Ceramic coating is a finishing product that’s applied to your vehicle by hand. The purpose behind it is to protect, maintain and enhance the paintwork of your vehicle.
There’s absolutely no doubt that Ceramic Coating is the best last-stage protection for your vehicle, but it’s a little more advanced than applying a wax or sealant.
Incorrect preparation and application could lead to a horrible finish and a waste of an expensive coating.
In this article I’ll tell you why you shouldn’t wax your car before applying a ceramic coating, and the steps that you should take instead.
Table of Contents
Should You wax A car before applying ceramic coating?
100% not. You should not apply wax before ceramic coating.
Ceramic coating performs best when applied to the clean paintwork of a car. The coating bonds with the paint of a car providing a thin layer of protection.
Any dirt, grime, or temporary LSP such as wax will only limit the longevity and effectiveness of the coating. Anything that’s trapped under the coating will cause imperfections and will result in an amateur finish.
This is why it’s important to perform a full decontamination of your car beforehand, ensuring that all contamination and last stage protection is removed from the paint.
Can You Wax Over Ceramic Coating
The short answer to this question is yes. You can apply wax over a ceramic coated car. Is it going to be effective though? Does the ceramic coating actually benefit from it? Probably not.
Until you’ve actually seen fresh ceramic coating on a car, you’ll not understand how much it actually improves the finish. In some cases, adding wax into the mix can actually result in a worse finish.
Everything suggests that waxing over a coating is ineffective. It doesn’t help to protect and maintain the coating, it certainly doesn’t protect your car anymore either.
If you were to apply a non-abrasive type wax, there wouldn’t be any issues, however, I’m not sure there’d be any benefits either.
What To Use Instead of Wax?
The best way to make your car look good and continue to turn heads is to apply the ceramic coating correctly in the first place. This will ensure that your car looks the best it can.
Secondly, in terms of maintaining the coating, the best thing that you can do is frequently wash it using proper wash techniques.
If you feel like the benefits of the coating are slowly fading away as time goes by, you should top it up with a Silica-based coating such as Gyeon Wet Coat, CarPro Reload, or SiRamik Mist.
Click here to read and learn more about ceramic coating.