Sunshine Coast Paint Protection.
What is paint protection and how can it help my vehicle?
Modern car paint is extremely delicate, and highly susceptible to micro-scratches and swirl marks. Elements such as dirt, dust, stone chips, animal waste and bug splatters have a high risk of damaging your paintwork. It can be nothing short of a chore to properly preserve your car’s paint’s condition that you have worked so hard to achieve.
The car detailing industry its full of different paint protection products, ranging from waxes to sealants to ceramic coatings and protective films. While waxes and sealants are effective to a point and offer paint slickness and protection, they are only effective for a matter of months and require topping up on a routine basis to ensure longevity. Ceramic coatings and PPF wraps, on the other hand, are a semi-permanent, longer term solution that are effective for a matter of years rather than months. They are also an excellent way to ensure that the hard work put into correcting the paint to a flawless finish can be preserved and not go to waste.
Ceramic coating is a synthetic coating created with three main active ingredients: silicon dioxide (Si02), titanium dioxide (Ti02) and carrier agents. These work together to create a hard, glass-like surfacer that bonds to your paint’s clear coat and forms a resistance against scratches and the elements of Mother Nature. Ceramic Coating is measured on a hardness scale, not unlike that which lead pencils are also measured. The ideal hardness level for a car ceramic coating is 9H and above. Any less may prove to be a glorified wax or sealant and offer little protection compared to a “traditional” ceramic coating.
Here on the Sunshine Coast ceramic coating is a highly capable form of protection against our harsh and humid environment. However, it does not make your car invincible, nor does it remove the need for it to be washed. The glassy silica barrier, although much tougher than clear coat, is still susceptible to damage. Improper maintenance of a ceramic coating can still result in swirls and scratches, which can be costly to repair. The process involves a combination of chemicals, wet sanding and polishing, which can be unideal for your vehicle’s clear coat. Ceramic coating in the Sunshine Coast climate can last between 2-5 years depending on factors such as correct application, the brand of coating and proper maintenance.
PPF (Paint Protection Film) is a thin but highly durable film made up of polymers and polyurethane, adding the highest level of car paint protection currently available on the market. If you own a matte vehicle, this may be your best and only line of defence against scratching and stone chips. On the Sunshine Coast PPF offers excellent hydrophobic properties, stain and chemical resistance and has the ability to self-heal when exposed to heat or direct sunlight. There is even new technology in some types of PPF that are able to heal instantly, helping keep your pride and joy looking its best for years to come.
Sunshine Coast PPF can last anywhere from 5-10 years, once again dependant on the quality of the install, the type of PPF and the quality of detailing maintenance whilst on the car. The main downside to PPF is the cost; it’s not cheap by any stretch of the imagination. But it does work, however, and extremely well at that. This is an essential form of paint protection for a prestige car, or one of high value, where the value of the paintwork alone can be in excess of tens of thousands of dollars.
Why can paint protection cost so much?
There are quite a few factors that go into the influence of paint protection cost. Even with a brand new car, the paint condition can be far from perfect. It’s important to remember that Australia no longer manufactures cars; therefore, all of the new cars you’ll see in the country are imported from overseas, mainly from the United States, Japan, Korea, Europe and the United Kingdom. This means significantly higher complications come with imported cars, including risk of exterior damage. Not to mention dealerships that are oftentimes not properly educated on how to correctly prepare a vehicle for pre-sale. All of this comes together to result in a seemingly “brand new” car that is in fact covered with micro swirls, water spots and marring on the paintwork.
Take any car that is anything less than brand new, and it’s almost guaranteed that a paint correction is necessary before paint protection. It’s worth noting as well that the general public is oftentimes uneducated on how to properly look after a car. When they finally get the keys for their new car from the dealership, they’re not well-informed on when to re-wax their car, or how to wash it properly. Most dealership-applied waxes will last less than a couple of weeks, if lucky. After that, there’s little protection on the paint to cover it from environmental elements, greatly increasing the risk of paint damage.
So, what does this mean for influencing paint protection costs? Usually, depending on the type of paint protection, the actual “protection” component is usually the easiest part. By far the most involved part of the job is correcting the paint to near perfection, removing all swirls, marring, scratches and water spots, before the final result is locked into place. Depending on the initial damage on the car’s paintwork, correction can take hours, and sometimes even days, of labour to ensure maximum results. This heavily influences the price of paint correction. When it comes to ceramic coating, brands will provide different levels of protection, oftentimes from a 3-5 year option all the way to a lifetime guarantee. This level of cover is another area of influence towards protection prices. As they do say though, you get what you pay for. Clearly the benefit a lifetime guarantee of a coating’s protection of your paint is going to arrive at a dearer price.
When it comes to PPF, you can expect to see costs rise significantly higher than ceramic coating. This is due to the product cost - oftentimes thousands of dollars for the film alone, and the labour involved with its application. It’s not uncommon for a PPF job to take a week to apply; there are many incredibly intricate areas of a car that require extreme attention to detail and modern machinery to cut an exact match of the PPF to suit a section of car. It’s all relative at the end of the day, but the high amount of workshop labour and product cost are main causes of the cost of paint protection.