Have you ever been to a car show? Then you already know that wearing sunglasses is a must to prevent those shiny paint jobs from seriously damaging your eyesight! OK, maybe I’m exaggerating a bit, but you get the picture. Have you ever thought about how much money went into such awesome paint jobs? Or how many hours and money were spent on polishing and waxing to get that result?
Of course, a lot, but there is one other option becoming increasingly popular lately. It’s called ceramic coating and does pretty much all the hard work for you. After such a treatment, you’ll be able to show your car around as proudly as a peacock displays its colorful feathers. But is ceramic coating just for showing off? Of course not. In fact, the shiny effect is only a side effect of its main property, which is primarily to protect the car’s paint. And yes, any car; not just show cars!
There is a whole science behind it and might seem a bit much at first. Luckily, we’ll break it all down here and explain the various benefits that ceramic coating can bring, even for your daily commuter.
What is Ceramic Coating?
Ceramic coating is actually the process of applying chemical protection to the surface of your car’s paint. That’s by definition. The chemistry behind it is more complex. Ceramic coating essentially takes advantage of nanotechnology as the molecules are so small that, when applied to the surface, it simply seals all minor imperfections, making the surface in incredibly smooth.
The chemical composition used in ceramic coating is a transparent substance, based primarily on a silicon polymer plus adhesives to bond it to the surface.
All these characteristics make ceramic coating usable for various applications. Besides cars, it is also popular in the textile, marine, aviation, and construction industry.
It’s a big deal—really.
What Are the Benefits of Ceramic Coating?
So what good do you have from all this, especially if you bought a new car or a freshly painted old one? Well, yes, your car may look shiny now but comes first rain, followed by dust and mud, and you are already anxious to wash off all that dirt and get back to that clean look. But then, no matter whether you hire the guys at the car wash will or use an automatic car wash, the cleaning mitts and brushes will inevitably leave swirls and marks created by tiny bits of dirt or sand during the washing process.
And then the sun comes out, and the panic begins. The web-like-looking scratches scattered all over the car. On the paint, on the glossy pillar trims, or the front grill. And why didn’t the dirt came off the wheels after washing? Cause that ain’t dirt, buddy. Those dark particles are brake dust caused by the wearing of the brake system components that got stuck on your alloy wheels.
Ceramic coating pretty much protects you from all of the above. By applying a ceramic coating, you are creating a cocoon-like transparent film, effectively protecting your car from all those scratches, the paint from fading, and your wheels from that awful brake dust. Ceramic coating hydrophobic characteristic keeps the water and dust out of those microscopic cracks on the surface of your car. Of course, there’s a lot of preparation required before applying a ceramic coating.
Issues that Ceramic Coating Won’t Solve
Preparation is essential as you won’t get the desired effect on a car with dents and scratches. On the contrary, you will only preserve them—like forever. So you’ll need to remove scratches plus quality detailing with a lot of cleaning and polishing to get a proper base to work on first.
Ceramic coating will not help you keep your car clean forever neither. You will still need to wash your car regularly, but the coating will make it much easier and protect your car’s paint from all those bird droppings that can easily leave permanent marks.
Read more: 7 Best Car Buffers and Polishers (2021 Review)
The other thing that it won’t protect you from is rock chips. Ceramic coating is not bulletproof, so don’t expect to protect you from key scratches either. It’s not magic. It helps a lot but of course, it also has its limits.
While searching for ceramic coating products, you will come across the term 9H, meaning that the coating passed the 9H pencil test. So, it’s resistant to the sharp point of a 9H type pencil, but not that much more. Anything harder and sharper than that will probably damage the surface of your coated car. Still, you might think that it’s not much but you’ll see that it’s surprisingly resistant against daily weather, dirt, and grime.
Should You Apply Ceramic Coating?
If your car means more to you than just an ordinary vehicle, then you should definitely apply a ceramic coating. But you need to be ready to invest several hours of prep and have some budget as well. Of course, if you choose a specialized shop, the cost will increase even more, but if you are not that handy and don’t have that much spare time, you are still better leaving it to the professionals. They have the experience and the know-how required, and most importantly, they already have all the products and tools.
Last Words
Detailing and body repair product manufacturers release new products employing inventive tech all the time. Some of them are very useful and some of them are quickly forgotten. However, while it really seemed like another hype to would soon die out when it first started making the News, ceramic coating has a lot of logic behind it. And it definitely helps you take better care of your beloved car. As long as you understand how it is appropriately applied and keep regularly washing your car after applying it, ceramic coating is probably a good option for you.
Trust us. If you love your car, you’ll love ceramic coating.
