AFTERCARE
Looking after your ceramic coating
Your coating is doing the hard work, but it still needs a hand from you. This page covers everything you need to keep it performing properly: how to wash your car without damaging the finish, how to use your TidyRide Ceramic Detailer, and when to bring the vehicle back to us.
Applied at our studio in Newton Abbot, and looked after by you in between.
The first seven days
A fresh ceramic coating continues to harden for around a week after it leaves our studio. What you do in that first week matters more than anything else you will do all year.
Do not wash the vehicle for seven days.
No hose, no bucket, no waterless wash, and definitely no automatic car wash. If the car gets dirty, leave it. A week of road film will come off easily once the coating has cured.
Nothing chemical goes near it.
No traffic film remover, no wheel cleaner overspray, no quick detailer, and not even your TidyRide Ceramic Detailer. Save that for after day seven.
Keep it out of heavy rain where you reasonably can.
Rain will not ruin a curing coating, but a garage or a covered space for the first few days gives it the best possible start.
Bird droppings and tree sap need removing straight away. Soften them with plenty of clean water and lift them gently with a soft microfibre. Never rub at a dried deposit on curing paint.
After seven days, the coating is ready for normal use and you can start the wash routine below.
Washing a ceramic coated car
A coated car is easier to clean than an uncoated one, but it is not self-cleaning. Dirt still lands on it, and the longer it sits there the harder the coating has to work. Washing every two to four weeks keeps contamination from bonding and keeps the water behaviour you paid for.
1
Pre-wash first
Rinse the loose grit off, then cover the car in a pH-neutral snow foam and let it dwell for a few minutes. This lifts the dirt that would otherwise be dragged across your paint by a wash mitt. Rinse it all off thoroughly before moving on.
2
Use two buckets
One bucket for your shampoo, one filled with clean water for rinsing the mitt. Every time the mitt comes off the car it goes into the rinse bucket first, never straight back into the shampoo. Grit guards in the bottom of both are a few pounds well spent.
3
Use a pH-neutral shampoo
Strong alkaline or acidic cleaners will gradually wear at a coating's performance. A quality pH-neutral shampoo cleans perfectly well and leaves the coating alone. Work top to bottom, and rinse the mitt often.
4
Dry it properly
Letting a car air-dry is what causes water spotting, particularly in hard water areas. Use a clean, plush microfibre drying towel, or a filtered blower if you have one. Doors, mirrors and shuts hold water, so give them a moment.
That is the whole routine. Twenty minutes on a coated car will get you further than an hour on an uncoated one.
Want the reasoning behind each step? Read the full guide to maintaining a ceramic coating and the two bucket method explained.
YOUR BOTTLE
Using your TidyRide Ceramic Detailer
The same bottle we use in the studio
TidyRide Ceramic Detailer is the product we reach for on customer cars and on our own. We put our name on it because we would rather hand you the bottle we actually trust than send you off to guess at a shelf full of them.
What it does
A light mist over clean, cool paint lays down a fresh layer of protection on top of your coating. It lifts the gloss, tightens the water beading, and leaves the surface slick enough that road film and dust struggle to get a grip. Each application gives you around three months of protection, so a bottle used after every wash keeps a coating looking its best year-round.
Or collect from our studio in Newton Abbot
When to use it
After every wash, as your finishing step. Or on its own as a quick refresh before a show, a viewing, a sale or a weekend away. It takes minutes, needs no machine and no curing time. Two clean microfibre cloths and a quiet ten minutes on the drive.
How to use it
1. Wash and dry the vehicle first. The detailer goes onto clean paint, never over dirt.
2. Work one panel at a time, out of direct sunlight and onto a cool surface.
3. Mist lightly. Two or three sprays covers a panel. More is not better.
4. Spread it evenly with a clean microfibre cloth.
5. Buff off with a second, dry microfibre before it flashes off.
6. Move on to the next panel and repeat.
Before you start
Do not apply in direct sunlight or onto warm panels. On matte, satin, wrapped or PPF-protected finishes, test a small hidden area first.
What to avoid
A coating is tough, but a few things will shorten its life or void your warranty.
-
Automatic car washes. Spinning brushes put swirl marks into paint, coated or not. Hand washing is the only safe method.
-
Traffic film remover, acids and caustic cleaners. These are formulated to strip protection. They will do exactly that.
-
Washing in direct sunlight or on hot panels. Water and shampoo dry before you can rinse them, and you are left with spotting.
-
Traditional wax on top. It is not needed and it masks the coating rather than helping it. A coating-safe detailer is the right topper.
-
Pressure washing up close. Keep the lance a sensible distance from the paint, and away from trim edges and badges.
-
Leaving bird droppings, sap or fuel spills to sit. The coating buys you time, not immunity. Remove them when you spot them.
-
Letting winter salt build up. More on that below.
If you are ever unsure whether a product is safe to use, ask us before you use it. It takes one message and it has saved a few finishes.
Is your coating still performing?
Coatings do not fail overnight. They get masked by contamination first, and the signs are easy to read once you know what to look for.
-
Water beading has flattened. Tight beads that run straight off have turned into wide, lazy patches that sit there.
-
The paint feels rough after washing. Run the back of your hand over a clean, dry panel. It should feel like glass. Gritty means bonded contamination.
-
The gloss has gone flat. The finish looks dull in daylight even though the car is clean.
-
Dirt is sticking again. The car is getting dirtier faster than it used to, and washing is taking longer.
One or two of these, mildly?
A proper wash followed by your Ceramic Detailer will usually bring it back. Start there.
Still flat afterwards, or the paint feels rough?
That is bonded contamination sitting on top of the coating, and it needs safe decontamination rather than more product. Book a refresh and we will sort it.
Fine scratches or swirl marks in the paint itself?
That is not a coating problem, it is a paint problem, and it needs machine polishing before any protection goes back on. Bring it in and we will assess it under the studio lighting.
Your annual refresh
Your warranty needs an annual inspection. To keep your coating warranty valid, the vehicle needs to come back to us once a year, within 30 days of the anniversary of the original application. Miss the window and cover lapses.
That visit is our Ceramic Coating Refresh & Top Up, and it is a proper piece of work rather than a look-over:
-
Pre-wash and rinse, wheels and tyres cleaned, door shuts done
-
Snow foam soak and a body-safe hand wash
-
Full decontamination to remove tar spots and bonded iron fallout
-
Plush towel dry
-
A professional ceramic topper applied to replenish the coating
-
A coating health check, so you know exactly where it stands
Once a year is the minimum, not a limit. Most people book annually and that is plenty. If your car lives outside near the coast, covers serious mileage, or you simply like it looking its best, every six months is a sensible rhythm. You are welcome to book as often as you like.
Elite Lifetime customers
Your coating is maintained through the Lifetime Coating Refresh instead, which reapplies the self-healing top layer required to keep lifetime warranty cover in place. Booking the standard refresh will not maintain your warranty. If you are not sure which coating you have, message us and we will check your record.
Where the detailer ends and the refresh begins
Your Ceramic Detailer maintains what is already there. It tops up the gloss and the water behaviour between washes, and it does that job very well.
What it cannot do is remove bonded contamination, or reach the tar and iron fallout that builds up over a year of driving, or put a professional-grade topper down onto properly decontaminated paint. That is the refresh, and it is also what keeps your warranty intact.
Use the bottle all year. Bring the car to us once a year. The two are doing different jobs.
Winter and coastal care in South Devon
Cars in this part of the world have a harder time than most. Salt air comes off the bay year-round, the winter gritters start in November, and a lot of cars here live on a driveway rather than in a garage.
Wash more often between November and March. Every one to two weeks rather than every two to four. Salt is the one contaminant you should never let sit.
Rinse the underside and the arches. Most of the salt damage happens where you cannot see it. A hose down the wheel arches after a salted road takes two minutes.
Get it dry. Standing water in shuts and seams is what causes problems over a cold winter, not the wash itself.
Coastal parking counts as exposure too. If the car lives within sight of the sea, treat it like a winter car all year and consider a six-monthly refresh rather than an annual one.
More on this: why coastal living is harder on your car than you think
If we have coated your motorbike
The same principles apply, with a few differences worth knowing.
Keep the pressure washer away from bearings, linkages and the chain. A coated bike still has seals that do not appreciate a close-range lance. Rinse gently and let the products do the work.
Dry it thoroughly, then take a short ride. Water finds its way into places a towel cannot reach. Ten minutes of moving air clears what the microfibre missed.
Ceramic Detailer is fine on painted panels, tanks and screens. Same method as a car: cool surface, light mist, spread, buff. Keep it off the seat, the grips, the brake discs and the tyres.
Clean the chain and re-lube separately after every wash. That has nothing to do with the coating, but it is the thing people forget.
Fuel spills come off straight away. Petrol on a coated tank will not damage it immediately, but it should not be left to sit.
See our motorbike detailing packages
Frequently asked questions
Anything else, just ask
If you are ever unsure about a product, a mark on the paint, or whether something needs looking at, send us a message before you do anything to it. We would far rather answer a quick question than fix the result of a guess.