Ceramic coating for wheels – what is that?
Ceramic coating for your wheels and calipers? You must be thinking, ceramic coating is something for your car’s body and paint, can wheels and calipers be ceramic coated too? Yes, they can be ceramic coated.
Should I ceramic coat my wheels and calipers – is it worth it?
Now the question is, should you ceramic coat your wheels and calipers? Is it worth it? Absolutely yes! You should coat them. Here at The Car Nursery highly recommend it.
And for why you should do it. Wheels are the part of your car that goes through the most abuse. They must endure road grime, salt, mud, snow, UV rays and heat from friction from the road and braking. And let’s not forget the hard to clean brake dust that cakes up on your wheels and calipers and make them look older and more worn out than they are. Because of this your wheels and caliper can get dirty if not cared for in time. And we all can agree that wheels are hard to clean, and nobody likes cleaning them.
What are the Benefits of ceramic coating wheels:
Ceramic coating your wheels will solve all these problems. The coating will stop the salt, grime, mud and other road contaminants from sticking to the wheels and make them easier to clean. A simple rinse and a light, unthoughtful scrub will make them new again compared to the intense, hard-core scrubbing you had to do before. And the otherwise hard to remove brake dust will not stick to the wheel and will be removed with just a scrub.
Wheels are an important part of your car’s overall look. If wheels are uncared for and neglected, they will make the whole car look rough, no matter how much you care for the body and paint. Ceramic coating will bring out the shine and gloss in your wheels and it can be done on any wheel surface. It will make the matte or satin wheels look even more graceful. And your wheels deserve all the love in the world.
Let’s discuss a few more important things before jumping into how to coat your wheels:
How long does ceramic coating on wheels last?
That is another advantage of ceramic coating your car’s wheels. They will give your car a protective armor for a long time and keep you from stressing about them. A good quality ceramic coating will last a good 2-3 years on your wheels. Even more so if properly cared for. Some last for 5+ years.
How much does it cost to get wheels ceramic coated?
Another question that is coming in your mind right about now is how much does it costs to get your wheels ceramic coated? Well, it depends. Whether you’re getting them done professionally or doing it yourself. It will cost you anywhere from $20 to $150 per wheel.
How to ceramic coat wheels and calipers:
A lot of people neglect their wheels when getting the rest of the car coated, that’s a mistake, especially when you buy expensive aftermarket wheels. One reason for this is people don’t know the importance of getting wheels coated (which now you do) or they think it’s too expensive and too much work. That is not the case either. It’s easy to do and cheap if you do it yourself.
Now let’s get into how you can ceramic coat your wheels and calipers yourself. There’re two steps to this process. The first is prepping the wheel and then there is the actual coating. The prep takes much of the time the coating itself doesn’t take that long. Before you start the prep make sure you have as many clean microfiber towels as you can. You’ll need at least two for each wheel.
Prepping the wheels:
You start by taking the wheels off the car. That will expose the calipers for coating, and you can coat the wheels easily too. You need to make sure that the wheel is completely free of any contaminants. Start by washing the wheel, get in between the spokes and the back of the wheel, inside the barrel. After washing the wheel completely dry it.
Now you can use any iron remover on the wheel so we can get rid of any brake dust. Wipe the iron remover and use a clay bar on the surface of the wheel. After that, use an oil remover on the wheel and wipe it off so we can have a wheel that is free of brake dust, oil or any other contaminants.
We need the wheel to be as clean as possible, because any contaminants left will cause the coating to not stick properly and cause dark spots in the coating. These steps are only necessary if you are coating old wheels. New, out of the box wheels will not have these contaminants on them so, this much prep is not required for them.
After making sure the wheels are free of brake dust, oil and any other contaminants, they are ready to be coated.
The coating process:
The coating process is straight forward. Every ceramic coating comes with some form of applicator, usually an applicator block and an applicator cloth. Apply a few drops of ceramic coating to the applicator and start from the back of the wheel, coat the inside of the barrel and the back of the spokes completely make sure to get the outer lip. If the applicator feels a little dry, add a few more drops of coating.
Than move to the front of the wheel, coat the spokes and make sure to get in between the nooks and crannies, if its hard to reach the tight spaces with the provided applicator than you can use a brand new microfiber towel or a wax applicator foam and add a few drops of coating on it, using these things it will be easier to reach those hard to reach places.
Different brands of ceramic coatings take different time to cure. Read the instructions on the ceramic coating you’re using to see how long it takes to cure. Usually, it takes 1 to 2 minutes. You’ll know when the ceramic coating starts to sweat, meaning that little beads of left-over ceramic coating that have nowhere left to stick start to appear on the wheel.
After that just wipe off the coating with a clean microfiber towel, make sure you remove all the extra coating off the wheel. And then take another microfiber towel and lightly buff the surface of the whole wheel with it and then you’re done. Your wheels have been successfully ceramic coated. Just make sure to wait at least 24 hours before you drive your car again to give the coating proper time to cure.
Now don’t forget to coat your calipers when you have already taken the wheels off.
Ceramic coating the calipers:
Coating the calipers is the same process. Make sure your calipers are free of any contaminants and thoroughly cleaned. Especially brake dust and oil. Apply the coating to the painted parts of your calipers. After that just wipe the calipers of any excess coating when it’s cured and lightly buff the calipers with a clean microfiber.
That’s your wheels and calipers coated.
Click here to learn about how to care for your ceramic coated car and rims.
