Best Ceramic Coating For Your Car: Protect and Shine

Ceramic coating is a liquid chemical solution that seals and protects the paint of your car. Paint protection film might be a little too expensive to cover the whole car and ceramic coating brings a much easier solution for each car.  Choosing the right ceramic coating is important and you need to take a few things into account before choosing the best ceramic coating for your car.

Best Ceramic Coating Kits:

1. Premium Pick: CarPro CQuartz
2. Best Overall: SHINE ARMOR
3. Best Pick: Armor Shield IX DIY Kit

CarPro CQuartz: Best For Luxury Car

The CarPro CQuartz ceramic coating kit is widely used in Europe in higher-end detail shops. This is a premium pick when it comes to ceramic coating kits and here is why. The new formula provides resistance to chemicals, salt, and environmental damage as well as excellent UV protection. The kit comes in different variations and we recommend you pick the 30ml ceramic coating kit as it is more than enough for a usual car.

Inside the package, you will find the ceramic coating bottle together with a reload spray bottle and microfiber suede towel with the sponge to apply the coating. The coating application is easy to do but there are a few things to consider before you apply it. Stick to the end to find out. 

Shine Armor: Best DIY

Shine Armor ceramic coating technology features a new innovative formula that seals and protects the paint. The product is very popular in the US and DIY-Friendly. It is the cheapest ceramic coating you can buy among our top 3 choices and there is no big difference in quality. 

For $19.99 this ceramic coating kit will protect and give a shiny gloss to your car. It is a single spray bottle, you have to buy a microfiber towel on your own. Shine Armor Ceramic Coating will be a great addition to your car cleaning kit inventory. You also need to take into account that ceramic coating price is usually expensive. The advertising is totally true and the bottle will slip off the hood after the ceramic coating.

Armor Shield IX: Best Overall

Armor Shield IX DIY Kit is the best overall ceramic coating kit. You will see professional shops using it but it does also find easy appliances in everybody’s garage as well. The package includes the 30ml bottle together with the towel and the sponge to apply the coating. This is a fairly easy process but there is one downside to it. Before you can ceramic coat your car using the Armor Shield IX you have to prepare it first.

Polishing and decontaminating the car is a must before applying the coat otherwise it has no effect on the car. The Armor Shield IX needs to rest at room temperature for about 4 hours to seal into the deep pores of the clear coat. Making it a little harder if you were about to do the ceramic coating on your driveway.  Despite all that the results are great, Armor Shield IX helps to give the paint a shiny gloss and claims a warranty of up to 5 years. 

Other Honorable Mentions

The list of great ceramics does not end here. There are a lot of brands that supply ceramic coatings cans or bottles that we couldn’t leave aside. Turtle Wax offers a great Hybrid Solutions Ceramic Spray Coating that is easy to use and can last up to 12 months. Turtle wax ceramic costs only $13.99 and can be used in direct sunlight and on all exterior surfaces including glass, headlights, trim, and wheels.

Cerakote supplies amazing trim restorer ceramic. The cerakote is easy to apply and won’t fade out when you pressure wash your trims. They offer a 2-year guarantee on their product and each pack includes 10 full-size wipes. 

Benefits Of Ceramic Coat:

Ceramic Coating has its own benefits and acts as a protective layer over your car’s paint. Some of the benefits from using the best ceramic coating:

1.  UV protection
2. Protection From Chemical Stains
3. Rockchip Protection
4. Hydrophobic Surface
5. Protection From Water Spots
6. Ease Of Cleaning

All the factors considered the ceramic coating seems to be a great car detailing purchase. Together with a good car detailing kit your car will shine daily while protecting your paint at the same time. The sun can cause damage to the clear coat by slowly ripping it out of the paint. Another benefit of using 9h ceramic coating or any ceramic car wax is the Hydrophobic effect. It will make the surface of the car smooth and the water will drop easily giving you better ease of cleaning. Last but not least the ceramic coats also help from rock chips and rusting. 

But paint is not the only thing you can protect by choosing the best ceramic coating. You can also apply the ceramic coat to faded trim pieces, wheels, glass but not leather. It will restore the shine into faded leather and keep the wheels clean.

Things to Consider Before Applying Ceramic Coating

All the great protection we mentioned above is worthless if you don’t apply the ceramic coating correctly. Ceramic coating helps the clearcoat shine better and protects it from outside factors like stone chips and dirt or UV protection.

Think of the Ceramic Coating on your car as if there was a layer of protection in all sides of the car and one day you take it off the paint will be the same as it was the day you applied the coat. But that is not always the case. To apply the ceramic coating you need to carefully take care of 3 things:

1. Clean The Car 
2. ClayBar The Car
3. Application

The advertisements where you take off the dirt by spraying a few drops and wiping them off are not true. The car needs to be cleaned properly in all areas like badges, grills, tail, and so on. Once the car is clean you need to decontaminate your car. Don’t worry because this requires 0 skills but it rather takes time. Using a clay bar as part of your car cleaning kit will help you easily decontaminate the iron deposits and the deep debris our eyes don’t see.

And last but not least the application. The application is the most important part when it comes to ceramic coating a car. Few drops of ceramic solution onto the provided towel wrapped around the sponge is enough for a section of the car. Think about your car sections like 2 or 3 parts. First, do the ⅓ of the tailgate in square motion, then move to the next section of the tailgate and so on.

The ceramic coating is best applied in closed spaces, garages, or even tents. That is because you want 0 dirt to get down to the pores of the clear coat. The ceramic coating will fill the pores and create that protective layer we all have been talking about. Also, room temperature must be put into account as you don’t want it to be too cold or warm. Normal garage temperature will work fine and last but not least give it time.

Most of the ceramic coating kits you buy are 9H. 9H ceramic coating refers to the level of hardness. It is best recommended that you let the 9H ceramic coating dry for about 4-5 hours in a closed garage. 

Nonetheless, you can also perform this on your driveway without any major issues. This is what most people will likely do and it will not harm the paint. The only downside is that you won’t get the best ceramic coating compared to the shop quality. 

What To Consider When Buying Ceramic Car Coats?

Before you buy a ceramic coat for your car make sure you consider these things first. The age of the car can tell a lot about your car’s paint. Really faded clear coat is likely to require a new paint job rather than a detailing service. To consider buying a ceramic coat you need to think about the value of the car at the same time. Some of the ceramic coats you can find like the Shine Armor cost around $20 but other brands can go up to 300$.

Surely, the car coating is a great thing to do to your car but make sure to make a smart buy. If you are more on the luxury side take into consideration having the service done by a professional or choose the best ceramic coating that is DIY.  The ceramic coat price sets the bar on how good or bad your car will turn out to be.

Best Ceramic Coating FAQ

Q. How many kits of cerakote ceramic would I need for an avalanche with cladding and bed cover?

A: 1 kit will be enough to cover the project.

Q. What’s the difference between cquartz 2.0 and 3.0?

A: 3.0 is the newest and best version just released this past spring. While the “2.0” version has been discontinued, it’s still a very good product.

Q. How to find the best ceramic coating near me?

A: If you google ceramic coating near me, google maps will bring up the service shops that offer ceramic coating.

Final Thoughts

If you are looking for a premium ceramic coating then you should go with the CarPro CQuartz as they offer a greater warranty and better quality. 

If you feel like that is too much work and need something more DIY the Armor Shine will work fine for you. What is your ceramic coat of choice? Let us know in the comments, your opinion is important for us.