New Car Paint Protection

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 The chemical composition of a ceramic coating makes it extremely hydrophobic, aka, repels water. The hydrophobicity causes the water to bead and that allows it to glide smoothly across paint. It creates a fine layer between the paint and dust, dirt, bug splatter, bird poo, bee pollen, tree sap and more which means cleaning is easier as well as drying. Ceramic coatings also offer fine UV protection but don’t expect it to save a heavily faded vehicle. 

 The biggest pro to a ceramic coating is the ease of maintenance as you have to realise that while it is a form of paint protection, it is a minute hardened liquid layer on the top of your paint. 

 There are so many factors that determine how long certain systems last for but they absolutely do not last a ‘lifetime’, whatever that means. So many different coating formulas and brands exist but on average you could expect between 1.5 years to 6 years. Brands will often offer long warranties like 10 years or lifetime, which sounds great but there’s usually a catch. To maintain your warranty, you will have to have the car regularly detailed by the installer who will most likely reapply some coating over time when in reality it wasn’t going to last that long without the top up. Most warranties are designed to sell and trap. Most who buy into warranties will void it within a year, so they paid a premium for no reason. 

 Since you cannot buff / polish a ceramic coating, unless you want to waste the money you spent having it applied, you will need to wait out the lifetime of the coating until you can get a paint correction. There is only a minority that can’t have a coating done because they have their cars polished frequently.

Another disadvantage to the coating is the beading… Just because the water is repelled, doesn’t mean it will all fly off magically and be dry. Since the behaviour of a bead is to sit above the paint, when it dries it etches directly into that spot despite there being a coating. So just because you have ceramic paint protection, does not mean you can forget about all the normal procedures and maintenance.

 Absolutely not. As mentioned above, ceramic coatings are very thin layers of hardened liquid, not magical shields. Anyone who says a ceramic coating will protect your car from stone chips should be avoided. While ceramic coatings can offer very fine scratch resistance, over time, your car will still develop the usual washing scratches and is unavoidable. 

Ceramic coatings are not at all comparable to paint protection film. Lets put this into perspective… A ceramic coating is a liquid that hardens to form a 2-7 micron thick layer while PPF is a thermoplastic urethane film that is applied over the top of paint and is on average 180 microns thick. For dramatic effect, imagine the difference between riding a motorcycle with underwear over your head for protection instead of a helmet. That is why PPF can offer you stone chip and scratch protection whereas, a ceramic coating cannot. 

Any protection is good protection, however there are a lot of people out there who buy new or used vehicles that do not care about regular maintenance. If you like to keep your car clean regularly or semi-frequently, and want the process to be easier than we would absolutely recommend a coating. A ceramic coating isn’t recommend for those that have their car(s) regularly polished and waxed, such as concours and showroom level vehicles.