Nano Ceramic Coating Recipe

If you're into cars, then you have no doubt heard of the amazing coating which provides unmatched protection to your car's body. The protection includes water repellency, scratch protection, and corrosion resistance. Personally, I do not invest heavily in detailing my cars as I see them as tools rather than toys. However, if you know me, then you know I am very active in the field of Advanced Materials. Well, nano ceramic coatings, also known as Ceramic Coatings, Glass Coatings, and Quartz Coatings clearly fall in that category. Imagine a clear fluid which essentially turns to glass after applied to virtually anything! Not enough? It can be formulated to be extremely resistant to chemical attack. Still need more? How about flame resistant?..... Yep, it can be all those things.

It must be difficult to prepare, hard to find and super expensive. Thanks to the internet its quite easy to find. In the automotive category I ran a Google Search and found over 100 businesses locally to either buy from or have it applied to my car. So its everywhere. Well, in that case then it must be cheap, right? Wrong! When I scrutinized the available products, I see the price for these coatings ranging from $75 to $500 for kits including small bottles (30 mL) of the coating and prices as high as $1600 to have it applied to your car and receive a warranty.

If you are looking into purchasing some make sure it's the good stuff. The reason I am emphasizing "the good stuff" is because there are a bunch of fake products out there. Here is a quick litmus test for you to apply:

If its water based, then it's

not a real nano ceramic coating...

A true nano ceramic coating, as I would define it, has to be solvent based because the chemistry is water sensitive.

After a bit of research, some of what I already know, and acquisition of the necessary materials I do what I do. I make it. Here for you is the basic starting formulation for a nano ceramic coating:

This is no doubt a powerfully protective coating but what really impressed me was the calculated cost. Being generous I would estimate a cost of let's say $30/lb. As this product is commonly packaged in 1-ounce bottles, that would be $2 per bottle. Dang, that's a pretty nice margin!

Interested in how my coating works? You can see how I made it in this video:

Here, I prep my old Honda Pilot and apply my nano ceramic coating.

I ended up carefully applying it on my windshield as well. It worked awesome too but the water repellency wore off after about 6 months. I am sure I could make improvements on that though with a few chemistry modifications...

In conclusion, I am very impressed with the true nano ceramic coatings and how they can protect the body of your car as well as for the water repellency properties they offer to my windshield.