Ceramic Coating

What is ceramic coating?

Ceramic coating is an exterior paint protectant, made up primarily of silica (the main component in glass), which chemically bonds itself to the clear coat of your vehicle to act as an additional “sacrificial” layer of protection. Ceramic coating is a replacement for other types of waxes and sealants, affording your vehicle the same or greater benefits, but on a more permanent basis.

Unlike other types of wax, it forms a hard physical barrier on the paint, giving it greater protection and resistance to chemicals and heat. It can provide superior protection from insect acids, bird droppings, tree sap, oxidation, and even minor scratches and swirling. In addition, ceramic coating is extremely hydrophobic compared to wax, and especially compared to your car’s paint, meaning that a coated car will stay cleaner, and be easier to wash, than a waxed car.

Why do I need it?

Ceramic coatings offer better protection than waxes or sealants. Not only are ceramic coatings better at protecting your vehicle’s paint from general harm, but they protect your car from things that paint offers no resistance to, such as acids from bug guts or bird droppings. They offer a sacrificial layer that can defend your paint from hard water spots, something that is very bad in Southern California, as well as protecting your paint from UV rays, also very bad in the high desert.

They last longer, saving you money. Ceramic coatings only need to be applied once every couple years, depending on the type of coating and how you take care of your vehicle. It’s a larger upfront cost, but if you plan on taking good care of your vehicle, and paying a professional to do it for you, regularly keeping your vehicles waxed can end up costing you a lot more than the cost of a ceramic coating.

They’re easier to maintain. The hydrophobic surface of the ceramic coating means that dust-carrying rainwater, and our local hard water, will more easily run off the car entirely. When you soap the car in order to wash it, the soap and the dirt it encapsulates will run right off the car. In addition, we offer hand wash maintenance schedules with our mobile service.

Which brand of coating do you use?

We have used many brands of ceramic coatings over the years, but have settled on IGL as our main nano ceramic coating. The reasons are simple.

First, IGL ceramic coatings contain more solids than the competitors. Some popular brands, very popular brands in fact, can contain less than 25% solids and 75% carrier solvents that evaporate during application. IGL ceramic coatings contain a minimum of 80% solids which means that there’s more ceramic coating on the vehicle and less shrinkage. Shrinkage with IGL ceramic coatings are less than 5%, compared with 50% shrinkage of leading competitors. Some companies have great advertising, but we’d rather put a better product on your vehicle and save the high dollar ad campaigns for our competitors.

Second, many ceramic coatings that are mostly solvents are very finicky during application. They “flash” (the industry buzzword for how fast the solvent evaporates and how quickly the remaining ceramic coating needs to be leveled and removed) so quickly and unpredictably that it’s very difficult to remove and level the coating properly. Because IGL ceramic coatings are mostly solids, they have a very long working time to allow us to remove the coating without leaving “high spots” (the industry buzzword with spots of coating not properly leveled and removed).

Finally, IGL ceramic coatings are a tremendous value.  Because they’re not spending millions of dollars on advertising and promotion, we’re able to offer a better product at a better value to our customers.  We know most customer appreciate a balance of performance and value.