Ceramic Coating Care Guide
This page is mostly just a more thorough version of the coating care sheet that you got with your ceramic coating.
I'll go into a little bit more detail on some of the things that were on that sheet and there'll be links for some of the products that I talk about and that were in the coating care kit you may have gotten.
Curing Period & Initial Care
So, if you're reading through this before your follow-up wash, this will just be a reminder that you don't need to wash your vehicle prior to the follow-up wash.
Prior to the follow-up wash, there's no need to wash the vehicle. Because your ceramic coating is kind of in a sensitive state right now.
During the first couple hours, a ceramic coating's mortal enemy is water. So, we want to avoid getting it wet. After those first couple hours, we want to keep harsh chemicals off it. So even a pH neutral soap is something we don't want to put on the vehicle while that coating is curing.
Once we've done your follow-up wash, that'll be the first time the vehicle gets washed and after that you can wash it just like you would normally wash a car.
Washing Routine & Products
As far as washing your vehicle, I always recommend a pH neutral soap which isn't hard to find. I'll always recommend IGL Wash or another one that I've been using for quite a while now is Dr Beasley's ceramic body wash.
If you got the coating kit, IGL Wash was included in that. If not you can always purchase it from me or you can go on the website to purchase it yourself.
While I used to recommend Meguair's Gold Class car wash soap I unfortunately had to stop.
When I was recommending it to customers, they would come back with their vehicles and there would be some sort of residue on the surface that was interfering with the ceramic coating.
What I've found out is majority of the wash soaps that you find have something in them. Some sort of chemical that leaves a residue behind like a gloss enhancer or something that ends up interfering with the ceramic coating.
So unfortunately until I actually find something, I can't recommend really anything from the stores. You can try and maybe find something if you'd like, but I'll leave a couple links below so you can purchase something.
The Dr. Beasley's Ceramic Body Wash, which I've been using for almost 2 years now, has been performing great.
The IGL Wash is available in a gallon jug which I can get for you and it would be cheaper than you ordering it yourself off the website. That one gallon jug will go a long ways since with either product, you'll only need 1 oz to every 2 gallons of water.
When we're washing we only want to use quality microfiber towels or wash mitts. I use the chenille wash mitts almost exclusively but I do use some really plush microfiber towels on occasion.
If you got the coating kit you got a chenille wash mitt in it so you're good to go.
When you watched me wash your vehicle during the follow-up wash, I always foam cannon the vehicle.
The reason why is you want some sort of lubrication on the vehicle first if at all possible.
Foam cannons are relatively cheap and they're also really expensive. So there's a foam cannon for everybody's budget. You can purchase a foam cannon for a pressure washers but they also make them for garden hoses.
You also may have noticed even though I do recommend the two bucket method, you probably saw when you follow up wash I wasn't using the two bucket method.
I used one bucket with a grit guard at the bottom. When I was done with both sides of the chenille wash mitt, I rung it out, shook it out and put it back in the bucket.
If your vehicle is really dirty, and this is something you'll have to gauge on your own, you'll want pre-rinse your vehicle first and getting the bulk of the dirt off of the vehicle.
In which case the two bucket method just becomes extra that you really don't need.
One thing as you're washing your vehicle try not to scrub at anything.
If you're having to get aggressive to try and get something off the vehicle like a bug guts or something, there's something going on there.
Maybe it's just a bug that is very difficult to get off or there might be an issue with the ceramic coating.
Either way you don't want to get aggressive with it. You don't want to make the situation worse. Maybe the coating is still there and it just needs some help to get it back to working like it should. In which case, I'll be happy to look at it.
Automatic Car Washes
Also when it comes to washing your vehicle avoid the automatic car washes the tunnel washes especially with the spinning brushes or the the curtains. A
lot of damage to paint work comes from those automatic car washes. And it will also damage your ceramic coating.
Drive-through car washes use pH high and pH low chemicals which will aggravate the ceramic coating, especially that top most layer that makes the coating slick and gives you that water beating effect.
I know everybody's not crazy like me and won't be out there in 30° weather trying to wash your vehicle and dunking your hands in cold buckets of water. So yes using a touchless wash is good in those situations.
Anyway you can wash the vehicle and rinse off some of that road salt is better than not doing anything at all.
Another good tip is when you're washing your vehicle always start with your wheels first.
Wheels of the dirtiest part of your vehicle you're going to splatter stuff around.
I always recommend wheel woolies if you want to get into the barrels of the wheels they are a great brush and they help tremendously when it comes to cleaning your wheels.
Drying & Detailing
When it comes to drying your vehicle, always go with the Dreadnought or something with that double twist pile fibers. Again if you got the coating kit you have the two of the smaller dreadnoughts to dry your vehicle with.
When it comes to drying your vehicle, at this point you've rinsed off the vehicle so all that's on there is water.
Water isn't a lubricant. And when you get those fine scratches on your vehicle, this is when it's most likely going to happen.
The drying towel can pick up a stray piece of dirt somewhere and drag it across your vehicle as you're drying. So this is why we always recommend using a detail spray.
The detail spray will give you some lubrication that you need to protect your vehicle as you're drying.
And again if you have the coating kit, there is a bottle of detail spray, IGL Enhancer, in there. 2-3 sprays on each panel is all you need.
Microfiber Care Instructions
When you wash the mitts, towels, and drying towels you want to wash them after every use.
When you wash the towels and mitts always wash them separately don't wash them with your clothing. The fibers from cotton clothing will come off and get into the microfibers.
While cotton feels soft, it's not as soft as microfiber and can scratch the surface of your paint. So you always want to wash everything separate.
I'll leave a link to some microfiber detergent that you can purchase if you'd like.
If not, any liquid soap that doesn't have any kind of fabric softeners or fragrances in them will work. Fabric softeners and fragrances can get embedded into the fibers of the towels and wash mitt and clog up the fibers.
And also if you use a soap make sure it is a liquid soap any dry or powdered soap there's a chance that that powder will not dissolve and again can clog the fibers which will ruin the softness of the microfiber.
Depending on how hot your washing machine gets, you can wash the towels in hot wash. I do all the time with no issues. If not, a cooler setting is fine.
I usually stay away from putting the towels in the dryer. I do know a lot of people that do that even on a low setting there's still a good chance that the dryer will ruin microfiber towels.
Because microfiber towels are made partly from polyester, which is a plastic, it can get too hot and it can melt the fibers.
Since you might be doing such a small batch of towels unlike me where I'm doing hundreds of towels a week, you can just take them out of the wash and hang them up somewhere to dry.
Again there's some useful links below to some of the products I use personally for taking care of my towels and taking care of my clients vehicles.
If you have any questions always feel free to reach out, give me a call, send me an email, or you can look at the YouTube channel for more information on car care.
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