Columbus, Ohio · Ceramic coating
It’s a sacrificial
layer. Not armor.
A coating makes paint easier to clean and holds gloss. It does not stop rock chips. That is paint protection film — a different product, on a different scale.
- 4.7 stars · 352 reviews
- Indoor climate-controlled bay
- 5220 Trabue Road
The two ceramics
People call and ask “how much for ceramic?” The first question back is: on the glass, or on the paint? They are two different products that share one word.
Ceramic tint
Film. Inside of the glass.
Our most-specified film. Genuine heat rejection, no signal interference.
It blocks heat and glare. The state cares about this one: front side windows have to let at least 50% of the light through, plus or minus 3%.
From $299all around, regular-size vehicle
Confirmed price
All around means every window except the windshield.
Read the actual law →Ceramic coating
Liquid. Outside, on the paint.
Nothing about it is regulated — the state’s limits apply to glass, not to what is on the clear coat. What it changes is how water, salt and dirt behave on the surface, and how long the gloss holds.
It has nothing to do with the windows. Different material, different bay time, different price.
Depends on your paint.
Priced after we look at it — see below
What it is
Does / doesn’t
- MaterialA silica-based liquid. It goes onto the clear coat, cures hard and bonds to it — not a wax sitting on the surface until the first rain takes it off.
- ThicknessMicrons thin. What that buys is a surface harder and slicker than the clear coat beneath it, taking the abuse first.
- SacrificialIt wears in place of the paint. When it is gone, the clear coat underneath is exactly where it was the day we handed the keys back.
- In ColumbusSalt goes down in November and stays on the roads into March. On an uncoated car it sits on the clear coat all winter. On a coated car it sits on the coating, and it rinses off.
That is the whole product. A layer applied so that it wears away instead of the paint.
The second column decides whether this is the right product.
- DoesWater beads and sheets off, and it takes a good share of the dirt with it.
- DoesSalt, insects and bird droppings land on the coating instead of the clear coat.
- DoesGloss holds for years rather than the few weeks a wax gives.
- DoesSlick enough that a proper hand wash puts fewer swirls in.
- Doesn’tStop a rock chip. That is paint protection film — urethane, thick enough to absorb the impact. A coating is microns.
- Doesn’tStop a key, a shopping cart, or the brushes in a drive-through wash.
- Doesn’tProtect paint from bird droppings left sitting for a week. The acid still etches. They come off the same day.
- Doesn’tFix what is already in the paint. It seals it in, and the gloss makes it easier to see.
- Doesn’tLast indefinitely. It is sacrificial by design.
If rock chips are the concern, the product is film on the front end, not a coating over the whole car. That is a decision worth settling before the work is booked.
The job
Correction comes first
A coating locks in whatever is under it. Applied over existing swirls, it seals them in, and the added gloss makes them easier to see.
So the paint is polished first. Machine, pads, inspection light, panel by panel. Correction takes a couple of microns of clear coat off to level the scratch rather than fill it. Then wash, iron remover, clay, and a wipe-down that strips every trace of polishing oil off the paint. Skip that wipe-down and the coating bonds to oil instead of paint, and it releases early. That step is invisible, and it is the job.
The bottle is the cheap part. The hours in front of the panel are what you are paying for.
Longevity and care
How it wears.
How long it really lasts
A coating does not fall off. The water behaviour fades first — the beading slows long before anything else changes.
How fast comes down to three things — how the paint was prepared, what the car drives through, and how it is washed. A garaged car washed by hand and a work truck that lives outside and goes through brush washes are not the same coating twelve months in. We do not publish a figure in years, because those three things set it.
How to keep it working
- No brush washes. The brushes are what put the swirls in.
- Two buckets, pH-neutral soap, top down, wheels last.
- Wash every couple of weeks. A coating makes the wash faster, not unnecessary.
- Bird droppings and insect residue come off the same day. Both etch.
- No wax over the top. It sits on the coating and takes the slickness away.
What it costs.
There is no posted number for a coating. A two-year-old garaged car that needs a light polish and a black work truck with years of swirls in it are not the same job. Not close. The price is the correction hours, and those are counted with the car in front of us, under a light.
Call for a number on the coating. Ceramic tint we price over the phone — from $299 all around for Grade A on a regular-size vehicle. A coating is priced once we have seen the paint.
5220 Trabue Road, Suite D, Columbus, OH 43228