Gtechniq Ceramic Coating in Seattle, WA

Ceramic Coating for cars is a liquid polymer that is applied by hand to that chemically bonds with the vehicle’s factory paint on a molecular level, creating a layer of protection and increasing shine.

What does ceramic coating do? In short, a Ceramic Coating adds additional protection to your car’s exterior and helps keep it looking like-new with comparatively minimal maintenance. The coating achieves this result by making your vehicle more resilient and easier to clean. Here are the main benefits of ceramic coating for cars:

Keeps vehicle cleaner for longer
A quality Ceramic Coating, like Gtechniq Crystal Serum Ultra, creates a hydrophobic surface, which makes it more difficult for dirt, mud, and grime to bond with your car’s paint.

Makes vehicle easier to wash
One of the most significant features of a Ceramic Coating is that it is hydrophobic, which is a fancy way of saying it repels water. When a vehicle has a hydrophobic Ceramic Coating, water will bead on the surface and slide off more easily. This means that mud and grime will have a more difficult time bonding to your vehicle’s paint, and when you wash your car, contaminants can be removed with less effort.

Protects from chemical stains/etching
Another danger for your car is chemical staining from naturally acidic contaminants. By creating a chemically resistant surface, a Ceramic Coating can keep some contaminants from bonding to your vehicle’s paint. The result is that your vehicle will be more resistant to staining and etching, provided the contaminant is removed in a timely manner.

Protects from UV damage/oxidation
Another potential danger for your paint is oxidation caused by UV exposure. This results in a faded look to your paint. A Ceramic Coating is UV resistant, reducing the amount of oxidization, meaning that it will protect your paint from fading.

Enhances gloss
If you want your paint to pop with gloss, you will want to add a Ceramic Coating. The ultra smooth surface that a Ceramic Coating enhances the reflective properties of your car’s paint and clear coat, adding to the depth and clarity of your paint. The result is that your car will really pop with gloss and shine. A long-term solution A Ceramic Coating does all of this with just one application! Unlike a traditional wax or sealant, a Ceramic Coating does not wash away or break down and does not require repeated application every few months. After one application, your vehicle experiences all of these benefits for up to 7 years.  

See the table above for a breakdown of characteristics of each of our paint protection products. Key to long-term gloss retention is swirl resistance – the main cause of degradation in gloss is the build up of micro scratches made when your car gets washed.

As you will see from the table for the swirl resistant products, C1 and Crystal Serum Light and Crystal Serum Ultra, we also recommend an over coating of either C2 or EXO. The reason for this is that these coatings offer much better water and dirt repellency, as well as surface slickness. The combination of not having to wash your car so often or so aggressively, and the swirl resistance of the C1 or Serum, offers unparalleled surface protection. 

A question we get asked a lot and there’s no right or wrong answer. In our opinion it really depends on your car and how you plan to use it. If you are looking at using your car heavily and are looking to reduce stone chips then PPF is probably a good move. In many cases owners choose only to have leading edges – front bumper, part or whole of the bonnet and wing mirrors – protected with PPF film, and then coat the rest of the car with Gtechniq to prevent premature dulling from wash swirls.

One thing to bear in mind is that PPF can be porous and therefore contaminants will stick and be difficult to remove, coating your car with HALO Flexible Film Coating will prevent your film from UV damage and make it much easier to look after.

As a side note on this: ceramic or any other type of paint coating, no matter how much their marketing claims tell you otherwise, cannot offer any meaningful protection against stone chipping as in order to absorb the impact of a pebble travelling at triple digit speeds, you need to have a relatively thick and relatively soft membrane. PPF film is approximately 150 microns thick and our coatings are approximately 1 micron thick (please be very sceptical if you hear marketing claims of coatings that say they offer more than this). And whilst a thick and soft film works very well at absorbing stone chips, it is much more susceptible to micro marring (some newer films self-heal which addresses this issue) whereas a thin hard film such as Crystal Serum Light, Ultra, or Crystal Lacquer, provides optimum protection against micro marring. 

You can as the wax will not damage any of our coatings. But we recommend you don’t for a number of reasons. Firstly, if you have an extremely hydrophobic product such as EXO or C2, the wax will dull this effect. Also all our coatings are designed to prevent contaminant bonding and are non-yellowing. Wax on the other hand is a soft finish into which contaminants easily bond and wax is not optically clear. 

Our coatings have no adverse effects on correct repaint procedure. Also, none of our coatings produce airborne silicones and so will not cause any body shop contamination.

All our coatings are gas permeable and therefore do not prevent paint from “out-gassing” solvents. But, we do recommend leaving at least 72 hours between painting and coating.

This is a common question. The perception is that if a surface is not repelling water anymore then the protection must have failed. This is only partly right. One of the things to note here is that the surface of what you may think is a clean car may actually be slightly contaminated with road grime. Removing this with W5 Citrus All Purpose Cleaner will often return the hydrophobic function. But. It may be that the hydrophobic layer is no longer present. Please note that our guarantee does not cover this as whilst our hydrophobic products, C2 Liquid Crystal and EXO have class leading durability, the maximum durability they have is 2 years. So even if the hydrophobic layer has stopped working, the base coating of either C1, Crystal Serum Light or Crystal Serum Ultra will still be present as these coatings bond permanently with your paintwork. So this layer will still be there working to keep swirls and scratches to a minimum and helping to prevent loss of gloss through surface staining or oxidation.

So long as you follow the instructions then none of our coatings will ever peel or flake. But if you do not remove residue as instructed, the excess product can peel, flake or turn into a white crystalline powder.

Whilst coatings such as C1 Crystal Lacquer, Crystal Serum Light and Crystal Serum Ultra have class leading abrasion resistance, there is a limit to the amount of resistance a 1 micron layer of hard ceramic can offer to hedges, automatic car washes or contaminants in wash mitts. Whilst, on their own, these products are phenomenally hard (C1 is 7h on the pencil hardness scale, CSL 9h and CSU 10h), they will typically only add between 2 and 3h on the pencil hardness scale to the paintwork being protected.

Therefore. If your vehicle is painted with a very soft paint measuring HB on the pencil hardness test, coating it with Crystal Serum Ultra will change this to a 2H rated finish. So whilst this is a considerable improvement, it is still softer than an unprotected high solid painted car which can be as hard as 3h meaning that no matter how careful you are, some degree of surface scratching is inevitable.

All we can say is that due to the benefits of your coated car staying cleaner for longer, being easier to clean and having added hardness, swirls and scratches will be minimized.

EXO is a hybrid of a chemically bonding inorganic base layer (it can bond to any type of gel coat, vinyl and all kinds of paint – eg clear coat, acrylic, nitro-cellulose, two-pack, solid paint, metallic paint, pearlescent, urethane, polyurethane, matte etc.) with an organic top layer that provides incredible water and dirt repellency plus surface slickness and incredible gloss.

EXO can be applied to on top of C1 Crystal Lacquer, Crystal Serum Light, Crystal Serum Ultra, or as a standalone product. We would not advise EXO be applied over any other brand of coating – we cannot guarantee how the product will react.

EXO is a very hydrophobic coating designed to repel water and dirt, helping to make your car easier to maintain. While it is unlikely that a bird dropping would completely slide off the surface, EXO would certainly make the mark easier to remove.

Yes to all! EXO is ideal for PPF and vinyl but be sure that you don’t apply EXO first as PPF film and vinyl won’t stick to your paint with EXO applied. EXO is good on matte finishes, but C1 EXO is best

For optimal results we recommend two layers of EXO. These can be applied one right after the other (but be sure start on the same panel and work in the same sequence). Further layers can be applied but to little extra advantage.

As with many things in life, there are often downsides to great things. With any hydrophobic (water repelling) coating be it a wax, sealant or coating, if dirty water and in particular hard tap water is left on the surface to dry, it often leaves any residues that were in the water behind as unsightly spots on your beautifully glossy paintwork. In most cases these will wash off. But in some cases, particularly with hard water which leaves white spots of calcium and magnesium behind, they don’t. In which case we suggest using our W9 Water Spot Remover followed by a neat application of our W5 Citrus All Purpose Cleaner or a light hand polish and reapplication of EXO. Our best advice to prevent this happening is to never allow tap water dry out on your vehicle.

Even though, when compared to traditional waxes and sealants, this product is exceptionally durable, we have built an entire and fully compatible maintenance line. All of the products you find have been tested for 100 wash cycles on EXO, C1, Crystal Serum Light and Ultra and Platinum without damage to the coatings.