How To Look After Your Ceramic Coating

There are some Do's and Don'ts when looking after your new ceramic coating, as a guideline we recommend the following.

Our Maintenance Scheme

We offer a maintenance scheme for customers, where we maintain your vehicle's appearance and prolong your new ceramic coating. This is the best way to help protect your ceramic coating, as we use high quality products and regularly inspect the coating is peforming as it should.

These visits can be weekly visits or even every 4-6 weeks, it is entirely up to you, we do recommend a monthly visit (every 4 weeks).

Our maintenance wash consists of deep cleaning the vehicle, including wheels and applying a booster protection for your ceramic coating. By doing this, it will help prolong and protect your new coating, ensuring maxium performance.

We also advise when a chemical decontamination wash is due (tar and iron fallout removal), making sure the coating does not become clogged.

If you prefer to wash your vehicle yourself, then below is a list of some Do's and Don't's.

Do's

Step 1 - Pre wash the vehicle
Ensure that you pre wash your vehicle thoroughly to remove as much dirt as possible. We highly recommend using a citrus pre wash and a snow foam to remove as much dirt as possible, before making contact with the vehicle.

Step 2 - Contact Wash
Always use the two bucket method when making contact with your vehicle. One bucket is for your car shampoo and the other is to rinse your wash mitt.

Use a microfibre wash mitt and apply the shampoo in straight line, this helps reduce the chances of scratching to your paintwork.

Once the whole vehicle has been cleaned, rinse thoroughly to ensure no shampoo is left behind.

Step 3 - Drying the Vehicle
When drying the vehicle use a high quality dedicated drying towel. This will ensure the paintwork is not being scratched as the drying towel is very soft and gentle.

Regularly check after you have dried the car for any water dripping from areas such as wing mirrors and door handles. If water is left then water spots can occur, which can be hard to remove.

Step 4 - Protect Your Coating
Once your vehicle is clean and dry, use a ceramic quick detailer, such as Autobrite Direct's Ceramic Quick Detailer. This will help prolong and boost your ceramic coating, whilst providing even more gloss. 

Products We Recommend
We recommend using the below products as a minimum to protect and prolong your ceramic coating. Ensure you read the instructions carefully and dilute the protect as per manufacturer recommendations.

Pre wash - Autobrite Direct Citrus Wash
Snow foam - Autobrite Direct Magifoam 
Shampoo - Autobrite Direct Purple Velvet Shampoo
Ceramic quick detailer - Autobrite Direct Ceramic Quick Detailer

Don'ts

Do Not Wash Your Vehicle For 10 Days
Do not wash your vehicle for the first 10 days of the coating being applied. This is so the coating is not affected by an chemicals, found during the wash process.

This will help the coating cure fully to the paintwork and provide maxiumum durability.

Regular Maintenance
Despite ceramic coatings being a very durable layer of protection, which will last for numerous years, if you do not clean your vehicle at least once a month, then the coating may start to fail.

This is due to a build up of road salt, road chemicals and contaminants eating away at your coating over extended periods of time.

Automatic/Hand Car Washes
Automatic and hand car washes can serverly effect ceramic coatings. They use extremely harsh chemicals, very powerful jet washes and poor washing techniques.

This will reduce the effectiveness of your ceramic as it needs to be maintained correctly.

Abrasive Chemicals
Using abrasive chemicals such as strong TFR (Traffic Film Remover) and other highly acidic/alkaline products will affect the performance of your ceramic coating.

Decontaminating Your Vehicle
We recommend a chemical decontamination wash (tar and iron fallout removal) every 3-4 months. If this is not performed then your coating may start to become clogged and less hydrophobic overtime.

We do not recommend using a clay bar as this is too abrasive for your coating.

DO NOT Polish Your Vehicle
Polishing is a very abrasive process and will strip through and remove your ceramic coating. If you have paint defects, please make us aware so we can remove these before applying the coating.

If something happens to your vehicle and a scratch appears through your coating onto your paintwork, please contact us so we can advise.