Ceramic Coating Maintenance Tips

You made the investment to get a ceramic coating for your vehicle, great! It provides obvious benefits similar to wax, but it’s permanent and if it rains a couple times the coating doesn’t just fall off like a wax.

Ceramic Pro is frankly, still on top of the market for a reason. By having Summit Detailing install Ceramic Pro (aka, one of the top rated coatings in the world) to your ride, you’ve made cleaning much easier. When it comes time to wash your vehicle you will need to make sure you follow the basic and proper procedures of washing the outside of any vehicle if you decide to do it on your own.

Basic Washing Methods

• Two Bucket Method - This is not crucial, but absolutely helpful when trying to avoid dragging dirt/contamination across the paint & trim of you ride. It’s also advised that you use a “grit guard” and two separate wash mitts. One mitt for the top half and another for the bottom half of the vehicle. The grit guard goes into the base of each bucket for when you dip your mitt into the bucket, the dirt falls below the grit guard and doesn’t get sucked back into the wash mitt. You should use one bucket with just water to dip and wring out the dirty mitt and another bucket to dip into after wringing it out that is filled with soap & water, this way the mitt is as clean as possible before touching the vehicle again. When you’re done washing the vehicle, one bucket should be much dirtier than the other. If it gets too dirty while washing, dump it out and refill with clean water.

• Top Down Method - When you decide to wash your ride, ensure that you use the top down method to avoid dragging dirt from the bottom of the vehicle to the top of the vehicle which will cause micro-marring/scratches in your ceramic coating, or even worse… into your paint. Start with a well soaped microfiber wash mitt from the roof and work your way around the vehicle until you get to the base of it.

• Back to Front Method - Similar to the above method, you’ll want to make sure that you go from the cleanest to the dirtiest part of the vehicle. Typically the front of the vehicle is going to be dirtier than the rear, so start with the rear and work your way up front to avoid dragging that contamination across the vehicle.

• Water Deionizer - Something we take huge advantage of is a water deionizer, which essentially filters out any minerals that are in your tap water that you’re using to wash your vehicle with. If you live in the country and use well water, I would say this is essential. The best part about it is that you don’t have to worry about drying after your last thorough rinse. Because there’s no minerals in the water, there is no risk of water spotting and you can allow the water to just evaporate.

• Note: If you don’t wash soap off in time, this can leave soapy streaks which look similar to water spots. Avoid this problem by washing in small sections and then rinsing immediately with the filtered water.

  Products

• Use a PH neutral car soap! Even if you take it to a “touchless” car wash nearby, it can still harm the coating by spraying harmful soaps and waxes that degrade it faster. Can the coatings handle it? Sure they can, but do you really want to do more things that put it in harms way? A sane person would say no, but some people just like to watch the world burn.

• Ceramic Pro sells some good aftercare products, but you don’t have to spend the money on their products. Do I get kudos for sending customers to them? Absolutely! But if I can save you some cheddar and get you a good product at the same time, I will. Look for labels such as “Ceramic Coating Soap” or “Ceramic Coating Maintenance Soap” on websites like Amazon for the best price. Be sure to check reviews.

  Annual Maintenance Reccomendation

• We provide an annual maintenance for you to ensure that you can have as much longevity out of your coating as possible. We detail the exterior of your car for you and apply a "ceramic sealant” that lasts roughly a year, which acts as a refresher for the coating’s hydrophobic properties. Call us to get on the schedule if it’s been a year since your last service from us.

  Final Notes

• Wash your car every 2 weeks to avoid build-up of contamination. Remember, your wheels are flinging stuff up onto your vehicle’s surface, especially when it rains up here in the PNW.

• Don’t stress yourself too much about being perfect to the coating. Take care of it, but don’t let it ruin your experience of driving your nice ride.

• Take some pictures of those freshly detailed rides! We want to see them. If we happen to be the ones who detailed it, we’ll take the pictures for you!

  Feel free to call us to get on our schedule, we will be resuming mobile detailing very soon. Once the weather lightens up on the rain, it’s game on!

  into your paint