How To Wash A Car With Ceramic Coating
Washing your ceramic-coated car is quite different from washing a standard car. The way you wash your car has a direct impact on how well the coating works and how long it retains its protective qualities and appearance, as you want to maintain its coating effectiveness.
Why it is necessary to wash a car with a ceramic coating:
When it comes to a ceramic coating, the general public has the misconception that cars do not require to be washed and cared for after being coated. Ceramic coating, also known as nano-ceramic coating, is durable because of its hydrophobic property. It is applied to your car’s surface to form a layer of paint protection film, but it does not mean it will become impervious to all the external elements. It is necessary to schedule regular cleaning and maintenance of your ceramic-coated cars to make them look and work their best.
Let’s discuss some important tips and materials for car washes that have a ceramic coating.
Material we need:
Two buckets of water, one for washing purposes and the other for rinsing purposes.
Microfiber washing towel: It is soft and gentle and would not scratch a ceramic finish while cleaning it.
Microfiber drying towel: it’s easy to use and dries your vehicle within a minute.
Ph-neutral car wash soap: it will safely clean your car’s surface without affecting your ceramic coating.
Cleaning process:
1. Ready your car:
Firstly, park your car in shade to prevent the soap from drying quickly, and check that all the doors of your car are properly closed to prevent water from seeping into the car.
2. Wash off extra dust:
Wash off your car to remove extra dust particles and debris from the car’s exterior to protect your ceramic coating layers from any scratches during rubbing.
3. Prepare your washing solution:
Wash your ceramic-coated car with PH-neutral soap because it cleans your vehicle without compromising coating integrity. Its balanced PH prevents the ceramic coating layer from stripping and degrading. They have emulsifiers in them that disintegrate the dirt, soil and grime, and they do not leave any residue behind.
It’s not only efficiently clean your car’s surface but also provides some extra ceramic polymers to assist repair the coated surface if it is affected during washing.
4. Use the two-bucket system:
If you use only one bucket for washing, then every time you immerse your microfiber towel into the bucket, your towel may get covered with extra dirt and soil particles. When you scrub it all over the car’s outer surface, it can affect your coating layers, causing scratching.
Therefore, you should use a two-bucket system. One bucket for the soap and the other with clean water for rinsing your microfiber towels. It will help to prevent swirl marks and other potential damage to the ceramic coating.
5. Clean a car:
You should wash your car one sector at a time, from top to bottom. By doing this, you can avoid cross-contamination. Before starting every new sector, you should always rinse your towels.
Use extra towels for the wheels because they are the dirtiest part of the car. They have brake dust, which can contain metal particles.
Clean windows with a window cleaning agent, and make sure to go to the edges where dirt could gather.
To avoid scratches on the headlights, use soft microfiber towels to clean them; otherwise, you’ll have to do the headlight restoration after finishing the car wash.
6. Rinse off the car:
Rinse off your car thoroughly to remove all soap residue.
7. Clean upholstery:
Make sure that water does not pass inside the car and headlights. Wipe out the water or soap residue and clean the extra dirt from car upholstery.
8. Dry the car:
Dry the car’s body with microfiber towels by passing them over the car’s bodywork, starting from the roof to the bottom, for rust protection and water spot prevention on the ceramic-coated surface.
Dry the windows and headlights gently to avoid any scratches and blurriness.
Important tips:
Things not to do:
What happens if your ceramic coating is not maintained?
Lose its shine
Ceramic-coated cars have a brighter and glossier look than other non-coated cars. If it is not maintained properly, the car will lose its clean and shiny appearance.
Hydrophobicity decreases
If you don’t maintain the ceramic coating layers of your car by scheduled washing, it will eventually erode and lose its hydrophobic properties that protect it from direct UV rays and pollutants.
Conclusion
The purpose of ceramic coating on cars is to keep them clean, but to prevent dirt and other impurities from accumulating on the car’s surface, frequent washing is still necessary. Car wash with ceramic coating need extra care because ceramic coating is expensive to restore if something goes wrong.
