“But my car shines after I wash it, so why do I need your services?” Also known as, “What is Prepare, Correct and Protect?”

A car’s shine comes from light reflecting off the paint – a Captain Obvious statement. Almost all cars shine when clean. That being said, almost all cars don’t shine nearly to their paint’s potential. The top layer of your car’s paint – the clearcoat – is typically embedded with contaminants you can’t see, but you also can’t just wash away. These contaminants dull your paint’s appearance and prevent the sun from getting all the way through to your car’s paint. Through the use of special chemicals and a technique known as “clay barring,” these contaminants can be removed and the sun will do a much better job of actually reaching the paint and reflecting back the car’s true color. This alone can be a huge improvement in your car’s shine. This is what we do (plus more) during the “Prepare” stage of our service.

But that is only one step in the process. Even if you’ve taken great care of your car, the paint is almost surely full of micro-scratches (called swirls) which you’ve probably become accustomed to seeing. These defects are most evident in bright sunlight or under strong streetlights. To almost everyone, they look normal because they are so utterly common. But as with contaminants, when light “hits” these scratches they immediately reflect back, preventing the light from getting all the way to the color of the paint. So sure… you see your paint because the clearcoat is, well, clear, but you don’t get the depth, gloss, reflection and true beauty of the paint. By removing these micro-scratches, we permit the light to get all the way to the paint and reflect back to the eye. This is what we do during the “Correct” stage of our process. (Note there are multiple levels of paint correction, which are discussed elsewhere.)

So at this point your car can look vastly superior and, should you choose that level of service, nearly as good as or better than the day you took delivery from the dealer. But once you’ve invested in cleaning (aka Preparing) and Correcting the paint, you should “Protect” your paint to preserve all that new shine. There are several options here.

Carnuba Wax

The first option is to apply a carnuba wax. Everyone knows about wax as it has been around about as long as cars have. It offers the benefit of a great, warm and deep shine, but unfortunately, doesn’t offer much in the way of protection and more importantly, just don’t last very long. In fact, a couple of washings and a month later and it’s probable the wax will dissolve away and your car’s paint will be unprotected. The good news is anyone can apply wax and if you do so frequently (at least monthly) your car can stay shiny and at least partially protected.

Paint Sealants

Paint sealants came on the scene about 20 years ago and this synthetic formulation was a huge step forward in paint protection. Sealants do a much better job of bonding with the paint, provide very good shine and gloss but more importantly, if properly cared for, can provide four to six months of some shine and protection, with a few premium brands capable of lasting just a bit longer. Sealants can be relatively economical (or very expensive) and as with wax, can be applied by almost anyone.

Nano-Ceramic Coatings

The big advance in paint protection is in Nano-Ceramic Coatings, also known as Glass Coatings. As the term “nano” implies, these are microscopic particles which can actually enter the “pores” of your paint. (Yep, just like your skin, paint has tiny pores.) These coatings are engineered to create a very, very strong bond to the pores in your paint as well as the rest of your car’s surface. When properly applied, it creates a new layer of protection, acting almost as another layer of clearcoat. But with an added advantage of being much harder and slicker than clearcoat. Thus, it helps prevent minor scratching and the slick surface makes it harder for dirt to attach to your paint, making the wash process quicker, easier and much safer for your paint.

Another benefit of nano-coatings is in the shine — which will exceed that of most sealants and competes very nicely with good waxes. There are many brands of coatings (and sealants and waxes) and everyone claims theirs is the best. The best coatings are only available to certified professionals because they require special application and removal techniques. This is not the simple “wipe on, wipe off” process associated with waxes or sealants. We’ll talk about how to choose a coating elsewhere on this site.

So that’s what “Prepare. Correct. Protect.” is all about.