How To Wash Car After Ceramic Coating

Knowing how to wash car after ceramic coating is the most important part of keeping your vehicle protected for as long as possible. Nanocoatings aren’t a one-and-done thing—you need to actively maintain them. Here’s what you absolutely need to know about washing a ceramic coated vehicle:

Wash Regularly

Just because you’ve got a coating doesn’t mean you can slack on washing. You’ll want to be doing a wash at least twice a month to prevent contaminant build-up. Having the coating will make cleaning easier, though, so you won’t have to work as hard getting gunk off. Now when you go to conduct this wash, there’s a certain method we like to recommend to avoid scratches:

Use The Two-Bucket Method

This is a basic car wash technique that will keep you from accidentally inflicting scratches. Use one bucket for your wash soap, and another bucket lined with a Grit Guard and filled with water for rinsing grime off your wash pad. The Grit Guard at the bottom traps contaminants coming off your wash pad so they won’t be re-introduced when cleaning. Otherwise you’ll find yourself dragging a rock across your coating and causing a scratch. Now, if you have a quality coating on your vehicle, you shouldn’t need to wash too hard—which necessitates a less aggressive approach:

Use A Soap Made For Nanocoatings

If you’ve got a low sliding angle coating like Nano-Resin, your coating is already doing a lot to self-clean; water beads slide off easily and pick up gunk with them. Now, in detailing, it’s often said you should always use the least aggressive solution possible to preserve your vehicle’s health. If your coating is already doing half the cleaning, you don’t need a heavy duty soap. A gentle wash soap made for nanocoatings like Dr. Beasley’s Ceramic Body Wash would make more sense. It works with any coating, too, not just Dr. Beasley’s! Now, in the event you’re not up for washing yourself and want it done for you, keep our next tip in mind:

NEVER Use An Automatic Wash

If you’ve got a nanocoating, you’re probably concerned about preventing scratches. So why take your vehicle to a wash that’s going to mar your finish? Let us explain: Automatic washes use highly abrasive bristles that retain all the scratch-prone contaminants from previous washes. Put your vehicle through one and you’ll come out with a micro-marred coating—even if it’s “9H”.

What about touchless/brushless/waterless washes?

In some instances those options are acceptable. Reference our guide to the different kinds of wash methods for further information.

So as you can see, knowing how to wash car after ceramic coating isn’t particularly difficult—it really just comes down to a few best practices. Keep up a regular wash regimen and your coating will endure!