a lot of sense.

 

What about 'ceramic' sprays? 

There are a lot of consumer products now using the name "ceramic", including us, especially in water based SiO2 sprays. While they can offer similar initial effects of a coating, they don't have the long term protection a true professionally applied ceramic coating will exhibit. From our talks and numerous dealings with scientists, chemists and manufacturers, a true coating is scientifically associated with a specific set of highly engineered (and expensive) ingredients that are currently only used in professional coating formulas. And this is what we will be talking about looking after and maintaining in this guide.

Soooo, didn't we say all that Yankee spray bottle ceramic is marketing BS?? Well it is... which is why we've always been highly uncomfortable with the marketing spin used in the car care industry, and for the past few years, we've pushed hard against labelling any of our products as "ceramic", even though our formulas worked better and lasted longer than anything we shared the auto store shelves with, ceramic or not.

Why have we been this way? Well, we're very aware of how this "ceramic" term can be confused with the true professional ceramic coatings which utilise another type of sophisticated and expensive chemistry, that is not something that can be blended into an easy spray on/wipe off, or in this case, spray on and hose off water-based type of product. Although the super hydrophobic water beading and sheeting characteristics of (especially ours) are similar, it's much more of a ceramic-like effect than true ceramic tech.

So, fast forward to now, and with the relentless amount of ceramic labelled products coming out, our super hydrophobic range not being labelled this way has created a huge point of confusion for many punters. We know this as we've had over a year of multiple weekly calls and social media messages from people who are genuinely looking for something with the ceramic name in our Aussie products.

So, after much deep thought and many, many team meetings, we've finally decided to end the phone calls and give people what they are looking for, labelling our protective range in line with this newer definition of the word, "ceramic".

PPF (Paint Protection Film)

Paint Protection Film, or PPF, is quite different to a ceramic coating. Rather than creating an extremely thin protective layer over the paint, PPF is an actual physical film that's applied over the surface, giving your paint a sacrificial barrier between it and the outside world.

Modern PPF is generally a clear polyurethane based film and is considerably thicker than any ceramic coating. Its real strength is physical protection, helping protect the paint underneath from stone chips, light scratches, scuffs, bug damage and other everyday wear and tear. Many modern films also have self healing properties, where light marks and scratches in the film can disappear with warmth from the sun or hot water.

PPF isn't bulletproof though. A large enough stone can still penetrate it, edges can lift or collect dirt, and the film itself can become damaged. It also won't necessarily give you the same hydrophobicity, slickness or ease of cleaning that people associate with a good ceramic coating, although many newer films now have some of these properties built into their top layer. There are also PPF specific ceramic coatings that get put on top of PPF, but in my experience, they have a very shortened lifespan compared to a ceramic coating that gets applied straight to the paint.

The big advantage is that it's the film taking the punishment rather than your paint. If it becomes badly marked or damaged, it can generally be removed and replaced, with the original paint underneath remaining protected.

You also don't necessarily need to wrap the entire car. PPF is commonly applied to the areas most likely to suffer stone chips and damage, such as the front bumper, bonnet, front guards and mirrors, or you can have the whole vehicle covered if you want the maximum level of physical protection.

Like ceramic coatings, PPF still needs to be looked after. It needs regular washing and cleaning, and things like bird droppings, bugs and other contamination shouldn't simply be left sitting on it indefinitely. PPF reduces the amount of damage your paint is exposed to, but it doesn't make the car indestructible.

If you've opted for a "stealth" or matte/satin PPF, this will need to be treated the same as matte/satin/frozen paint, and as such will need some more specialised products for protection like our matte specific sealant, Flat Matte. We have a detailed and helpful guide for matte/satin finishes here.

Start with wheel cleaning

Regular maintenance is always the most important thing when looking after your car and coating. We recommend washing your car, coated or non-coated, once a week or once a fortnight.

Start the job by cleaning your wheels, which if they have been professionally coated, will make our car care products work even better.

First step is to put some Hose Sliders under your front tyres to stop the hose and pressure washer getting stuck!

If your wheels have heavy brake dust, use Wheely Clean. For grime covered wheels and tyres, use Down & Dirty. For heavy dirt/mud covered tyres, or to remove silicone dressings, Down & Dirty will help remove this a lot easier from the rubber. Both of these are safe to use on ceramic coated wheels too - even though Down & Dirty isn't pH neutral, it uses extremely smart chemistry to clean well, without affecting modern ceramic coatings.

Spray Down & Dirty onto the tyres and Wheely Clean onto the wheels. Scrub the tyres with The Little Stiffy using your wash suds (we like Dirty Times Wash for this job due to its stronger cleaning and anti-rust properties, making it ideal for use around brake components). Rinse the wheel and tyre thoroughly before using any wheel brushes. This removes as much loose brake dust and grime as possible, reducing the chance of scratching the wheels. Wheely Clean only needs 30 seconds to 1 minute of dwell time, so never let it dry and always work on one wheel at a time.

Now grab your Wheels bucket and choose a system of brushes to suit your wheels. Use The Flat Head Brush for the wheel barrels and the Nuts & Guts brush from The Foursome for wheel nuts, valve stems, brake calipers and tight areas. The Chubby Brush is ideal for most wheel faces, while the Palmy Brush and/or Octobrush are better suited to gloss black or delicate finishes.

For heavily soiled or mud caked wheels, pressure wash or hose them first to remove the bulk of the dirt or mud before cleaning.

Once everything is clean and rinsed, protect the wheels with our spray on, rinse off ceramic sealant; Wet Dreams. Spray it directly onto the wet wheel after cleaning and rinsing, and immediately pressure wash or hose it off. This adds protection and makes the wheels easier to clean next time, while leaving behind some epic bead porn. It will also work really well an existing ceramic coating on the wheels by adding a sacrificial layer.

Pre wash snow foaming

After the wheels are done, start your washing with a pre wash snow foam. For regular maintenance snow foaming, use our pH neutral Snow Job. If you want heavier cleaning to remove more road grime, mud or dirt, use our slightly alkaline snow foam; Mega Snow Job. If you want to really deep clean your coating, remove any fresh water spots, or you need some good mineral removal and cleaning, then use our slightly acidic Dirty Times Wash in the cannon as a snow foam.

Pre washing with snow foam will help prevent swirls and micro scratches appearing in your coating, as it breaks down heavier grit and grime that might be present on your car and help remove as much as possible before your 2 or 3 bucket hand wash. The Snow Job and Mega Snow Job formulas contains specialist cleaning ingredients for ceramic coatings to clean them safely.

Dirty Times Wash is packed with what are known as chelating agents, which are fantastic for breaking down minerals that can affect a coatings' performance on the car, so it's a real go to for us now with this being a huge advantage for it. It's used at a 9:1 ratio in the cannon like our other snow foams, and can be left to dwell for several minutes on the paint for it to really start to break down minerals on the surface.

Having a well maintained coated car can sometimes allow for a single step wash system, as dirt and grime find it so much harder to stick to a coated surface. Always test after removing the snow by wiping a finger on the dirtier lower, rear section of the car, to make sure it's totally clean. If it is, you can go straight into drying it. If it's not 100% clean, play it safe and continue to the hand wash. 

See our full article on using pre wash snow foam with our Snow Blow Cannon below:

Hand Washing

This is an important step, because you don't want to inflict swirl marks into your freshly polished or ceramic coated paint job. For this step, we strongly recommend to use the 3 bucket wash method with Nanolicious Wash and one of our super plush wash tools like the Shagtastic Wash Pad, Shagamittastic Wash Mitt and The Wash Pillow. If you have some fresh water spots you want to remove, or you want to deep clean the coating, then use Dirty Times Wash.

Use our specific Wash and Rinse buckets with a Great Barrier Thingy in the bottom of them to help further prevent swirl creating grime and grit coming back into your wash tools. We recommend Nanolicious Wash as the best for ceramic coated cars, as it contains ingredients that help to maintain and rejuvenate ceramic coatings. When used on a regular basis, it will help your coating to continue to bead and sheet water consistently. As mentioned earlier, if you want to deep clean the coating and remove fresh water spots and other minerals, our slightly acidic Dirty Times Wash is going to be the better choice.

Our other washes, Auto Body Gel and Wax Wash, are also perfectly safe to use on ceramic coatings and won't harm or degrade the coating over time. However, for a ceramic coated car, Nanolicious Wash is our preferred choice and the one we'd generally recommend.

There are times when one of the others may be better suited to the job though. If you're washing in direct sunlight, Auto Body Gel is a great choice, while Wax Wash is particularly well suited to older cars with older metal and finishes.

Once you're done, empty the buckets and give them a good rinse out. You don't want to be storing any wash water for use later!

Read more about our wash method below:

Boost the shine and protection - toppers?

There's a lot of conflicting information around about using toppers/boosters or spray sealants over ceramic coatings. You'll sometimes hear that a good coating shouldn't need a topper, that adding one will “clog” the coating and reduce its performance, or even that these products won't properly bond to a ceramic coated surface.

From our experience developing and testing products on ceramic coatings for many years, this simply isn't the case.

A good ceramic coating doesn't need a topper to work, but there's absolutely nothing wrong with adding some extra protection over it. We've specifically developed and tested Bead Machine, Happy Ending and Wet Dreams to work with modern ceramic coatings, adding another super hydrophobic, sacrificial layer of protection over the surface. We've found that After Glow and Boss Gloss are also suitable to use as drying aids on ceramic coated surfaces without affecting the coatings' performance.

They certainly won't “clog” your coating. What you're doing is adding an extremely thin layer of protection over the existing ceramic coating. While that protection remains on the surface, the water behaviour you see will naturally be influenced by the product you've applied over it. In fact, with the products we recommend here, you may even see stronger beading and water behaviour than you were getting from the coating itself.

It's worth remembering that not all topper products are equally hydrophobic. Apply a product with poorer water behaviour over a highly hydrophobic ceramic coating and the surface may actually appear to perform worse afterwards. This doesn't mean you've clogged or damaged the coating underneath. You're simply seeing the water behaviour of the product now sitting on top of it. As that product wears away or is removed, the characteristics of the underlying coating can become apparent again.

Using a suitable topper periodically is a simple way to maintain that super hydrophobic, slick and easy to clean surface, while adding another sacrificial layer that takes some of the punishment from regular washing and environmental contamination. As this additional protection gradually wears away, you can simply apply some more.

So no, you don't have to continually top a ceramic coating to keep it working. But using products that we've specifically developed and tested to work with ceramic coatings is an easy way to maintain great water behaviour, make the car easier to look after and add some extra protection along the way.

 

Which one is best for me? 

Choosing which one you need is pretty easy. If you like to apply something to the car after it's been washed and dried, then Bead Machine is for you.

If you use a pressure washer when detailing your car, then Happy Ending is what you need as it's applied with the Snow Blow Cannon, before being pressure washed off. If you don't use a pressure washer, then the Wet Dreams spray on and hose off system is the one for you. Read more in depth about these products by clicking the links below.

These can all be used in conjunction with each other, or you can just use the one that suits you best, or that you prefer using.

 

Using Bead Machine - 

 

Using Happy Ending -

 

Using Wet Dreams - 

Safe Drying

You have 2 different options when it comes to drying - After Glow with the Big Softie cloths, or one of our super safe and plush microfibre drying towels like the Twisted Pro Sucker with Boss Gloss.

After Glow is suitable to use as a drying aid for your ceramic coated car. Due to an anomaly in its formula, it won't negatively affect the hydrophobicity of a ceramic coating, or any of the super hydrophobic sealants.

You don't need to use both when drying your car either, choose the Twisted Pro Sucker, Twisted Mother Sucker or Big Green Sucker if you have time constraints and need to work fast around the car, or use After Glow if you don't mind that little extra time it takes to apply to get a flawless, perfect finish, especially for darker coloured cars.

Don't forget the door jambs too - use a Twisted Little Sucker with some Boss Gloss for a perfect finish.

People also like using a small blower to dry their cars. This is fine, but DO NOT use the blower to dry the car the intial time IF you've used either the Happy Ending or Wet Dreams beforehand to top the protection up on your ceramic coating. Both of these products respond best to being wiped down after use to ensure a nice even surface is left.

 

After Glow - 

 

Twisted Pro Sucker, Twisted Mother Sucker, The Big Green Sucker with Boss Gloss - 

Extra information - any questions?

Here are some more common asked questions to note with the compatibility of other products in our range. 

• If you get Happy Ending on the windscreen, don't forget to clean the windscreen with Naked Glass to avoid your wipers smearing.
• It's important to note that our Paint Cleanse & Restore IS NOT suitable for ceramic coatings. It can remove them!
• Three Way decontamination spray, Claying Rubber and the Clay Bars are suitable to use on a ceramic coating. In fact yearly use is a great idea as contamination build up over time is one of the main things that affects a coatings performance. 
• Bugger Off is pH neutral and fine for bug cleaning.
• Orange Agent is fine if you need to use it on wheels or grime cleaning as well. 
• There is no need to use a carnauba wax, so there is no real need for Carnauba Body Wax or Lazy Wax. This is because a wax can affect the hydrophobic nature of a ceramic coating. Beaut Beads being a solvent based paste wax can potentially remove a ceramic coating, so we don't recommend using it over a coating either.
• Something that's often forgotten is the windscreen washer additive, we made Wipe Out washer additive so it would not affect or etch and damage paint and ceramic coated surfaces. It's well worth using for that single reason alone, not forgetting the fact it's a really effective cleaner. 
• Wheely Clean and Down & Dirty are both safe to use on ceramic coated wheels.

I hope this article has helped you. If you have any more questions in regards to ceramic coatings, drop us an email - info@bowdensown.com.au or freecall 1800 351 308.

Happy detailing!

Brett Hobbs