My advise to the new car owners who want to get ceramic coating done is to fix a detailer where you can give car for coat maintenance each year.
BHPian theCoder recently shared this with other enthusiasts:
I want to share my experience living with ceramic coated car after a year. This post is not about best practices for maintaining ceramic coated car, rather I want to give a view from average car user and what to expect from ceramic coated car, with care what an average person can take.
My previous car was of white color washed daily by society boy and detailed once a year and she looked somewhat liked this after 13 years.
But when I decided to book Scorpio N and that too in black color, I knew above cleaning practice is not going to work.
As most people, I was too confused between PPF and ceramic coating and after going through both the threads I ruled out PPF because of
1. Not being comfortable with removing badges and body parts for PPF on brand new car.
2. Concern with possibility of paint damage in case PPF needs to be removed.
3. High cost
I inquired about ceramic coating at the detailer where I used to get my previous car detailed and I got the quote of 35K and free maintenance coat every time I get the car detailed. I would have to pay 7.5K for detailing which includes exterior, interior and engine.
So in the end I got the car ceramic coated and below is the cleaning practice I followed throughout the year
1. No daily washing from society boy
2. There is a construction work going on near my building so every 2 days huge dust gets settled on car. I use Jopasu duster to clean the car. Its very efficient and gets whole car cleaned in 5 minutes. Now I learned from this thread that this duster also can give swirl marks and I was not aware of that but I am still going to continue with it because of ease and fast way of cleaning dust.
3. Every now and then car gets some stains or residue of bird poop which duster cannot clean so I have got a spray bottle to get a layer of water droplets on car which I can wipe down using microfiber cloth. I do this wipe down cleaning once every week or two.
4. Once a month or after coming from long drives where car gets super dirty inside and out, I get her pressure washed from nearby washing center located inside a mall. I avoid road side washing centers.
Now I know my car cleaning method is not perfect in order to protect the ceramic coating but this is the best I can do for now.
Above cleaning practice works well in non rainy seasons but it becomes real challenging in Mumbai monsoon. I just didn’t like to take car out for short trips if I have just cleaned the car. Also I wanted to avoid frequent visits to washing center. So before this rainy season I am planning to buy a battery operated pressure washer so that I can clean the car and remove the mud myself maybe once a week. And also will try to control my OCD to have clean car every time taking out of parking.
Now after six month of coating, I started seeing light swirl marks and streaks on the car. It could be because of duster, my wipe down cleaning and/or cheap microfiber cloths the washing center guys are using. But they were not so prominent and the car would look just as shiny and glossy on the road. Only I was able to see the marks while cleaning the car from certain angles.
After a year swirl marks and streaks increased but still shine and gloss is maintained. But I wanted to get them removed so I gave the car for detailing and maintenance coat. Now my doubt was that during paint correction process will the ceramic coating be removed. So my detailer told me that because the base coat gets bonded with paint, it doesn’t get removed in polishing process and they apply ceramic maintenance (I didn’t understand what that means) where ever required and then a top coat of ceramic which doesn’t require curing.
I am little bit doubtful of durability of this top coat and would like to see how long it holds with my cleaning practice.
Along with swirl marks there were some minor scratches as well on the car which I think are inevitable in our driving conditions. But now after detailing done on the car, all swirl marks and scratches are gone. Below is the image takes right after detailing.
As per my experience ceramic coating is not “done for once it for all” kind of thing. It requires proper cleaning methods and also because swirl marks and minor scratches are inevitable, once a year detailing and maintenance coat will be needed in most of the cases.
My advise to the new car owners who want to get ceramic coating done is to fix a detailer where you can give car for coat maintenance each year. Detailers do not provide maintenance coat if you have got ceramic coating done from another detailer. Many detailers give 2, 3, 5 or upto 10 years package. So check what all services they are providing and choose accordingly.
Read BHPian comments for more insights and information.
