Real protection against salt, sap and weather — applied in your garage or driveway. From $200 for a season, from $450 for years.
A coating is a hard layer that bonds to your clear coat. Water beads off instead of sitting on the paint, dirt has less to grip, and washing gets dramatically easier. It also means road salt has something to sit on other than your paint.
That last part matters more here than almost anywhere. Pittsburgh runs salt from November through March, and it's the single most destructive thing your car deals with all year.
Coating goes on after the paint is corrected — see paint polishing. Coating over swirls locks them in for the life of the coating, so on anything that isn't new, we polish first.
Salt season. From late fall through March, everything on the road is coated in brine. Salt is corrosive and it clings. On a coated car it sits on the coating and rinses off; on bare clear coat it works in.
Tree cover. Squirrel Hill, Fox Chapel, Edgewood, Mt. Lebanon — sap and bird droppings land on paint all summer, and both are acidic enough to etch clear coat within days in the heat. A coating buys you time to get it off before it marks.
Washing gets easier. This is the part people notice most day to day. Dirt releases with far less effort, which means fewer scratches from washing — and washing is where most swirls come from in the first place.
12+ months of protection. A good first step, or a seasonal layer before winter.
2–3 years of protection. Price varies with vehicle size and paint condition.
Price depends on the size of the vehicle and the condition of the paint. Most vehicles need polishing first — that’s quoted separately and we’ll tell you honestly whether yours needs it.
No. This is the biggest misunderstanding about coatings, so we say it plainly: a coating will not stop rock chips, door dings, or scratches from a brush wash. What it does is repel water and dirt, make washing much easier, and give salt and sap something to sit on other than your paint.
For the 2–3 year coating, yes — or at least covered space. The coating needs roughly 12 to 24 hours without rain or heavy dew to cure properly, and Pittsburgh weather doesn't reliably give us that outdoors. The hybrid ceramic is far more forgiving and can be applied in a driveway.
Usually. A coating seals in whatever is underneath it, so if the paint has swirls, you'll be looking at those swirls for the next two or three years. On a new or near-new car, we can often coat directly. On anything else we'll be honest about what it needs.
The hybrid ceramic runs $200–$250 on its own. The 2–3 year coating starts at $450 and goes up with vehicle size and condition. If polishing is needed first, that's $300–$600 depending on the vehicle. You'll get one clear number before anything starts.
Hand wash with pH-neutral soap. No brush washes — they'll scratch through the benefit you paid for. First wash should wait at least 7 days after application. That's the whole maintenance routine.
We stand behind the bond. If the coating fails to bond properly or breaks down early under normal use, we'll redo the affected panels at no charge. It doesn't cover damage from brush washes, harsh chemicals, accidents, or contamination left on the paint for weeks. You'll get this in writing when we finish.
Sometimes, sometimes not. On a car with healthy clear coat, absolutely — it's cheaper than a repaint and makes upkeep easier. On paint that's already failing or peeling, a coating won't save it and we'll tell you that instead of taking the job.
Call or text. We’ll look at it and tell you straight — including when the answer is “you don’t need this.”