Is ceramic coating as hard as, and thick as, an automotive clearcoat?

June 13, 2022

Ceramic Coating Thickness vs. Clearcoat

CERAMIC COATING THICKNESS - JUST HOW THICK?

The truth about ceramic coating thickness: Some companies in the Copperas Cove/Killeen/Harker Heights area claim that adding a ceramic coating to the vehicle is the same as putting another layer of clearcoat on the car’s paint. Unfortunately, this is completely false, and another rumor or misinformation that plagues the ceramic coating, PPF/clear bra, and auto detailing communities.

Ceramic coating, as we discussed in another Q&A, is designed for ease of cleanup, and not really for protection. PPF/clear bra is, however, designed for protection against the Central Texas elements.

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How does ceramic coating cars/trucks/SUVs work?

CERAMIC COATING THICKNESS cont.

For perspective, various ceramic coatings claim different thicknesses of their coatings, but assume most packages, even a Gold Package from Ceramic Pro with four layers of 9H (now Ceramic Pro is using Ion, which takes less) and a layer of Top Coat, are 5 microns or less. Typically, most ceramic coatings are around 1-2 microns thick.

Your clearcoat is generally 35-50 microns, although we have discussed before why that is thinner than it used to be. That is about 1.5-2 mils.

Vinyl wrap is about 3 mils thick, so a little thicker than your clearcoat.

Clear bra/paint protection film is typically 8-10 mil thick, almost 3x the thickness of of vinyl, and so much thicker than ceramic coating that they frankly don’t belong in the same sentence when discussing protection.

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IF IT'S NOT TRUE, WHY DO PEOPLE SAY SO?

The truth is, ceramic coating thickness is not really something that should be discussed when talking about PPF/clear bra. However, some companies, not just in the Killeen-area (mainly manufacturers) are likely making this claim because it’s FAR cheaper to install ceramic coating and make false claims than it is to invest in PPF/clear bra and eat the raw material costs.

We believe in full transparency here at Harker Heights Ceramic Coatings, and that’s why we are telling you this!

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