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Why Everyone at New Again Has Their Own Car Coated

Jul

2019

The detailers who apply coatings daily all coat their own cars. That's the honest case for paint protection -- what it does and doesn't do.

There is a straightforward way to judge whether something works: look at whether the people selling it use it themselves. Every member of the New Again team has their own car coated. Not because it is a perk of the job, but because once you have seen what a coating does to a car you own -- and what the absence of one does to a car you don't -- the decision makes itself.

Gary, who has been in the trade for over 30 years, has coated every car he has owned since the workshop started applying them. His VW had Matrix Black on it for years. When he finally replaced it with a BMW, the BMW went straight in for a coating too. He even had his motorhome done -- one of the large American-style ones, which is a considerable amount of paintwork. His wife keeps horses. We are fairly sure the only reason they haven't been coated is that nobody has worked out how to cure the product on a moving animal.

What paint protection actually does

The lacquer on a modern car is thinner than most people expect -- typically between 40 and 120 microns. It is the only barrier between the colour coat and everything the road throws at it. Fallout, bird droppings, tree sap, road salt, UV light and automated car wash brushes all degrade it, slowly and invisibly, until the paint starts to look dull and the scratches start to show.

A ceramic coating bonds chemically with the lacquer and sits on top of it as a sacrificial layer. Contaminants land on the coating rather than the paint. They sit on the surface rather than etching into it, and rinse off with a proper wash rather than needing a machine polish to remove. Light swirl marks that would accumulate on bare lacquer from regular washing deflect off a properly cured coating.

It does not make the car bulletproof. A stone chip at motorway speed will still chip. A car park door will still dent. What it removes is the slow, invisible category of damage -- the kind that builds up over years and that you only really notice when you stand under bright light and look at the bonnet at an angle.

Gary's VW -- the supermarket car park test

The best argument for a coating is not a before-and-after photo. It is seeing a coated car in ordinary daylight, in an ordinary setting, and watching what the paint does. Gary filmed his VW in a supermarket car park after years of Matrix Black -- no studio lighting, no careful angles, just a car sitting in a car park looking like it had just left the showroom. The gloss has a depth to it that a waxed or unprotected car simply does not have. See for yourself:

Gary's VW in a supermarket car park after years with Matrix Black ceramic coating. Shot in natural light with no preparation -- this is what a well-maintained coating looks like in daily use.

Wax, sealant or ceramic -- which one?

Not every car needs a multi-year ceramic coating. A good quality wax or paint sealant, applied and topped up regularly, will protect a car that is garaged, hand-washed carefully and not covering high mileage. The honest caveat is the "regularly" part. Most people apply wax once and consider it done. A wax that has not been refreshed offers very little protection six months later.

Ceramic and graphene coatings are different in kind. They bond with the surface rather than sitting on it, so they do not wash off. They still need maintenance -- the right shampoo, a periodic recharge product like Matrix Recharge -- but the base layer stays put for years without reapplication. For a car that lives outside, covers regular mileage and gets washed at a drive-through, the ceramic option pays for itself in polish work avoided.

For the full range of coatings we apply, see our ceramic coating services. If you want the detail on whether a coating is worth the investment for your specific situation, the KB article on that question goes into it properly.

One thing worth saying clearly

We generally do not recommend ceramic coatings on leased cars. It is not your car -- the finance company owns it -- and you will not benefit from the protection when you hand it back. If you are on a lease and want to keep the paint in good condition for return, regular waxing and careful washing will do the job at a fraction of the cost. Save the ceramic for a car you own.

Danny Argent -- writer and training officer at New Again.
Over 24 years in the industry, 250+ articles, featured in publications such as Fleet News and Fast Car.

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