Glass coating pika pika rain that is the most popular in Japan

Preparation before ceramic coating in the proper way.

Does preparation need for ceramic coating?

What is the purpose for preparation before ceramic coating?

Ceramic coating can cover the car body with a glass layer.

Therefore scratches, dirt or water spots are covered with the ceramic coating if you apply it without preparation.

That’s why preparation is essential before ceramic coating to avoid the above situation.

Moreover, preparation can fit the new ceramic coating to the car securely and perform its best possible quality.
Only preparation can make the results of ceramic coating much better, so you should better to do it carefully as much as you can.

“That car is more beautiful than mine even though the same color…”

When you think like this, the car owner should do preparation carefully

Then, let’s learn about kinds of dirt and tools before you try preparation.

Dirt which can be removed by preparation

You might understand the importance of preparation before ceramic coating.
Next, we would like to introduce about dirt which you should remove.

Frankly, do you know there are some kinds of dirt?

There are roughly divide into 2 types of them.
The solution can be different for them, so checking type of dirt is very important!

1. Inorganic dirt

This is the dirt which is a chemical compound such as water spots.
Many people might be suffered from this mainly.
These dirt can be removed the special solution.

We have Pika Pika Rain Water Spots Remover.

However, unfortunately if you leave it, you cannot remove even though using the special solution.
In this case, please polish with a compound.
Please make sure that the ceramic coating will be removed together if you polish the dirt.

1. Organic dirt

Usually, it is oily dirt which can be removed by car shampoo or oil remover.
However, if the oily dirt combine with water spots are difficult to remove.
(For example, it is a black stream stain which comes from the mirror.)
You should polish them if it cannot be removed by car wash or oil remover.
Moreover, there are specific dirt which depends on the area or season.

Dirt peculiar to the winter

In the area where has a lot of snow, there is possibility that dirt or dust are into snow and they adhere to the car body. Then it causes water spots if you leave them.

Also dust tend to be in the dry air even the area doesn’t have snow.
It adheres while driving and finally it comes water spots by morning or night dew.

Dirt peculiar to the spring

There are a lot of pollen and yellow sand in the spring.

Yellow sand has the hard and fine grain like a mud, so they adhere to the car body and there is possibility to damage the car body if you try to remove it strongly.

Pollen might damage the car paint surface by “Pectin”.

Dirt nearby the sea

You should be careful about the salt damage.

As you know the sea compose salt. Then it is flown by the wind and damages the car body. Metallic parts are weak by the salt, so there is possibility to make rust.

We introduced just a few examples, but there are many other types.

It depends on the area where you live, the season, the situation when you use your car or the circumstances. Therefore, you should better to know the type of the dirt first.

Tools for preparation

What agents do you need for preparation?

It depends on the purpose, but we think that the following example is basic.

・Car Shampoo
・Oil Remover
・Compound (for polishing)
・Water Spots Remover

Now, we would like to introduce them.

1. Car Shampoo

This is the most important for not only preparation but also daily car wash.

There are many types of car shampoo on the store, so you need to choose the appropriate one for its uses.
For example, car shampoo for a light color car, for a dark color car, contains car wax, contains coating…
However, for preparation, please choose the normal one which doesn’t have polishing materials.

Also there are acidity, alkalinity and neutrality.

・Acidic car shampoo

It can use for removing water spots, but there is possibility to melt iron or stainless steels. Therefore, it is hardly used for daily car wash.

・Alkaline car shampoo

It is effective to use for removing bug shells or bird droppings.
However, it damages to the car body by the remained car shampoo, so you have to rinse it well.

・Neutral car shampoo

Almost all car shampoo is this type and the best for preparation.
It is less powerful to clean than alkalinity one, but you can use it for many types of materials.
Also Pika Pika Rain Car Shampoo is neutrality which can prevents unnecessary bubbling, so it is good for not only preparation but also daily car wash!

◎Is the neutral detergent able to use for car wash?
There is no problem, but please rinse well as it isn’t made for a car.

2. Oil remover

It makes the ceramic coating fit to the car body securely.
A spray type is common which is very easy to use.

3. Compound (for polishing)

It can be used for removing scratches or the old coating.
Also it can make the gloss of the car paint surface refresh (please ask some professionals if you need).

4. Water spots remover

If you leave the water after raining or car wash, it becomes like a stain which cannot be removed easily.

It can be used for dealing with it. It is very powerful to remove them, but you should use it carefully as strong solution.

Tools for preparation

Next, we would like to introduce tools for preparation.

1. Microfiber cloth

It is essential for washing, wiping and applying the ceramic coating.
You should better to have them as much as you can is better for each purpose.

If you use just one piece of microfiber cloth for all purpose, there is possibility to fail.
Please use different colors if you don’t have confidence.

Also please prepare more than you expected.
(Don’t worry, leftovers can be used in many ways!)
Fine type is recommended.

It is less damages to the car body than washing with a sponge, so we recommend to use a microfiber cloth for daily car wash, too.

2. Sponge

We’ve recommended a microfiber cloth above… but you should prepare 1 or 2 pieces sponges for washing and polishing just in case.

Please do not use the same sponge for washing and polishing.
Moreover, please buy the sponge for polishing on stores if you can.

3. Microfiber chamois

It is not essential, but it can wipe the wide area at once.
Preparation needs car wash many times, but if you have it, you can save the time!

Of course, Pika Pika Rain has the original chamois.
It can be used when it is dry and wet!

4. Polishing machine

We put a pad (there are some types such as a wool, sponge) and polish the car body with compound. It can polish wider area quickly than by a sponge or a microfiber cloth.

However, frankly, choosing a polishing machine is the most difficult.

It is very powerful to polish, therefore some people tend to damage the car paint surface due to polishing the same part too much.

If the advertisement says “for beginners” or “wireless” are not so powerful and time consuming for polishing, but it means that there is too much polishing.

Therefore, these types could be good for you who think “I need to avoid a huge mistake even it’s time consuming.”
Please ask professionals to remove stubborn watersports or scratches even you have already tried.

5. Others

A bucket, a garbage bag, an extension cord, and masking tape are not essential, but very useful.

About a bucket, from our experiences, you should better to prepare around 2 buckets.

About a garbage bag, putting the microfiber cloth which was used for applying the ceramic coating is recommended. Then it is easy to find which one is clean.

About an extension cord are used for polishing just in case.

When if you cannot chose, let’s ask the shop staff’s recommendation!

What is “compound”?

We would like to explain about compound (for polishing).
It is used for;

・removing scratches
・removing water spots which cannot be removed car wash
・removing the old coating

Polishing is one of the most important steps before applying ceramic coating.
Also we recommend to polish before Pika Pika Rain Ceramic Coating application
in the following situations;

・There are some scratches, water spots or dirt
・There is the old wax or coating

Basically, brand new cars don’t need polishing, but sometimes the dealer applied wax or coating, so please check them.

Tools for polishing

◆Polishing compound solution

“I don’t know which products I should choose…”

We have inquiries from our customers like above.

Compound has many types (for example, fine, ultra-fine and so on).
The difference is the size of grain.
If the size is bigger, the grain is rougher and more powerful to polish.

However, the rough compound might damage to the car paint surface,
so you should better to use the fine one if you’re a beginner.

Pika Pika Rain Liquid Compound has 2 types.
Fine for removing scratches or old coating, and ultra-fine for making mirror finishing.

◆Sponge

Only using a sponge is enough when you’re thinking about polishing the small area.

◆Polishing machine

The work is hard if you polish the wide area.

Then a polishing machine is highly recommended.

There are broadly classified as “single-action type” and “double-action type”.
Please remember that the single-action is powerful, and the double-action type is useful at this time.

◆Buffing pad

It is a pad which is put on the polishing machine.

How to do preparation

1. Car Wash

First of all, wash your car with a car shampoo.

Wash the car thoroughly to remove any dust, dirt, grime, or other substances by hand.
Every parts which you tend to forget washing as well.

After washing, please rinse well with a plenty of water not to remain the car shampoo.

※Cautions
If you leave the water for a long time after car wash, it causes water spots.
Therefore, drying completely is highly recommended.

2. Water spot remover

If there are some stubborn water spots, please apply water spots remover.

However, if you’re going to polish whole the car body with a compound to , you can ship this step (as water spots will be removed while polishing).

Some Water spots remover contains polishing compound.
It is powerful to remove, but there is possibility to damage the car body.

On the other hand, the normal one is not less stronger but, it just melts water spots by the chemical agent and you don’t have to be worried about scratches.

We would like to recommend to without polishing compound type.
If you don’t remove them even though use this, polishing with buffing is recommended.

3. Iron fillings remover

If there are iron fillings on the car body, you should better to apply this.
There are 2 types as below;

・Liquid type
・Clay type

※Cautions
About the liquid type, please do not leave it for a long time.

About the clay type, please wash your car with a plenty of water.
Moreover, please do not use different sides every avoid scratches.

4. Compound

Using a sponge

(1) Washing
Wash the car thoroughly to remove any dust, dirt, grime, or other substances.
Then dry the car completely.

(2) Applying
Put a small amount of the compound on a sponge.

(3) Scrubbing
Scrub the area that needs attention.

(4) Wiping
After polishing, rinse well and wipe off with a clean microfiber cloth.

Using a polishing machine

(1) Washing
Wash the car thoroughly to remove any dust, dirt, grime, or other substances.
Then dry the car completely.

(2) Applying
Put a small amount of compound on a buffing pad.

(3) Buffing
Move the polisher horizontally and buff the area that needs attention.

(4) Wiping
After polishing, rinse well and wipe off with a clean microfiber cloth.

Please do not polish too much whichever you use.

5. Oil Remover

It can remove oily substances.
If there is oil on the car body, the ceramic coating will not fit securely and effect on the durability.

Even though for brand new car, if you have already driven, you should better to wash and remove the oil.

There are many products, but let’s choose the appropriate for the ceramic coating you have.
(Our Oil Remover is the best for Pika Pika Rain Ceramic Coating.)

Finally

How about this article?

You might understand how preparation is important to keep your precious car beautifully.

We understand that to prepare many tools and the work is hard, but preparation is essential to treat my car is !

Moreover, frankly, a car should be sold with high price if you apply ceramic coating with preparation…

If you’re thinking about ceramic coating application, please do preparation before it and then let’s keep your precious car beautifully for a long time!

Protect your car from scratches! Solutions and precautions!

How do I protect my precious car from scratches?

The one of big problems standing in the way of keeping cars beautiful is…

Ssratches.

“My car got scratches while I’m driving car!”
Some of you happens by your mistake like above.
For these scratches, you can prevent some of them by your cautions.

However, actually almost all of scratches on the car body which is impossible to prevent completely.
For example, scratches which are got in driving, taking off, due to weather and animals… it is impossible to control all of them even though you are be careful.

However, you don’t drive your car not to get scratches, do you?

Then, how do we deal with them?
This time we would like to introduce about the reasons, solutions and precautions for each.

Don’t underestimate scratches! If you leave them…

We said just “scratches” when we explained, but there are many types.
In this section, we would like to explain about its differences and each fears.

■Clawing

These are lines like cat’s nail marks.
There are possibility to get these when some hard materials like a coin or key hit the car body.
Around a doorknob are many small scratches because drivers take out and put in the key.
If the scratches are not so serious, you can deal with them by some easy ways such polishing and applying car coating (to hide them).

■Scrapping

These are for wide area.
Have you ever seen a white car which has black grazes slightly on the corner?
The car gets these when the car scraped the wall or obstacles (electric light poles, crash barriers, vegetation …etc.) or crash two cars.
These can be recovered by polishing, too.

■Sands / stepping-stones

It cannot help making scratches when you drive by sands and stepping-stones.
Regard as sands, these could be scratches during car wash.
Regard as steeping-stones, these could damage the car paint surface when these hit to the car body.
For the parts which get whitish by stepping-stones, please recover with a touch pen yourself or ask professionals for serious ones.

■Dents

The battered car body by the huge impact.
Sometimes these can be recovered when you pat from the other side, but if the dents are serious, there is possibility to exchange all parts.
However, sometimes the paint surface comes off even the dents are not serious and in this case, repainting is also necessary.

■Damages

These are more serious and wider than dents.
Of course it looks bad and you should better to deal with it as soon as possible for safety and maintenance.

■Rust

If you leave the water on scratches or iron fillings, it becomes rust.
Not only brown rust adhere to the car paint surfaces, but also it is eaten by rust if you leave for a long time.
Before rusting, it is possible to recover with chemical products such as an iron fillings remover or a rust remover.
(However, please make sure that it depends on the situation, so you might need puttying or repainting.)

A polishing machine can solve many types of scratches!

If you try to remove scratches which cannot be removed by washing by force, the car body will damage.

Of course there are removers in the market, but it is troublesome if you use different products for different types of dirt.

Someone who wants to make whole of the car body beautiful quickly, we would like to recommend polishing which is using compound and a polishing machine.

Some car waxes in the market content compound, so these can be one way to remove slight scratches, but it depends on the color, so if you own different colors cars, it should be costly.

Moreover, almost all of car wax is only for polishing by hands, if the dirt is expanding, the work must be so hard and applying only car wax is not so durable.

Therefore, you need to reapply the car wax regularly, so polishing the car body with compound is faster for removing scratches.

Then when you polish the car body with compound, we would like to recommend using a polishing machine than polishing by hands.

If the scratches are partial and removable by polishing with compound a little, polishing by hands would be fine, but if you polish the same parts for a long time by force, there is a high risk such polished too much or color irregularity due to friction.

If you use a polishing machine, you can polish evenly and can finish the work much faster than polishing by hands.

However, you have to be careful when you use a polisher, too.
First if you don’t have enough experiences of using a polishing machine, you should better to use a “double-action” type.

In fact, a polishing machine which is used by professionals is a “single-action” type which has stronger power.
But it is difficult to handle, so there is possibility to polish the car body too much. Therefore, we wouldn’t like to recommend it for beginners.

A “double-action” type can move up and down, left and right. It is difficult to get scratches and the friction heat can be cut down.

You can get a polishing machine at a home centers, so please consider about it when you apply compound.

Let’s reduce the damage to the car body by ceramic coating!

Let’s protect your precious car from damages by applying ceramic coating.

There are many good points of ceramic coating.
It can last the beautiful condition at once you apply you don’t have to apply it many times like car wax.
Moreover, the water repellency will get better, so it will be difficult to adhere water spots after raining. Also washing dirt off and drying will get easier, too.

In this section, we would like to explain how to apply Pika Pika Rain Ceramic Coating.

1. Washing

The first step is basic car washing.
Please splash the water to the car and wash adhered dirt and dust off.
Then please wash it with car shampoo.
At this time, please wash with a soft microfiber cloth not to damage to the car body.

2. Preparation

Next, let’s check the car condition!
If you start applying even though scratches and dirt remain on the car body, they will be coated all together, so please do preparation and clean your car.
If there are any scratches and water spots, you can skip this step.

As we said above, compound is an ideal tool for scratches.
Please polish scratches and water spots and make the car body beautiful.

3. Removing oil

Pleaser remove the oil on the car body with Pika Pika Rain Oil Remover.
It is not necessary, but we would like to recommend to do this, because Pika Pika Rain Oil Remover makes fixing much better even though a brand new car.

4. Applying ceramic coating

Finally, you can start to apply ceramic coating after above steps.
Please put a few drops of Pika Pika Rain Ceramic Coating liquid (only for the beginning, about 6 drops) on a sponge and spread it thinly.
After you applied, wiped the liquid with a microfiber cloth.
If you don’t wipe well can be reason of foggy finishing, so please check the results well during wiping.

Also please repeat this step in every small parts.
If apply it widely at one time, the liquid dry before wiping and it is easy to be fogy finishing, so you have to be careful.

Above is how to apply Pika Pika Rain Ceramic Coating.

However, there is one thing which you should be careful.
Please make sure that you don’t have to wash your car anymore even though you applied ceramic coating.
If you leave your car without car washing, dirt on the glass layer cannot be removed. Also if you leave it after raining, the water which remain on the car body could be water spots…

Therefore please don’t forget that car washing is necessary even though you applied ceramic coating.

Moreover, please don’t misunderstand that your car won’t get scratches anymore.
It cannot help getting scratches to the ceramic coating if you drive your car in your daily life. (Of course, the car body can be protected by the ceramic coating.)

The performance will get lower than when you applied it when your car got scratches.
Please apply the ceramic coating with your understanding about it!

Got scratches on the ceramic coating! What should we do?
Ceramic coating has a hard layer, but it cannot help getting scratches.
First, trying not to get them is important, but we would like to introduce solutions when your car gets them!

Be careful at the following situations

■Cautions for car washing

Please wash rough dirt with a plenty of water.
If you wash a car with a microfiber cloth or a sponge which has rough dirt on the car body, the rough dirt is drug and it causes scratches.

Also please use a soft cloth as much as possible. A microfiber cloth is the best.

Finally, please wash your car by hands as much as you can.
If you wash it with a mop or a car wash machine it got slight scratches due to stepping-stones.
If you have to use a car wash machine at any cost, a high pressure car wash machine is fine.

■Cautions for applying ceramic coating

Please don’t apply the ceramic coating by force.
Ceramic coating is different from car wax, so it is better to imagine that making another layer on the car body.
Applying it by force causes scratches.
You don’t have to apply Pika Pika Rain Ceramic Coating by force in the all steps.

If the ceramic coating get scratches…

■For slight scratches

For slight scratches, reapplication of ceramic coating is recommended.
Ceramic coating doesn’t have an effect of removing scratches, but the liquid is filled up in unevenness parts, so it can make the scratches less noticeable.

■For deep scratches

For scratches which reach to the clear layer, it is difficult to hide by ceramic coating.
In this case, removing scratches is the only way.
However, if you polish with compound, the ceramic coating is polished together.
You should better to reapply it to the parts which you polished.
By the way, if scratches are very deep such reach to the car paint surface cannot be removed by polishing with compound.

Let’s prevent scratches by daily maintenance!

How was this blog?

We explained a lot, but we must ask you to make sure “there is no way to prevent scratches completely”.
However, please remember that the damage from scratches can be reduced by some good tips, too.

We totally understand you want not to damage your precious car and want to do everything for it as much you can.

We would like to advice for you as below;

Checking your precious car condition every car wash,
(Of course Pika Pika Rain Ceramic Coating has many any good effects!)
and when it gets scratches, please recover them.

Please don’t be too much nervous, just think “A car gets scratches in the end”.
Then please find own style for car maintenance and let’s deal with scratches