Best Auto Repair in Santa Ana, CA

Ceramic coating is a semi permanent coating that replaces wax on the vehicle. Paint and clear coat are porous, wax fills in the pores slightly but stays liquid and can easily wash away or out gas under high heat. Sealants do not last long either. Ceramic coatings fill in the paint pores and bond with the molecules and crystalize to form a hard coating that will not wash away or out gas under high heat. Ceramic coatings provide maximum gloss to your vehicle ,easy cleaning and hydrophobic properties, they are some what chemical resistant, light scratch resistant when washed correctly, UV/heat resistant and last years at a time. Ceramic coatings do not prevent scratches, rock damage or etching damage, it is a sacrificial layer of protection against things liked bird poop or tree sap, most likely it will etch the coating and can be fixed easily later, however this is not the case with every paint system or coating. They are by no means bullet proof but will perform better than wax.

Clay bar treatment removes contamination (rough feeling) on your paint, this will give paint smoothness and enhance gloss minorly, it does not remove water spots, scratches or bird poop stains. It can also lightly scratch and mar up the paint and we generally recommend polishing afterwards.

If you can hook your fingernail on the scratch or see black underneath or metal, it cannot be fixed by a polisher or just with touch up paint. You would need to have a sectional paint repair or full paint repair service done. Detailers can remove light surface scratches that are not fingernail deep. Using touch up paint will never look factory no matter how much you pay someone to do it.

No. It is impossible to tell if coating failure was due to the installer or a product gone bad. Generally coatings only fail due to neglect which is not covered by any warranty. In the event of a failure companies generally will not provide more than a bottle of product and do not cover the paint prep labor. Wicked Auto Films and Detailing backs work up as long as it is apparent that it has been cared for correctly.

Yes we can however hard water damage is very bad for car paint, water spots when heated up will etch as deep as the metal and it requires heat treatment and many hours of correction to remove generally. When water spots are compounded out the first time by machine, they appear gone but after heating up the paint or adding a coating with a strong solvent, they often come back. This is a wash, rinse, repeat process, we do this procedure of compound, IR cure and then compound again until the spots stop coming back, this can take 3 or 4 times or 10 times or more. For water spot removal we charge additional by the hour. It is unfortunate but a harsh reality in california.