New Car Protection: Ceramic Coatings

Time has flown by, and before I even realised, a whole month passed me by since my last blog post! Things have been rather busy as of late, with spare time to dedicate to my tertiary passion of writing proving to be rather scant. Nonetheless, I am a man of my word and have stuck to my promise of getting this particular blog post out this weekend.

So, on with the show. The majority of this last week has been spent on two new car protection details; the fact that they are the same manufacturer, and similar dates may suggest they might be a dealership outsource of work to myself, but you would be mistaken for believing so! They were for separate customers, purchased from separate dealerships. The first being a BMW 4 Series Coupe, and the second being a BMW M140i 5 door.

To get a vehicle off to a good start in life, getting a robust layer of protection in place is key. Both cars were tailored to customer requirements, as I find that giving people flexible options helps to give the opportunity to decide on a level of service that reflects on a given budget.

A common misconception is that new cars do not need as much prep work. This quite simply is not the case. Think about it, before a single mile is put on a new vehicle, it will have gone through a production process in the factory, exposure to the environment during transportation, and then dealership cleaning and so forth. So if a durable and high quality layer of protection is to be applied to any given surface, we at least want to make sure it's cleaned and prepared properly, or why bother in the first place?

Each car taken the course of two days to complete, as at this time of year it is important to ensure paintwork coatings are given a curing time without being impeded by rain. You can see by the image of the temperature and humidity gauge that these measures were monitored for peace of mind.

I personally ask customers opting for a new car protection to ensure that the booking takes place before 500 miles are put on the car; the closer to 0 miles the better. This is because once the car is driven and used too much, extra measures may be taken to prepare the surfaces resulting in more time and a higher fee. Further to this, I look back on a job from last year where a brand new Mercedes GLA had buffer trails all over the bonnet from where it had been machine polished incorrectly by either the dealership or factory. Personally, if I were to order a new car and were taking it to a Detailer, I would firmly instruct the dealership to not even touch the paintwork, and possibly even leave the protective film and sponge buffers on. If you are thinking of having new car protection, get it booked in before the car arrives!

Ceramic coatings can be applied to used cars too, it's just that the extra time decontaminating and machining out paintwork defects to a suitable standard therefore take longer and do reflect on the cost. My next blog will cover the various types of protection, whether that be ceramic coatings, polymer sealants, detailing sprays, and even good old wax! There may also be an update on FrankenPeugeot down the line, hopefully...

Anyway, enjoy the picture gallery!