A “proper” ceramic coating refers to coatings that contain a solvent-based carrier, a bonding polymer resin, and ceramic/graphene/nanodiamond/carbon particles of various concentrations and types. These components work together to provide protective and aesthetic benefits to coated surfaces such as paint, glass, plastics, leather, fabrics, and carpets.

Differences in chemical formulas result in variations in performance and lifespan.

The applied layers range from less than 1 micron to a maximum of 25 microns in thickness, depending on the coating formula and application method.

There are different ceramic products on the market. As mentioned in the above What is a Ceramic Coating? – proper coatings contain solvent carriers, bonding resins and ceramic. These coatings are the most superior creating a ceramic plated glass-like shell over the applied surface that is thicker and denser than sealant or wax-based technologies.

Ceramic sealants, available in both spray and cream forms, along with ceramic-infused waxes, are essentially polymer sealants with ceramic particles, typically SiO2. These particles are at much lower concentrations than in proper full-strength coatings. Such sealants are easily degraded by shampoos and environmental factors. While these aren’t scams and do have their place, they can’t match the performance of full-strength coatings, even though they’re often marketed as such, leading to confusion about quality/performance and price/value.

The saying; “You get what you pay for” holds very true in the world of ceramic coatings!

The primary benefits of all coatings include;

• UV resistance
  • protects from the damaging and oxidising rays of the sun which fades and ages paint and other materials
• Water and dirt repellency:
  • This makes the surface easier to clean and helps it stay cleaner for longer but does not mean you never need to wash it or for that matter wash it carelessly.
• Chemical or pH resistance.
  • This means that coatings can withstand the effects of detergents eroding the coating and minimize damage, although not completely invincible, from bird droppings.
  • this includes salt and its corrosive effects

Ceramic coatings cannot prevent stone chips or deep scratches.

The level of scratch resistance a coating provides depends on several factors, including the coating itself hardness, thickness, flexibility, and smoothness, as well as the hardness of the surface it’s applied to.

If a scratch is within the thickness of the coating, it might be possible to polish it out and then reapply the coating in that area, depending on the coating.

This feature starts addressing light scratches from coatings with a thickness of 2 microns and up, with a pencil hardness grade of 9H PLUS or 10H.

For ceramic coatings to last as long as they’re supposed to, they need maintenance like; regular and careful washing, periodic decontamination and topping up with a maintenance sealant.

We offer maintenance services and can also guide clients on how to maintain their cars themselves or if they use a car wash, what they should do.

The cost of applying a ceramic coating depends on the preparation your car needs (or what you choose to have done), and then adding the cost of the ceramic coating you want will then influence the price.

For example:

VW POLO Hatchback – we classify it as a small car ( and assume its normal paint and not vinyl or PPF to be protected)

Preparation with no polishing (Decon Wash R950) with Auto Armour’s 2 year coating (no warranty at R2500) will come to R3450

Preparation with a single step correction (aka polishing – R2000) with Auto Armour’s 2 year coating (no warranty at R2500) would be a total of R5500.

Assuming nothing else is needed like detailed cleaning or polishing, masking, paint measurement, etc

The two parts of a ceramic coating application;

Many people considering ceramic coatings have the impression that ceramic coatings are scratch-proof, they can prevent stone chips and they never need to be worried about washing their car that is full of bird poo, parked under a tree, and direct showered with borehole water. This is misinterpreted and false expectation.

Professional ceramic coatings such as GTECHNIQ C1, Crystal Serum Light and Ultra, and Feynlab’s Self Heal formulas can be applied without or with a warranty from the manufacturer.

These warranties cover that the ceramic coating will not come off or turn yellow for the specified duration. It does not warranty swirls or scratches or any other damage.

They require periodic checks which are done while a vehicle is washed. The cost of which is the client’s cost.

The quality and regularity of maintenance are the most important difference-maker whether or not you have a ceramic coating. It influences how anything will last. Clients that maintain their cars with us or by themselves have a better chance of it lasting and looking good than taking their car to a normal car wash or allowing the gardener to do it.

PARTIAL OR SPOT CLEANING:

At the beginning of car care, there were animal and plant-based waxes. As technology developed, paint sealants, which were chemically engineered, provided longer-lasting shine and protection.

Ceramic Coating is a thin glass-like layer that is hand applied and chemically bonds to your paint. Due to its inorganic nature, it surpasses waxes and sealants in terms of longevity and durability and is now the pinnacle of paint protection.

It must be noted that there have arisen hybrid ceramic sealants and waxes that have some ceramic in them. If you study most of them, they don’t offer greater or unique benefits over regular sealants and waxes and don’t come close to a ceramic coating. To make it short, most ceramic sealants and waxes are developed and marketed to the DIY home user. They are not bad, but should never be confused with a true ceramic coating.

PARTIAL OR SPOT CLEANING:

PARTIAL OR SPOT CLEANING:

We currently offer both Ceramic and Graphene coatings for our customers. Ceramic-based coatings are the most commonly applied, and brands such as Ceramic Pro and GTECHNIQ have demonstrated their durability in the marketplace.

We have only applied a few Graphene-based coatings (less than 10 as of February 2023), and from the cars we’ve applied to, we only see 1 regularly fro maintenance. On paper, Graphene has a unique ability to maintain low surface temperatures, which helps prevent watermarks and spots. In this regard, we recommend them for cars that are kept outside.

Another emerging technology is nanodiamond-based coatings, which look physically similar to Graphene coatings. These coatings contain nano-sized diamond particles and are designed to provide a harder coating. However, as this is a new technology that was released in 2022, its effectiveness remains to be seen.

PARTIAL OR SPOT CLEANING:

There is a big difference in performance between ceramic coating product formulas. In their durability (UV, Chemical, Swirl resistance, etc) and their longevity.

Longevity is often the only indicator detailers give on the coatings they offer to apply. That’s not informative enough. You need to know what product/brand is going to be applied and if that will suit your needs otherwise it’s of no value.

I prefer to use brands and products that are well-known and proven, and with real-world reviews, you can reference. I believe this way will give you an idea of their true value.

Protouch is currently certified to apply GTECHNIQ, Autoglym, and FEYNLAB, all of these are leaders in their class. These, together with other formulas/brands we offer, cover different client budgets

When we advise you on a coating, we go further than just price, we ask you to consider; the condition of your car, how it’s used, stored, and cared for, and last but not least your expectations are all different.

I think the simplest answer to this question is to advise clients to choose the best coating they can afford or are willing to spend on as there is a definitive difference in the performance of ceramic coating formulas and brands themselves.

The types of scratches that coatings can protect your paint from is typically swirls and to a degree marring.

Swirls and marring is shallow scratches that a coating can either prevent, i.e. repel depending on its hardness / flexibility or contained within its film thickness. It is typically caused by contact with the paint surface, allowing dirt to build up on a car and then washing, improper washing like not rinsing properly, washing technique and drying your paint wrongly.

Swirls makes your car look dull, and if allowed to be inflicted directly on paint, would require polishing to remove. Each time you polish, you are microscopically cutting your paint in order to remove swirls and scratches. Repeated polishing therefore thins your paint which will eventually require a respray. This is unnecessary if you take protect and care for your paint properly.

Ceramic coating film thickness range anywhere from 0.5 microns to a maximum of 10 microns. Film thickness is only half the story. It’s a combination of coating thickness, hardness and flexibility as well as the hardness of the surface its being coated with, which combine and determine a coatings scratch resistance ability. After that, its how your vehicle is cared for and stored.

If this is then considered, coatings will not protect your car from stone chips, door dings, paint chipping from deep, sharp impact or any other deep type of damage, its too thin!

If that is what you need protection from, then Paint Protection Film ( PPF), which is thicker, 150microns plus or Spray on film at 300 microns, would be the better but also most expensive solution!

Paint Defects and thickness

If you look at this image of Paint Defects & Examples of Coating Thickness, you will be able to compare the depth that different paint damage has on paint.

• A human hair on average is 70 microns in diameter. Thick hair is about 90 microns
• A sticky Post It note is around 108 microns – which is the best visual approximation of your total paint thickness.
  • Your entire paint system can be from 100 odd microns to 180 from the factory.
  • Your Clear coat, which is the top most layer of paint, can be from 40 to 100 microns or generally 50% of the total film build.
• A human fingernail on average is from 400 microns thick
  • Rule of thumb for gauging scratch depth: If you can feel it with your fingernail its too deep!

If you do get swirls on a coated car, depending on the coating you have chosen, it should mostly if not only be in the coating and not the paint, which is what it was intended for, to protect you paint!

It can sometimes be repaired with a special polish or top coated and in severe cases simply removed and redone.

The maintenance of coatings is simple. Regular and careful washing and periodically a spray application of a ceramic sealant will maintain the longevity and durability of your coating.

In short, the scale ceramic coatings are promoted with is the pencil scale and not the Mohs hardness scale so manufacturers have a marketing advantage. While coatings cannot protect against scratches outright, they are the best solution for most else.

On the Mohs scale, a diamond is a 10 and baby powder is a 1. Obviously, if you read the grade of a coating as a 10H with the Mohs scale in mind you’d be thinking wow that’s hard my car will never scratch!

Where in reality they are using a pencil scale, pencils that are made from graphite are between 1 or 2.5 on the Mohs scale, depending on the hardness of the graphite, which in real life means they can be scratched with your own fingernails!

Graphene is the newest tech on the block. It’s molecularly stronger than ceramic but the way it’s bonded to paint does not make it better. It’s also early days with a lot of manufacturers rushing to put out products with graphene on them to make them seem more progressive. I would recommend sticking to more prominent brands that do actual research and manufacture themselves than simply buying in factory formulas and marketing them.

Here is a link to an excellent article from Feynlab regarding the hardness of coatings

https://www.feynlab.com/how-hard-is-a-ceramic-coating-what-is-9h-10h-am-i-being-fooled-find-out-for-yourself/

FYI: Modern paint is more like plastic! Which makes coatings technically stronger than paint.

A ceramic coating is a thin “glass like” layer applied over paint to preserve its looks, protect it from the elements and make it easier to clean and maintain.

They are all nowadays referred to as ceramic coatings but the chemistry of the coatings is different. They can also be called nano coatings due to their particle size which is measured on the nano scale in microns.

Ceramic coatings are not all the same. They differ in chemical formula which gives each coating their different performance characteristics. The main chemistries available today is Silica derivatives with the most popular being Silicon Dioxide or SIO2, Silicon, Carbon or Silicon Carbide / SiC as well as Silicon Nitride, Silane, Siloxane, Fluoro, Titanium Dioxide (TIO2) and a few other polymer resins. Graphene is also an up and coming up coating ingredient.

Variably, a coating formula will contain the solid particles of coating, resins and solvents. Some formulas are solvent free and others does require resins to bond with. Generally these are harder to apply but more solid particles lays down on the paint making them harder.

Visually coatings is a clear and thick liquid “similar to super glue”. When it hardens, it forms a thin hard shell over your paint. Paint isn’t a smooth flat surface, It has “hills and valleys”. A coating chemically adheres to these hills and valleys. They cannot fill scratches or swirls, a polish is needeed to remove that before coating.

While this hard shell layer is intact, your coating is “permanent” as nothing can gain access and attack the adhesion bond below. It can be worn down by abrasion like harsh washing, rubbing over time, polishing or claying etc. It can be chipped by stones, deeply scratched or even experience micro cracking if your cars paint is expanding and contracting faster than the Ceramic coating is able to flex. Once damage like this occurs, the adhesive bond is exposed to chemicals, environmental effects like acid rain, hard water, bird poo or bugs.

Maintaining your coating with a quality ceramic sealant, like GTECHNIQ C2V3, Feynlab Ceramic Sealant, CARPRO Reload and others, will help maintain your coating by filling in the pores / cracks / fissures preventing the bond from being further broken down and replenishing water repellency etc.

If the bond between your ceramic coating and paint starts to fail, it washes away, which is something you cant see. I’ve only ever seen coatings come off in sheets on photos.

The performance of the adhesive bond, usually indicated by the coatings longevity in months or years, the hardness, thickness and flexibility of the ceramic coating, the chemical and UV resistance, all contribute to how durable and long your coating will last in the real world terms.

Here is a link to a FEYNLAB blog article regarding the different Coating Chemistries, and Differentiating Marketing Terms from Actual Chemistry

If you experienced a fender bender or deep scratch etc then that area will need to be reapplied from scratch.

If the coating doesn’t bead at all or it has been reduced, it may need deep decontamination like in my Maintenance Detail #3.

If it has light swirl, it can be “glazed” with a ceramic repair agent. This may either camouflage it entirely or at least reduce the appearance. Testing is required.

HOT TIP: Avoid making unnecessary contact with paint whether you have a coating on or not. Careful and regular washing, using a quick detailer and a periodic boosting with a ceramic sealant will help you avoid having to repair a coating.

It depends on where you had a repair done.

If you had a bonnet, roof or either front or rear bumpers repaired then only that panels may need to be recoated.

If its a door, its best but not necessary, that you redo the complete side to avoid colour issues.

Yes.

A coating becomes the functional top surface of your paint work instead of the clear coat, allbeit sacrificial, i.e. it can be replaced if damaged like with swirls.

So just like if your car had no protection, wax or sealant it needs to be washed regularly and carefully to maintain it.

We sell products for your to DIY and we offer Maintenance Detail services to maintain it for you.

Avoid car soaps or shampoos with wax.

It’s best you use the same brand of shampoo as your coating or from another known and quality brand of ceramic coating.

A quality shampoo will defenitively change the pH of your water i.e. make it softer as well as give good lubricity and dirt release capability.

I prefer using a dedicated shampoo and snowfoam vs using one for the other’s purpose.

As long as your paint is chemically clean a coating will bond.

A coating may however amplify defects.

No, it cannot. It is too thin.

Think of a ceramic coating as a thin sheet of glass. It’s a transparent barrier. You will still see the surface behind it as it is.

No, it cannot. The coating will bond to the peeling paint itself and as it loses integrity and peels so would the coating.

No, it cannot. Polishing is the appropriate method to remove or improve faded paint for a single-stage i.e. non clear coated paint

It depends on the coating.

Most “pro consumer” coatings can be removed by polishing. High-end professional ceramic coatings such as GTECHNIQ’s Crystal Serum Ultra, Angelwax Enigma, Carpro Finest or FEYNLAB’s Self Heal coatings are so tough that they may need wet sanding to be removed!

In order to apply a coating, for any surface, it needs to be surgically clean, free of any contamination, oils, greases, etc, in order for the coating to be able to bond and give you an optimal and lasting result.

This means we need to go beyond a simple wash.

Collectively, the process to be done before coating a vehicle is called, Preparation or Prep, which is significantly different for every vehicle condition as well as the customer in terms of what is expected/budget, etc

You need to:

1. Wash
   • You will likely wash multiple times throughout prep
2. Decontaminate
   • Clay
   • Iron / fallout remover
   • Tar remover
   • Road film, grease, oils
3. Polishing
   • If you absolutely happy with you paintwork and just want to protect with a coating, then polishing can be left out, be aware that a coating will/does not fix or fill scratches or swirls.
   • Polishing is not only about taking out scratches and swirls, it is also a deep surface cleaning method depending on the polish used.
     • If your car does not require scratch removal, we use a fine polish or cleaning fluid to prepare, clean, smooth and strengthen, the surface
4. Prepare your workspace
   • You need to ensure your space is dust free with no drafts.
   • Coatings should not be applied in an open environment or direct sunlight.
   • Ensure temperate and humidity is accounted for
   • Proper lighting
5. Prepare yourself
   • Personal Protection
6. Panel wipe
7. Apply coating(s )

We keep the preparation process separate from the Ceramic Coating application because every vehicle condition and customer expectation is different.

In this regard, the correct level of preparation is realised by assessing the condition of your car and discussing your needs.

We would advise one either a Decon(tamination) Wash at minimum, or one of our polishing packages and customize that to your needs as the pre.

Please read our Polishing & Detailing page for more details.

The best advice I can give is to make your choice wisely with the following to consider;

1. Choose a recognized coating brand/product as it will have proven results with plenty of reviews from people that have already used them.
   • You will also have better support if its needed.
   • Remember, anyone including you, can buy raw materials and mix them up. Will it be any good?
2. Be wary of detailers offering you a Ceramic Coating but they dont tell you where its from. Ask them what they are offering you and make sure you researched it!
   • All coatings is not the same!
   • I will admit the features are e.g. water and dirt repellency, but how long it will last and what level it will perform at will be significant from coating to coating.
3. Take the best you can afford.
   • There is a lot of R&D that goes on and thats where the true value/perfomance lies. Not the price
4. Dont buy on hardness ratings alone
   • The hardness ratings of coatings is based on the pencil scale.
   • Pencils are made of graphite
   • On the MOHS scale graphite is a 2 or 2.5 at best. Same as human fingernails.
   • This means coatings CAN be scratched by fingernails!
   • The hardness rating is only half the truth. When a coating is tested for certification, pressure, by weight, is a key element.
     • i.e. 9H with 2 kilograms of force is better than 9H with 500 grams.
5. Stay away from cheap coatings. Think on what makes anything in life cheap?
   1. Its old technology
   2. Its old/expired product
   3. It has cheap ingredients which will compromise performance and longevity.
   4. Its fallen off a truck

The application of multiple layers of ceramic coating on a surface is referred to as layering ceramic coatings.

The primary purpose of layering is to create a thicker coating that offers better protection and scratch resistance. Other benefits include increased water and dirt repellency, improved gloss and shine, and slickness.

Timing is crucial when layering coatings, as additional coatings must be applied within the flash off period of the existing coating. Applying a another base or main coating at a later time will be ineffective, as the existing coating will reject and repel it.

Ceramic Pro offers a unique layerable coating system that allows for the buildup of a thick coating film over a car’s paint. The coating is engineered to provide hardness and flexibility, resulting in a durable coating that can be clayed and even “repaired” from swirls and minor scratches by polishing.

A more common layering approach involves applying a “base” layer of a main coating, such as GTECHNIQ’s Crystal Serum Light or Ultra, followed by one or more layers of a “top” coating, like EXOv4.

While certain top-coats, such as GTECHNIQ EXOv4, can be applied separately at a later time, they will form a separate layer from the main coating. In regards to their cost, we don’t recommend doing that.

If you want to boost and maintain an existing coating, we recommend using ceramic sealants like Ceramic Pro Care Plus, GTECHNIQ C2 Ceramic Sealant, and CARPRO’s RELOAD.

The cost of a ceramic coating application depends on the Preparation/Prep your car needs, based on its condition and what you expect/want to spend, as well as your choice of Ceramic Coating, which is mostly your choice against your expectation and budget.

In short, whatever the cost is of Prep, for example; R1500 (light polish on a sedan) and Autoglym UHD Coating, R1500, the total would be R3000. In this example, it’s for up to a standard sedan size vehicle e.g. Corolla, with no added detail.

It depends on three things;

1. Preparation
   • depending on your vehicles condition, the detail you want etc.
   • minimum 4 hours to 2 days.
2. Coating Application
   • depending on the choice of coating and what it takes to apply
   • the amount of layers to be applied and the waiting time between each
3. Curing
   • Depending on the coating, a fresh application should be allowed to rest for a minimum of 4 hours before hand over. Overnight is best
   • A fresh coating should not get wet for the first 24 hours and should not be washed for 7 days.
   • If it should be raining, we can do the prep and the coating on a rainy day as it would be inside, but when it’s being collected, rain should be avoided