---
title: 'Video -kAZ7xNjN-E'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=-kAZ7xNjN-E'
video_id: '-kAZ7xNjN-E'
date: 2026-07-03
duration_sec: 1000
---

# Video -kAZ7xNjN-E

> Source: [Video -kAZ7xNjN-E](https://youtube.com/watch?v=-kAZ7xNjN-E)

## Summary



## Transcript

Hi, welcome to Bruce's Garage. I'm Bruce and this is my garage. Have you ever thought about getting your car ceramic coated? Is it the right thing for you? What does it do? How much does it cost?
Well, I'm going to talk about those things and more along with three reasons why you shouldn't get your car ceramic coated. So come on into the garage today and let's talk all about ceramic coatings.
Hey, thanks for joining me today in the garage. Well, we're going to talk about ceramic coatings. So first of all, what is a ceramic coating? It's also called a nano coating.
And the really cool thing about this, if you think about ceramic coatings, I like to think of it as like a car wax on steroids. So it's really different than a car wax, but the objectives are the same, right?
So it's to give protection to our vehicle's surface, protection from chemicals, UV rays, bugs. And what's really cool is it gives it this ultra-gloss and beautiful shine to your car.
But what really is it? Well, it's made up of silicon dioxide. Silicon dioxide is also known as silica. and it bonds with the paint surface
or frankly whatever surface you're putting it on and we'll talk about that. But it bonds with the paint surface at a molecular level. So there's actually a connection that occurs between that ceramic coating
and the surface of which you're protecting. That makes it really durable, long-lasting, and really effective at some things. And some of those things, again, are it protects against UV haze, a lot of the sun that can cause oxidation of your paint and makes it look chalky and old.
So that's a cool thing. It can protect against bugs, bugs etching into the paint. So we're going to talk about all those things and how it really works to protect your car and why you may not want to get a ceramic coating.
So, first of all, a couple things I think are really important to understand about ceramic coatings. They don't protect. It does not protect against, like, lock chips, scratches.
It is a tough layer on your paint surface, but it's not so tough that you can run into a brick wall and not be damaged or that you won't get a scratch on the vehicle.
It's not that tough. but it is an ultra durable strong surface protected for your vehicle ceramic coatings can be applied to many different surfaces in the vehicle we often most think about it on the the surface the outside
the exterior of our car the metal parts but ceramic coatings can also be used on other things For example, your glass. It can be coated on the trim.
They even make ceramic coatings for interior surfaces. But today we're primarily going to focus on the exterior surface and how ceramic coatings work and how they protect your vehicle.
And again, maybe why you shouldn't get a ceramic coating. Now, let's dive a little deeper into the true benefits of a ceramic coating. Well, first of all, when it's applied correctly, and I have to emphasize correctly,
because frankly, everything about the ceramic coating is about how it's applied and the preparation of the surface before it is applied. So if you rush it, if your detailer rushes it,
if it's applied when it shouldn't be, then you not going to achieve all the benefits of the ceramic coating Think of it again as like a super wax So one of the things you always want to protect from of course is the UV rays from the sun
That can oxidize the vehicle's paint. It causes that kind of dulling of the paint. It can make the surface kind of chalky in appearance. So if you store your car outside, you don't have a garage, or it spends a lot of time outside, ceramic coating is great.
It definitely has some real strong benefits there. The other thing is that it protects against our chemicals. And you may say, well, I don't have a lot of chemicals around. Well, unfortunately, chemicals are all in the air.
You've heard of acid rain. You get chemical fallout that's in the atmosphere, and then it rains and gets on our vehicles. Well, the ceramic coating can protect against those types of contaminants.
And lastly, if you do a lot of driving, particularly in areas that have a lot of bugs, and if you don't get that bug stuff off your car, the acid in those bugs will start to etch the paint.
And eventually, you can't even remove that without having your vehicle repainted. A ceramic coating is a protective layer. Think of it as a little bit of armor over that paint surface
that can really present some of that bug etching. The last thing it does, which I just love, is that it's hydrophobic. Just like a wax. But, man, I'm telling you, it's like a wax from steroids.
So if your car gets wet in the rain, it just beads up, it seats right off the car. And in fact, when you wash your car that's ceramic coated, it becomes so much easier because dirt doesn't stick to it as easy.
And when you rinse, things just kind of glide right off the surface. So ceramic coating is very hydrophobic. So it gives great water repellency to whatever surface is applied to.
That, again, provides great protection. So I alluded to a little bit about, well, how is the ceramic coating applied? Well, as I mentioned, it's a liquid form.
So they're typically in glass bottles. And that liquid can be applied to different types of applicators. This applicator is a suede applicator that has a little block behind it.
and it's applied just by putting the appropriate amount of ceramic coating on the applicator and applying over the surface. And then you allow that to what's called flash.
And flash just means those solvents and other carrier chemicals that are really helping the silicon to get to the surface. You want those other chemicals to evaporate.
when those have evaporated, then the detailer can wipe off that excess and what we call level the coating, making it even, so you don't have any what we also call high spots,
where you can see that there's a difference in the paint. You want it to all be uniform. So that application process is really important, and really important that it's done correctly,
because you don't want marks all over your vehicle. But more importantly than that is all the prep work that's done to get your vehicle ready to accept the ceramic coating.
Because remember, I said the ceramic actually kind of bonds with your paint. So if there's anything in between your paint and the ceramic coating, that impacts the ability for the chemical to bond
and therefore makes the ceramic coating less durable, less effective. So, how do you prepare the surface? How does the detailer prepare the surface? Well it starts with a really thorough wash So that important Cleaning that vehicle exterior very thoroughly At that point then a decontamination process occurs
Well, the chemical decontamination removes any of that fallout stuff that I mentioned or iron deposits from brake use. And so that's spraying an iron remover on the vehicle and allowing that to remove some of that chemical decontamination.
The second part of the decontamination process involves what we call using a clay bar. And clay is the mechanical decontamination that is glided over the surface of the vehicle with appropriate lubrication.
And it removes some of those physical deposits that are still on the vehicle. Decontamination process is a real critical step. Now, following decontamination, the next piece is, remember that when you're putting a ceramic coating on the vehicle,
the idea is that it's sealing the vehicle, sealing that surface. So any defect in the surface kind of becomes semi-permanently there, because you can't get it out if you have a ceramic coating there.
So what I'm talking about are things like swirl marks or white scratches. Swirl marks and scratches happen if you take your car to a car wash. So if I've got dust in my car and I take a microfiber and I just wipe that dust off,
I'm getting some marring on the surface. Whether you can see it or not, with the proper light and looking at it, and as the sun hits it, you will see those marks. And in fact, even if you can't see those marks so readily,
it does impact the shine of the vehicle, the gloss. So what then has to happen is we have to polish the vehicle. We have to first use a heavier type of polisher or compound to get rid of some of that micro-marring,
some of those holograms, those swirls that are in the paint. The second step is polishing. Now, if your car is in really good shape, it might only require one step, where you're just polishing to bring the gloss up.
because we want that gloss to be super high because now we're going to take the ceramic coating and apply it and seal that gloss in. So the last step before we apply the ceramic coating
is we have to do one more kind of decontamination. After we polish, sometimes there's oils left behind in those polishes and the oils can interfere with that chemical bonding.
So we have to remove that. So we wipe the vehicle down with a special preparation wash or spray to eliminate any of that leftover oil.
At this point, the vehicle is now ready for the ceramic coating, and the detailer then can apply the coating. Now, after the coating is applied, that vehicle has to cure so that even though that bonding
is taking place, it's not completely cured. And the curing process does take typically at least a week. Now, the short-term bonding, in other words, before you can take the vehicle and expose it to the elements, is usually 24 hours.
And every manufacturer of a ceramic coating has recommendations for how long that vehicle must be out of any type of water exposure
and how long you should wait before you wash the car. So typically, on average, it tends to be 24 hours that you don't want to expose to rain and those kinds of things, the elements.
The second piece is usually seven days before we wash the vehicle. So the detailer will have your car probably at least a couple of days to do all the prep work, apply the coating, allow the coating to cure enough for you to take the car.
So how much does the ceramic coating cost Well you probably start to have an idea of why it not a cheap investment Because I just mentioned your detailer is going to have your car for a couple of days at least
And we talked about all that prep work. That takes time. Time is money. So you can expect a ceramic coating to cost somewhere between $1,000 and $2,000.
That's pretty typical. Now that includes all those steps. however there are many ceramic coatings that are available to you and I right so there's consumer coatings the consumer coatings are really good they're not bad by any means what I will tell
you though is there is a difference between a ceramic spray and the coating that's in the bottle and that you apply from the method that I just talked about so ceramic sprays are fine but
they're not a ceramic coating. So understand that is a key point. The ceramic sprays are not a complete ceramic coating. It does not have the longevity that a regular coating has. Doesn't
mean it's bad. It just means it's more of a short-term kind of coating. Now, can you do it yourself? Absolutely. You can do this yourself. I've done them on my vehicle. It's not super hard
to do, it is labor intensive. There's a lot of preparation. You need to have the right knowledge and the right equipment. Because again, if you want to polish, again, polishing is not a super hard thing. But if you don't know what you're doing, you're not going to get the right results
and you can damage the paint. So you have to be knowledgeable to be able to truly apply the coatings. But you can do them on your own. Why shouldn't I get a ceramic coating, right? What
of the surprises about ceramic coatings? Well, number one is if you don't want to maintain your vehicle and wash it regularly, don't get a ceramic coating. And by wash it, I don't mean take it to
the car wash. If you want to go to the car wash, a ceramic coating is really not for you. And the reason is, is that all that friction on the surface is going to start to impact that coating.
So ceramic coating is not for you if you think it's going to be maintenance-free. It is not maintenance-free. Now, having said that, it's not maintenance-heavy. In fact, it makes washing your car such a pleasure and so freaking easy.
Because, man, stuff doesn't stick to it. You rinse it and you wash those hydrophobics. It's wonderful. Stuff just flies right off. It's great. The drying experience is great because it's like glass.
Everything is smooth. The other reason you don't want a ceramic coating, if you think that the ceramic coating is going to prevent lock shifts, it's going to prevent scratches, no, it's not body armor.
And if you don't want to spend $1,000 to $2,000 to get your car ceramic coating, it's not for you. So those three things about the ceramic coating, it's not for you if you want maintenance free.
I want to protect against rock chips, that kind of damage. I don't want to spend the money to get it done and have my vehicle prepared for ceramic coat. But don't go with the ceramic coat. I would say the minimum then, look at some waxes and wax your vehicle a couple of times a year.
I hope this video about ceramic coatings was helpful to you to understand just a little bit more about what is a ceramic coating and is it right for you and is it not right for you either way
I hope that was valuable please give me a thumbs up I would love it if you subscribe and I honestly I really do appreciate you visiting my garage today and I hope you have a great day
Thank you.