Maintaining & Enhancing A Ceramic Coating

Keeping Your Ceramic Coating In Excellent Condition May Be Easier Than You Think...

Proper routine maintenance is essential for keeping your car looking fresh, and contrary to popular belief, this includes vehicles with ceramic coatings. While it's true that ceramic layers provide the most robust and durable protection available—two key reasons we created our Caramics range to make ceramic resin technology more accessible for both home enthusiasts and professionals—it’s also important to note that their low maintenance and easy-clean properties add to their appeal.

However, this doesn’t mean your protective layers can’t be enhanced or topped up during maintenance to improve both gloss and durability. Many believe re-coating is the only way to boost and extend your coating's performance, but that’s simply not the case. In fact, all of this enhancement can be achieved in no time at all. Here’s how…

What Are Ceramic Coatings?

To understand why ceramic coatings make maintenance so easy, it's important to first grasp how they work. A ceramic coating is a liquid polymer that chemically bonds to the paint on a molecular level. Like any last-step protection (LSP), it needs to be applied to a perfectly clean and decontaminated surface (we also recommend full paint correction before application, as the coating will lock in any imperfections).

What sets ceramic coatings apart from other LSPs is the way they bond. Waxes, for instance, physically bond to surfaces, creating a layer on top that is strong but can easily be removed. In contrast, a ceramic coating chemically bonds to the surface, essentially becoming part of the paint. This bond results in a new, durable surface that is more resistant to chemicals. While it can be etched, reducing its performance, it can only be fully removed through abrasion.

Ceramic coatings get their name from the use of silicon dioxide (SiO2), also known as silica, which is a major component of glass, quartz, and other ceramic materials. SiO2 is the main ingredient in a ceramic glaze, like the waterproof layer on your teacup. It's extremely hard, highly reflective, and provides some of the toughest protection available. This bonded silica layer helps slow down the oxidation of your paintwork, preventing UV fading.

The tightly packed molecules on the surface create a smooth, impermeable layer that resists abrasions, offering nothing on a microscopic level for grime or water to cling to. Instead, these contaminants either slide off or rest on top, easily removed during washing. This is also where the beading effect comes in, and why the coating is called "hydrophobic" — because of water’s fluid nature, a ceramic coating actively repels it, preventing it from sticking to the surface.

Why Top Up Your Ceramic Coatings?

Ceramic coatings are designed not just for durability, but for visual enhancement as well. They help keep your car looking better for longer, which is why we’ve crafted our Caramics kits to be both user-friendly and capable of providing hydrophobic performance that can last up to 12 months. The key to maintaining this performance is keeping your coating in top condition, ensuring the beading effect and easy-clean properties last even longer and stand up to the demands of the road.

A solid maintenance routine is essential, but the good news is that ceramic coatings can be quickly and easily reinforced during and after the wash stage. To make this even easier, we’ve developed three Caramics support products that not only enhance the performance of your coatings for added durability but also increase the shine of your paintwork. Our Caramics Enhancing Shampoo and Caramics Gloss Enhancer are ceramic-infused formulas that create an extra layer of protection on their own, but truly shine when used to boost previously applied coatings.

And don’t forget about our Caramics Glass Cleaner—it's pretty exceptional too!

Do It The AF Way!

No matter what vehicle you choose to coat, ceramic layers can be easily and quickly strengthened during routine maintenance with the Caramics range. To demonstrate, we brought this Toyota Supra to the Detailing Academy—a car that had its ceramic coating applied some time ago and is now in perfect condition for a refresh.

While we can’t deny the appeal of this 800bhp modified Japanese beast, the focus here is that its paintwork is no different from any other car. So, here's how we not only maintained the ceramic coating but also enhanced it—all in under an hour…

Step 1 - Wheels And Pre-Rinse

As with every detail, we begin with the wheels to avoid transferring heavy contaminants onto the paintwork. If you've used our Caramics Wheel Protection Kit, it's important to use non-acidic, coating-friendly products such as Imperial Wheel Cleaner and Revolution Wheel Soap. For a complete guide on the best way to clean your wheels, be sure to check out our Definitive Guide here.

Next, we move on to a thorough pre-rinse, which is just as crucial for removing heavy grime as it is for evaluating the condition of your paintwork and ceramic coating. After all, detailing is all about assessment, right? Why do more work than necessary? The pre-rinse also helps determine which products you'll need for the pre-wash stage. In this case, the coating was doing a solid job of keeping grime at bay, but the hydrophobic performance could definitely use a boost.

Step 2 - Pre-Wash

The products you use will always depend on the condition of the car. However, you'll find that using the right pre-wash cleaners for bugs and heavy grime can effectively remove contaminants without the need for scrubbing. A cleaner like Citrus Power Bug & Grime Remover helps reduce abrasion by limiting physical contact with your coating. After our pre-rinse, it was clear that only light soiling remained, so we didn't need a pre-wash cleaner this time. That said, there are always hard-to-reach areas where dirt can hide, which is why using Avalanche Snow Foam is essential to break down remaining soiling and reach every nook on the exterior. Once this stage is complete, you can safely move on to the contact wash.

Step 3 - The Contact Wash

While ceramic coatings provide a tough, protective layer resistant to chemicals, they can still be slightly etched or eroded if the wrong detailing products are used, which can compromise their overall performance. Lather Car Shampoo provides a powerful cleaning solution with a pH-neutral formula that won’t harm any protective layers, including ceramic coatings. This makes it highly effective for cleaning in any situation.

However, when it comes to actively boosting ceramic coatings while enhancing gloss, nothing compares to our Caramics Enhancing Shampoo, a formula specifically designed for the task. It offers the same cleaning power as Lather and is applied in the same way.

In this case, we used the standard two-bucket wash method, cleaning the exterior from top to bottom. The improvement in the coating's performance was immediately visible during the rinsing process.

Step 4 - Drying

Ideally, decontamination washing and paint correction shouldn't be required for a car with a ceramic coating, as the protective layer should prevent contaminants from sticking and swirls from forming. However, everything ultimately depends on visual assessment. If decontamination and correction are needed, a new ceramic coating will have to be applied afterward.

If all is well, you can proceed to the drying stage using a soft drying towel like our Aqua Deluxe or Aqua Deluxe XL. Once the car is dry, you can move on to further enhancing the coating.

Step 5 - Paint Enhancement

Now for the simplest ceramic enhancement you'll ever do. Caramics Gloss Enhancer is like a quick detailer, but with a twist. It removes fingerprints, light soiling, and water spots as you'd expect, while also adding an extra layer of SiO2 to enhance ceramic coatings, leaving the surface smoother and shinier than ever. The best part? It only takes a spritz and a wipe over each panel (it can also be used to refresh your wheel coatings). Just remember, a little goes a long way.

Step 6 - Glass Enhancement

Caramics Glass Cleaner focuses less on shine and more on extreme beading to improve visibility throughout the year. This powerful formula removes contaminants from the surface and bonds to create an additional SiO2 layer, enhancing any previously-applied glass coatings. Suitable for all exterior glass, Caramics Glass Cleaner requires just a quick spritz and a wipe to achieve a crystal-clear, streak-free finish.

With all the exterior coatings now enhanced, your hour is complete... though we all know it’s worth going the extra mile, right?

Step 7 - And The Rest...

Feeling a bit guilty about how little effort went into enhancing the ceramics, it would have been a missed opportunity not to spend a bit more time on the rest of the Toyota. The engine bay was in pretty good shape, so we gave it a wipe down with Finale Quick Detailer, then followed up with a generous application of Dressle All Purpose Dressing.

The heavily modified interior was thoroughly cleaned and dressed using the full range of Total Interior Cleaner and Spritz Interior Detailer (for a complete interior cleaning guide, check ours right here). It's important to use Crystal Glass Cleaner on all interior glass, as SiO2 coatings or enhancements aren't needed inside. After finishing the tyres with Satin Tyre Dressing, the Supra was ready to hit the road.

The Final Results

We’re sure you'll agree that the results speak for themselves. Our Caramics support products have left the exterior surfaces not only looking fantastic but also with enhanced ceramic protection. This ensures the car stays fully protected and continues to look better for longer.