What a coating actually does

Your paint is three layers — primer, colour, then a clear lacquer on top that carries the UV protection and all of the gloss you can see. On most modern cars the whole stack measures somewhere between about 100 and 180 microns, and the clear coat alone is only around 35 to 50 of those. A sheet of copy paper is thicker than the layer doing all the work.

A coating adds a thin, hard, sacrificial film on top of that lacquer. Water sheets off instead of sitting in beads that bake on. Brake dust and road film release with far less agitation, which matters more than it sounds — most swirl marks are not caused by the road, they are caused by people scrubbing at a dirty car. Make the car easier to wash and you stop creating the damage.

The 9H thing, honestly

Every coating on the market is advertised as 9H. That figure comes from the pencil hardness test — the Wolff-Wilborn method, standardised as ASTM D3363 — where graphite pencils of increasing hardness are drawn across the cured film at a fixed angle and weight, and the rating is the hardest pencil that leaves no mark.

It is not the Mohs mineral scale, where 9 is sapphire. They share a number and nothing else. Worth knowing too that the pencil scale stops at 9H, so any product advertised as 10H or 12H is quoting a figure that corresponds to no recognised standard at all.

What that means for your car: excellent resistance to light marring and wash scratches, no protection whatsoever against a stone at motorway speed. If you want that, you want film.

How we do it

01

Measure the paint first

Before a pad touches the car we take depth readings across every panel. Factory paint usually reads somewhere in the 100 to 180 micron range; a reading well above 200 usually means that panel has been resprayed, and a thin reading means we correct conservatively or not at all. This is the step that decides what is safely achievable, and you get the answer before we start.

02

Decontaminate

Chemical decontamination for iron fallout and tar, then a mechanical pull with clay. Skipping it drags embedded grit across the paint during polishing, which turns a light correction into a heavy one.

03

Correct

Machine polishing on a dual action to level the lacquer around each defect. A pass removes roughly one to three microns, so a two-stage correction typically takes two or three in total and leaves well over ninety per cent of the clear coat intact.

04

Panel wipe

Every panel stripped of polishing oils with a solvent wipe. Oils left behind stop the coating bonding, and the failure shows up weeks later as patchy beading nothing will fix.

05

Apply and level

Coating on panel by panel under controlled lighting, then levelled inside a specific window. Too early and it smears, too late and you are buffing cured product off the paint.

06

Cure, then hand back

The car stays inside overnight so the film hardens before it meets weather. You get the depth readings, a record of what was corrected, and the aftercare.

What's included

Paint

Every painted panel, including shuts and the boot lip.

Wheels

Off the car, faces and barrels coated against brake dust.

Glass

Windscreen and sides treated so rain clears at speed.

Trim

Exterior plastics and rubbers sealed against fading.

Depth report

Panel-by-panel micron readings, before and after.

Aftercare

pH-neutral shampoo and mitts to wash it properly.

Warranty

Manufacturer-backed, subject to the inspection schedule.

Annual check

Bring it back yearly and we inspect at no charge.

Ceramic coating questions

Will a coating stop stone chips?

No. A coating is a few microns of hard film — it resists light marring from washing and road grime, not impact. A stone off the M60 at seventy will chip coated paint exactly as it chips bare paint. Film on the bonnet, wings and mirrors is the answer to chips, and the two work well together.

Why does the car need correcting first?

Because a coating is transparent and locks in whatever is underneath. Every swirl still there on application day stays visible for the life of the coating, and you cannot polish it out afterwards without removing the coating you just paid for.

How long does it actually last?

It depends far more on how the car is washed than on the product. A coated car put through an automatic brush wash every fortnight will look tired inside a year. The same car washed properly with two buckets and a pH-neutral shampoo will still be beading years later. The warranty covers the coating; it cannot cover how the car is treated.

What does the warranty not cover?

Scratches, stone chips, accidental damage, improper washing and contamination caused after installation. It covers the coating performing as it should, provided the maintenance and inspection schedule is followed.

Can you coat the wheels too?

Yes, and it is the thing customers notice most. Wheels come off, faces and barrels are cleaned and coated, and brake dust then rinses away instead of baking on.

Ceramic coating