What is the truth about ceramic coating products for your car? Are they necessary? Is everybody doing it? These are all questions that you may ask yourself when presented with the option to protect your paintwork via a ceramic coating. Just like with any type of protection (or ‘insurance’ against the likelihood of predictable negative events or outcomes), it’s always better to have the protection when you need it, rather than suffer the consequences of failing to take the option of the protection when it was offered.
Of course, the decision over whether to protect your car’s paintwork with a ceramic coat will probably come down to the value you place on your car. For example, if you have purchased a ‘stop gap’ low cost vehicle that you don’t expect to own for long, and if you aren’t expecting the resale value to be very high, perhaps you won’t be as interested in protecting the car. However, if you take pride in your car, and if you plan to own a particular set of wheels for a number of years, you may want to look into ceramics…
What are the benefits of ceramic coatings?
Ceramic coatings are also known as nano-ceramic coatings. The name nano literally means one billionth, indicating that the minute molecular interactions between the ceramic coating and the paintwork gives a deeply penetrating level of protection that cannot be achieved by other types of protection.
Applying nanoceramics is a relatively simple process that provides a highly competitive lifetime cost-effectiveness. The results are instantly visible and the paint work will benefit from an immediate layer of protection. Plus, the amount of product required to coat an average sized car is surprisingly small – where other methods of protecting your car’s paint work may involve large scale sprays and waxy coats, a nanoceramic coating is achieved using a 30ml amount of product. That’s a handheld sized amount of product. Again, such a small amount is needed because of the ‘nano’ aspect, where a relatively smaller amounts of product can be spread much further across a surface due to the minute particles in its makeup (i.e. the product does not ‘clump’ together – like wax, for example – meaning ‘spreadability’ is increased.
What are the limitations of ceramic coatings?
Many people mistakenly believe that a professional ceramic coating is a fireproof and bulletproof forcefield that prevents even the most heavy scrapes and collisions with objects from damaging the paint work. Obviously, if you reverse into a gatepost or scrape the edge of a low wall while manoeuvring the damage is going to be evident, with or without a protective ceramic coating on your paint work.
Another misconception is that a single ceramic coating will last forever. Speak to your garage about how often your particular coating should be updated (the answer will be in years), as just like any protective layer, the elements will eventually wear away at the barrier, exposing the paint work after time. By cleaning away contaminants such as bird droppings, you can increase the longevity of the ceramic coating.
