Ceramic coatings have great advantages for car owners. They can add a nice gloss to your car, repel liquids for easy cleaning and vehicle detailing, protects against micro-marring, and can last for years.
While a ceramic coating can offer all the aforementioned benefits, it also takes a fair bit of upkeep to maintain. As your ceramic-coated car is exposed to the elements, the coating can weaken. In this article, we’ll discuss how this happens and what you can do to ensure it lasts.
Gloss Losing Its Shine
One of the perks of having a ceramic coating on your car is the glossy look it gives your car. Oftentimes that’s the first thing that will go as your coating weakens. Believe it or not, the gloss effect is all about the way light is reflected off your paint and coating.
You get a glossy shine from smooth surfaces as the rays of light all bounce off the surface at the same angle. However, when that surface is uneven, light bounces off in different angles, limiting the shining effect. Therefore, the dulling of your previous glossy shine is the result of your ceramic coating wearing down in certain areas, but not across the board.
What’s Causing the Deterioration of Your Ceramic Coating?
There are a number of factors that can contribute to the wearing of your ceramic coating after your vehicle detailing.
The Wearing of Your Protective Surface
The environment your vehicle is exposed to after your detailing can cause the protective layer of your ceramic coating to wear down prematurely. Your coating gets worn down on a daily basis due to everything from wiping it to aggressively to heavy winds.
While you don’t notice this wearing down of the coating on a daily basis, it becomes painfully obvious over time. This everyday wear built up from a lack of maintenance can not only damage the protective surface but also damage the hydrophobicity.
The wearing of the Hydrophobicity
Hydrophobicity is the property of your ceramic coating that enables water to bead up on the surface, due to the coating helping to repel it. This hydrophobicity wears off due to the surface energy. The lower the surface energy, the more difficult it is for liquids to cling to that surface. Ceramic coatings are created to have a low surface energy, allowing it to repel water, but as the surface becomes contaminated and the coating wears off, that surface energy rises.
What to Do About It
In order to prolong the life of your vehicle detailing and ceramic coating, you have to take care of it and practice proper maintenance.
Regular Washing or Vehicle Detailing
In order to keep your ceramic coating in pristine condition, you need to hand wash your vehicle every two weeks or so to keep the contaminants to a minimum. We recommend vehicle detailing services occasionally in place of washing it yourself, as our experts know how to remove all contaminants without causing damage to your ceramic coating.
Maintenance Boosters for Ceramic Coatings
Maintenance boosters are highly-concentrated versions of the ceramic coating’s formula, filling in minor imperfections and erasing the damages we mentioned above. This only need be done every three to four months or so.
Ceramic coatings are a nice addition to your vehicle that can last for years, providing your vehicle with a protective layer. However, you have to take care to maintain your coating to ensure its longevity and pristine condition. We hope this article has helped guide you through the required maintenance to keep your ceramic coating in pristine condition for years to come.
Megan, I like that you said that I should maintain or have a ceramic coating done to my car because it gives it a nice gloss and protects it from light scratches and liquid substances. My car looks a bit dull and boring recently, and it lost its oomph. I never really gave it much thought before because I bought it for convenience purposes. But perhaps it would be a nice idea to take it to an auto detailing service soon so it can be shiny again. Thanks for this!