How To Get Ceramic Coating To Bond To Clear Coat and What is The Best Ceramic To Use On PPF? Episode #936
Pints and Polishing Auto Detailing Podcast
How To Get Ceramic Coating To Bond To Clear Coat and What is The Best Ceramic To Use On PPF? Episode #936
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Car
Chevrolet truck
Chevrolet trucks are strong vehicles designed for carrying heavy loads and towing. They are often used for work or outdoor activities.
Brand
Chevrolet
Chevrolet, or Chevy, is a popular car brand in the United States that makes a variety of vehicles, including trucks and cars.
Car
Ford Ranger
The Ford Ranger is a small truck that you can use for work or fun activities. It's known for being tough and able to handle rough terrain.
Part
rims
Rims are the metal parts of your car's wheels that hold the tires. Keeping them clean and in good shape is important for your car's look and performance.
Concept
car wash
A car wash is a place where you can get your car cleaned. They use water and soap to wash the outside and sometimes the inside of your car.
Term
cosmetic damage
Cosmetic damage is when a car looks bad but still works fine. Insurance usually doesn't pay for this kind of damage because it doesn't affect how the car drives.
Car
Range Rover
The Range Rover is a fancy SUV that can drive off-road and has a lot of luxury features. It's popular for people who want a nice car that can also handle tough terrains.
Term
rock stars
Rockstars are a type of custom wheel that people put on their cars, especially for off-roading. They look cool and can help with driving on rough terrain.
Car
Jeep
A Jeep is a brand of vehicles that are designed for off-road driving. The 2011 model year refers to cars made in that year, but we don't know exactly which Jeep model it is.
Part
matte black wheels
Matte black wheels are wheels that have a flat, non-shiny black finish. They look cool but can get damaged easily if not taken care of.
Brand
Mercedes
Mercedes is a famous car brand that makes luxury cars known for their quality and performance.
Term
factory finish
Factory finish is the paint job that comes on a car when you buy it new. It's meant to look good and last a long time.
Term
satin finish
A satin finish is a type of paint that is not completely shiny but also not completely flat. It has a soft glow that looks nice on cars.
Term
powder coat
Powder coating is a way to paint something using a special dry powder instead of liquid paint. The powder is heated to make it stick and harden, which makes it very strong and long-lasting.
Term
TRX
TRX is a cleaner you can use on your car's wheels and tires. It's good for getting rid of dirt without harming the materials.
Term
PPF
PPF is a special type of film that you can put on your car's paint to keep it safe from scratches and other damage. It's like a protective layer for your car's finish.
Term
porous surface
A porous surface is one that has small holes in it, which can soak up liquids. This means you might need to use more coating to cover it well.
Car
Fiat Uno
The Fiat Uno is a small car that was made by the Italian company Fiat for many years. It's known for being easy to drive and not too expensive, making it a good choice for people looking for a simple and reliable vehicle.
Term
ceramic coating
Ceramic coating is a special protective layer that you can put on your car's paint. It helps keep the car clean and shiny by making it harder for dirt and water to stick to the surface.
Term
clay bar
A clay bar is a special tool that helps clean your car's paint. It removes tiny bits of dirt and pollution that regular washing misses, making the surface smooth and shiny.
Term
blow tool
A blow tool is a device that blows air to help dry your car and clean out small spaces. It's useful for getting water out of places you can't easily reach after washing your car.
LIVE
Welcome to the Pints and Polishing Podcast, the most influential and listened-to podcast in auto detailing.
Welcome to the community.
All right, new year, new you. Welcome, everybody, to 2026. People woke up to 26, a little different maybe than last year,
but we all know one thing remains true for the detailing industry.
As you heard on the opening of this episode, we still remain the most influential podcast for the auto detailing industry,
as Nick's wearing that beautiful hoodie.
We're trying to go into some other parts of the auto industry, making waves and getting more people accustomed,
as you've seen in the hyperclean specialist group, more people coming in going,
hey, newbie, hey, I'm here. This is what we're excited about 2026.
All the new people coming in to hyperclean and listening to the podcast.
Now, Nick, we're going to get into a lot of fun stuff today, topics and questions out of the specialist group.
We have been warned now, the reason why I said that about being the most influential,
we've actually been warned not to go too in-depth over the products that were coming out in 2026.
Too many years listening, huh? Too many people wondering what's coming with HC.
Yeah, no doubt about it. Happy that 2026 is here. We're through the holiday season, so it's back to work.
Back to work now. Did you take off? How'd you do with your crew?
No, I worked pretty much the whole time. We took the Christmas, you know, and that Thursday, Friday off,
and then last week we just took New Year's Day off.
I kind of give my guys the option, whatever they want to do, what they want to accomplish,
and we kind of vote on it, and they voted to work.
Well, my inbox was flooded today with people from our vendors getting back to work.
Oh, yeah. It was a hellish two weeks of trying to get things done.
Yeah, you couldn't get people to respond. You couldn't get people to respond. You couldn't get people to respond.
We knew it was coming, and, you know, you can celebrate the end of your year that way by just relaxing, which doesn't make sense.
You know, we talk about the most influential. There's a question inside of the hypercleaning specialist group
that we're going to spend a little bit of time on. We're going to throw that into neutral, not into park,
because we're going to still be moving, but go into neutral, maybe rev the engine while we're at the light.
Okay, we want to talk about concentrates, and particularly there was a question inside the specialist group about revive.
And can we make, you know, it's very excited, love using revive, and this question has been asked many times over the years.
So once again, as people wonder, hey, is this about me? I mean, we're bringing it up because of the question.
I think it was Drake. Yeah, it was a good question.
It was a great question, but Drake, this question has been asked many times throughout the years,
we're going to go over some stuff, right? Like, let's start, let's, in a sense, go back in the day, right?
Drake, when you and I started, there was only concentrates. You couldn't find any, at least for me,
I couldn't find here locally, you could find glass cleaner that was ready to use.
I mean, look, it was basically five gallons. So it was a five gallon world, what we call five gallon cube world.
I mean, that's the world that it was. There was no, I mean, very rarely some specialty stuff was in gallons.
But like, even when you bought spray wax, I mean, most of that stuff, if you were on the shop or production level,
you were 110%, you know, five gallons, you know, that's, that's kind of what everybody sold.
And we've seen, not only is that not the case now, you can talk to detail supply houses, you can talk to anybody you want.
The vast majority of customers, professional or not, don't want a five gallon at all. I mean, that's the stuff that sits the longest.
Anything in a concentrated version. And there's some companies that you and I know of that have done a great job in their concentrates.
They don't sell nearly the level of what they do in gallons and bottles.
Yeah, correct. So we go back and we think of what has that journey been from concentrates out of the five gallon cube?
How do we get to one gallons and how do we get to 16 ounce, you know, ready to use? And when I say we, I mean the industry.
Right? Like, I want us to all to have a moment here and some of you that weren't around.
There was one company that we could tip our hat to and say they really kind of came into the market and change the way people thought of it.
And I think the way the industry changed was the quote unquote DIY enthusiast market. It's always been there.
Right? We've talked about my memories of the chamois, right?
And my memories of my dad and my mom washing their cars and the other people that we would all you car guys would all joke about, right?
Like, there were people that did wash their car, but has the amount and did that amount increase?
Maybe about, I don't know, 15, 20 years ago with this thing called Facebook and some group that did a lot of great foam videos
and really began to open people's eyes to, oh, well, I don't have to get it in a five gallon anymore.
Oh, I can get it in a smaller size. That was the wake. It was the big wake for everybody.
Yeah, I mean, obviously, there was a famous guy that sold his company for a lot of money that, you know, pioneered getting out of just the professional market and into the consumer.
And you look at it any way you shake it, we are where we are, right?
There's another thing about gallons and ready to use stuff that as a guy that runs a company that, you know, number one, if you're mobile, you know, that's a big deal, you know,
to just be able to throw some gallons on your truck and kind of move around, you know, space saving those types of things.
But the other thing is, you know, if you're around concentrates long enough, you also see the downside of it.
You see a real downside to it, because, and that's where like, you know, and big, you know, you and I talked to somebody at SEMA or talked about somebody that I spoke with at SEMA
is like these metering systems, if you're really doing a lot of work, you can't let people just mix up chemicals.
Like there's a real danger with concentrates. And you and I've seen it, all the guys that are experienced out there from a different time know about it,
whether people want to admit that that was happening, wheels get burnt, you know, windshields get burnt, you know, interiors get burnt.
You know, we see all kinds of stuff still to this day. One of the wildest things that I see since we're talking about revive in particular,
guys, you shouldn't be burning up interiors. Like you just shouldn't be a part of the world anymore. And the fact that it's so prevalent.
And when I say prevalent, it means we only see the people that post after they burnt the right. So you can imagine the number that don't post.
And the matter of fact, then the hundreds of comments under the post tell you that those people are burning up interiors because they always have a solution.
They're like, Yeah, you know, just slap this on it. It works great. And you go, Well, how many interiors is this guy burning up?
So from a business perspective, and also all you DIYers out there that that again, want to talk about concentrates in this yester year.
And this is something I'm saying on clutch culture a lot now because we're seeing it. If you weren't there, you didn't know the downside to it at all.
And so there is a downside for every one out of 100 people that think that a concentrate is a solution.
There's another 99 that have seen the problems that come with that. And we're just, I think at a better place as as people that make products now to go.
Hey man, grab this gallon, put it in your bottle and go to work. And that's just not always how it's been. I mean, there's real fear.
People can remember of mixing up chemicals or having a helper mix up chemicals and things not going correctly.
Yeah, I mean, I can speak very specifically to early on when when I began to go into the market here locally.
You know, I set up a lot of those metering systems. And when the dealerships or when something went wrong, and let's say that the product they were using had to be cut,
or they might receive some damage on their plastics, like for instance, specifically, not our brand, but I was selling a different brand,
and their degreaser if it wasn't cut properly, guys would use it. We all know this to be true. They'll go and spray it on the front,
get the bugs. That's the way they clean bugs at a dealership. Go spray it up on the cow windshield all over on the side.
Just cooked.
Yeah, you can get a call out of nowhere. Hey, something's wrong. How many cars did you spray? Well, what'd you do? Right? Like it was all about.
And here's the key. I think what what most people when they get into concentrates, they want to concentrate because point blank,
I like the product, but I just don't want to spend that much. Yep.
There really is when you boil it down. Yep. That's what happens. And so what we're saying, I think to your point, what actually happens is,
sure, you might have a concentrate that saves you and we joke, but might save you a few pennies per spray bottle. I mean, am I, and it probably will, we get it.
But what do those pennies actually cost you? Well, yeah, I mean, because all you gotta do is burn up one car. One. Yeah, one.
And, you know, look, we've heard stories from our district distribution network that guys use one of our products that works fantastically.
They want to save, like you said, a couple pennies. And all of a sudden they fried a windshield. They fried a front end.
They fried an interior with someone else's product because quote unquote, they saved a couple pennies. This just isn't the business anymore of trying to shave pennies here and there.
I see a lot of talk about what people think high production places do versus what they actually do.
And I can tell you the best high production PPF shops or or or tent shops or detailing shops.
They can tell you all they want publicly that they sit there and you know, we got our system down. Look, man, you and I have gone into these places.
There's things they're buying off this truck and that truck and there's a mishmash of shit. And when they flip over to us, they're like, well, now I just go one place.
This is so great. We're going to be bringing a really famous shop online that does, you know, some incredible work.
And we got down to that conversation. It was like, oh yeah, you weren't saving money. You were just taking you didn't count all the time it took you to track these things down and do all of these things.
And now that you've done the math, you go, holy, you know what? Here we are.
Well, you mentioned a word there that I want people to also realize we talked about the savings financially.
But come on, guys, does it ever pour? Absolutely right. You don't have any that jiggle down the side of your bottle that gets on your hand.
You got to go wash off if you use the wrong chemical and the guys don't use you're like Nick and you don't use your gloves.
I mean, who does so you pour the wrong product and some guy accidentally oopsies over, you know, they got Ross degrees or something straight onto their hand and what most of us go, that's not a problem.
You just go wash it off. We're talking time. Yeah, yeah, what did that just cost you three minutes.
If you're like somebody three minutes. So those pennies.
They're gone. Yeah, no, it's it.
I think this is an excellent question to start the year with is like this pension pennies thing and look we I get sent posts from all different types of Facebook groups which is basically where a lot of this detailing conversation happens.
I mean a lot of this stuff's just unhinged.
That's just what it is. It's just unhinged behavior. It's not really thinking about the big picture. It's not thinking about standing behind your work.
Guys, I was sent Rinsless's you know Rinsless products from other companies 1012 15 years ago almost now.
And people would be like you can do everything on the car with this and then I use it on a couple interiors. I'm like yeah man this stuff doesn't the interior doesn't feel how it should feel.
So I see all of these quote unquote hacks of saving a nickel and I go go really clean a car clean a car you're going to drive around a car that you like that's yours.
Clean it with revive and then clean it with a concentrate and then clean it with a Rinsless solution and you tell me which one really makes your car come out on that elite level.
Because that's the other part of the argument that I don't understand if my guys can dump this gallon into a 32 by the way how many of you are discharging an entire 32 ounce bottle on a car.
Come on.
I have like.
Pardon me.
Not many.
Okay.
And so I'm not saying it doesn't happen.
We've certainly all seen beat up vehicles.
I'm just saying that's not really the norm in the detailing space today unless all you're doing is high production stuff, which again, as we talk to many people and a lot of different other companies.
They're like, yeah, not as much work is happening in the high production world as it once was.
So the story that we have to tell here is get a product that works that makes the interior as new as possible.
Move on with your life and anytime wasted towards I could save three nickels.
I could do this.
I could do that.
Now there was something said about I get a little leery about spraying on a dash or spraying the chemical on this.
That's just not how I work and I totally understand that there's a simple fix.
Spray it on the towel.
It's that simple.
It's fixed.
I don't have that worry with revive.
Now I don't go willy nilly spraying up near glass and stuff like that.
But if you're worried about spray it on the towel and be done is what it is.
My Jeep does just fine.
Yeah, I mean it's it.
I just think people have again all of this wasted energy costs something.
Yeah.
You're not getting a customer.
You're not working on your car, whatever.
All of this wasted energy in the system that really doesn't get to a better result.
I think that'd be one of the things we could take and leave in 2025 and maybe in 2026 just concentrate on what matters.
Well, you and I know somebody that we won't say his name publicly but we would say this about him and his business.
He focuses on the wrong things.
Maybe trying to get a better deal with UPS instead of out trying to get a sale.
Right.
This does happen and this isn't even in the detailing quote unquote industry.
Right.
This is just another business person that we know.
Right.
Focused on things that are important.
I mean we can't argue Nick because people would say hey listen you manufacturers are just saying you want us to do that because we won't you know we're going to spend more money with you.
We won't be able to cut it back as much and I can't.
I mean what are you going to say you can't deny that.
Right.
What are you going to do and that's why I want to push back on this is where the market has gone.
Yep.
It's not us.
It's the market that is forcing it.
Trust us.
We've got interior concentrate right on the shelf.
We've got a degreaser concentrate.
We've got a car wash concentrate.
I wouldn't use a car wash concentrate.
Most people don't like it.
If you're a quote unquote detailer they say it under performs.
Okay.
It isn't for you.
It's for old school solvent is going to make you cough.
It's tough.
The interior cleaner and here's where I want to kind of go for a second.
You've got some things going to come to interior cleaner of solvents and surfactants.
Right.
This is going to be a big part when you go into concentrates versus ready to use.
That is a big deal.
So factants are like the bridge that help everything.
The solvents is the big ones that cut.
They're cheaper.
Yeah.
That's what we've talked about.
Why you see burning doors?
Why you see bug cleaners that burn?
We get it.
It does happen.
You know, so why we do revive?
Why we do our products the way we do them?
There's a need for a surfactant specific surfactants that we use to do a job that
we felt was needed in the industry.
Right.
I mean, if the industry's headed one way as you've parked, you know, you've
said is like, Hey, when I came into hyper clean, this was what I wanted revive.
The industry was in a different way.
Have other people come back and got, Hey, fresh interior cleaner is very much needed.
You bet.
You bet.
But we do have a pulse on the industry.
And if people want to know about concentrates, let's have no problem talking about me.
Always.
I could talk about a constant and you got to remember to get to a concentrate.
You have to do something that cheapens everything.
I mean, it's just a math problem at that point, because you can't sell a concentrate that
cost as much as ready to use, right?
So how do we get a concentrate more than likely?
We're putting something in there that brings a hint of danger.
If it's not diluted correctly, if it's not used correctly, whatever.
Those are just the trade offs.
I think it was an excellent question, but I would go back and say.
I couldn't have my guys use anything fast enough as revive.
It's like poured in a bottle, get to work.
Right.
And if your process is what's catching you up, which is like, well, this is how I do it.
I would say revive makes your process simpler.
There's no worry.
Spray it again.
Use caution.
Don't go spraying every screen and every button, you know, still use your caution
because it is a chemical that has water in it.
And you don't want to get water down and buttons unnecessarily and all over screens.
That's spray your towel, move on.
I can tell you there's no product that I could, I could almost trade out any product.
I would never trade out revive.
You know what I mean?
Like if push came to shove and it was like, it's like revive just makes it easy.
I don't have to worry about anything.
Guys seeing all these fried doors that I see online just don't risk it.
I'm just telling you, I don't care how cheap the door panel is or how.
Why we don't need to do that.
So I think that's a great place to where we're at.
I mean, I can see what everybody's point is, but I go, dude, I love just being able to let my guys loose and just not have to worry about the things I had to worry about 10 years ago.
I don't want anybody to imagine maybe you are in this place.
Maybe you are not.
But imagine you're in the market to buy a car.
Now that could be new car or used car, but we're going to think used car.
All right.
It's 2026.
We're in the market by used car.
We're going to go over to the Facebook marketplace.
We're going to find and I'll let's just say we're looking for a, I don't know, pick something.
Nick, what are you looking for this year?
I don't know.
A truck.
All right.
We're looking for a truck.
Definitely not a dodge.
So we're going Chevy, huh?
Yeah.
I don't own any Chevy.
New year.
New year, Nick.
Yeah.
It's not a Chevy truck.
All right, Nick, you got three Chevy trucks on Facebook marketplace.
You're trying to decide which one to choose.
They're all specs are the same colors.
You love everything about them.
You want to start looking over the vehicle to see if you can get an idea for how
somebody took care of this car.
Now I want to give everybody a little bit of a hint of something I look for.
And it came up when I pulled up to a stoplight.
You can do it as Nick says, when you walk up to the big box store, whether that's Target,
Walmart, wherever you're going, Best Buy, you can go look.
I love to do it when I'm at a stoplight.
And I saw this really cool Ranger over the other day.
I'm sitting there and I'm looking at it.
I'm like, man, that looks really great.
What do I do?
I'm either go down to those rims.
I gotta see what the rims look like.
If they take care of their rims, then they take care of the rest of the car.
Right?
It's almost like that movie.
Well, if you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball.
Yeah.
Right?
Like if you take care of your rims, you definitely are taking care of other parts of your
car.
Now what did I see on this Ranger over?
I saw dark spots with a bunch of light spots with almost look like fingers that
had wiped off real small fingers.
Maybe like baby fingers.
That told me that they went through a car wash, right?
Because there's these little mitts with little foam fingers that go around and flick
the wheel.
So they didn't get all the way off, but they got most of it off.
Then that gives me a look.
Okay, if they go through a car wash, I can then look at the rest of the vehicle
and tell how well they've taken care of it.
Most car washes dot, dot, dot, dot, dot.
Right.
If they had a clean wheel, I can assume then they automatically take care
because to get down and wipe a wheel.
Yeah, it's work.
It's almost next level in it.
Yeah.
Or, you know, like in most people's case, you know, they pay to have somebody
do it professionally.
And you go, okay, well, they care enough for somebody to show up a couple
of times a month and take care of their car.
They're spending the money.
They're not just, you know, set it and forget it people.
They're not, you know, just saying, I'll get to it when I get to it.
They set it and forget it in the other way, which is looks like they have
somebody come out pretty regularly.
I mean, there's no question that, you know, when you look at cars in a
variety of different places, whether that's an auction site or whatever,
you know, wheels can tell a story.
I mean, wheels tell a lot of the story.
You know, and again, even if a dealership has them recon or refurbished,
I always look to see how good the refurbishment job is.
I'll tell you what quality work that was maybe done across the whole
vehicle at the dealership when they recon the vehicle.
You know, that stuff becomes important.
I was wiping down our Nissan wheels this weekend.
I mean, I've done it before.
I just now remember once you said that I pointed out some some
rash in a sense from when she hit that wall and they took care of it
on the panels.
The wheels, they didn't take care of it.
Didn't.
Is it cosmetic?
Is that why they go, insurance isn't going to cover a cosmetic damage
on wheels?
You have to be on top of it.
I mean, when I told them, I said, hey, make sure you get this
taken care of.
Well, then seems like you better go back to the body shop and go,
hey, why didn't this get taken care of?
That'd be the move.
That would be the move.
But you sent me a video, right?
I mean, it is true if you go up on and you know, the Range Rover
wheels were, they were just a regular Range Rover wheel,
right?
Standard factory wheel.
But you sent me a funny, a funny video was actually commented
inside the specialist group where I think it was Justin was
asking, hey, are those on rock stars?
Right.
Like it is known, thanks, Dustin, that I do have rock stars
on my older Jeep.
It's a 2011.
And that was the time that rock stars were big.
So I got them, right?
If you don't take care of black matte wheels, though.
It's as bad as it gets.
It's as bad as it gets.
Yeah, we we've had crazy experience with a couple of
Mercedes where even the Mercedes factory finish was
problematic, didn't hold up very well.
I mean, I think we're probably largely out of the old
school traditional matte black wheel.
You know, I think we're more towards like a satin,
more sheen type of finish that kind of ages a little bit
better.
I still see Matt from time to time, but it's definitely not
as big as it once was.
And we also start to see like bronze and gunmetal gray and
all that kind of stuff is more popular now a little bit
more of a, let's call it a forgiving, you know,
powder coat, so to speak.
All right, let's dig into those concepts.
How do I know if I'm a detailer and I'm a newbie
because there's people in our group and people listen
to go, I'm a newbie.
All right, let's newbie those wheels.
How do I tell the difference you listed satin,
you listed gloss, you listed not talking about Matt.
It's just a finish.
I mean, look, I mean, Matt, how do I take care of them
based on each finishes?
Yeah, I mean, I think this kind of goes back to our
last conversation is that, you know,
if we take the aluminum wheel and we say that one
sits over here, okay, the aluminum wheel that needs
polished and stuff like that, that sits over here by
itself.
We're not discussing that.
We're discussing basically every finish besides that,
let's just say.
Then this is the important thing of, you know,
you kind of talked about how we have this
concentrate of a degreaser.
That's where it becomes problematic, you know,
even for the dealer level, the car wash level,
they've even cut back and started to understand
that safety is the priority because look, man,
to have a set of gold wheels refinished is that's
that's you're going to a powder coat.
I mean, those are coming off the rubbers coming off
and that wheel is going to be refinished.
You and I grew up in a time when somebody could
come out to the dealership and this is largely
still most wheels and they could fix some some rash
and they could.
Yeah, they could they could go ahead and,
you know, match the paint and then they could go
ahead and clear coat over that and they'd be done
in an hour.
You're in a little bit of a different world now from
the factory.
There's all kinds of different options from
different manufacturers, different colors,
different ways they're done.
That stuff's not as easily easy to repair and
make look good at times.
This is where just having sound products bails
you out of all the problems are our iron
remover.
If these wheels are in really tough shape and you
need to decon the wheel or you're going to go
and coat them, you need to decon the wheel.
It's pH neutral.
Not many people can actually say that about
their iron remover.
No matter what anybody tells you when you
really get down to the nitty gritty and test,
there's very few people that have a an iron
remover that's truly pH neutral.
The next thing is, is that that's where TRX
becomes important because when you use TRX
on the rubber and it starts coming down
on to the wheel, you've got a harsh
degreaser that can still cause problems even
though you quote unquote didn't spray it
on the wheel.
Now, if you just want a simple clean up,
just use TRX all the way around.
Use it on the wheel, use it on the tire,
it's a good all around cleaner for both
things, but this is where, again,
dialing in the products that you're using
and using them for a specific reason.
Number one, they need to be effective, right?
So we're not going to ever gloss over that,
but safety, when you're talking about,
you're going to be, you know, you could be
an owner like myself, like you,
and I have six different finishes
across the cars I own.
Then I have like two more that are just
kind of normal, you know, four more
that are just kind of normal, but I got
six different finishes.
So if I have any flaw in the way I do
things, I would maybe have to carry
on my shelf just to clean my own cars.
I'd have to carry like a ton of different products.
Just simplify it, carry TRX and Fuego
and you're good on all of them.
All right, so if we see a glossy wheel,
I think we can most even hear a newbie.
Sure.
Is it Kia has a lot of these glossy
black wheels now?
Everybody does. Yeah, I mean everybody.
A lot of them.
I think the one problem that a lot of us
face when we get into that is,
we could go into this moment of,
hey, I want to make sure I get it clean,
but I do want to do it in a cost-effective way.
Sure.
And so a little spray and then take a brush.
Yeah, look, we've talked about this.
Makes sense.
You can understand.
Hey, black gloss can look bad pretty quick.
Explain that, like what happens?
So, you know, one of the things
that I've shown on our social media
a lot is just
TRX in a foam cannon.
And I think a lot of people misunderstand
or I don't do a good enough job
always explaining, you know, first of all,
it gets a lot of product on the surface,
but everybody needs to understand
the foam cannon already dilutes everything.
So I'm pouring TRX
direct into the foam cannon.
I'm not diluting it.
And then the pressured water coming through there
dilutes it for you.
So don't put, like, two ounces in there
and think that you're going to get such a watery product.
But by the way, you don't use very much
to do four wheels.
I mean, very hardly at all.
I mean, I bet there's times I only use, what,
like one or two ounces,
you know, on four wheels
if I use it at the foam cannon.
But the reason I do that
is, number one,
it allows Fuego to dwell more
liquid onto the surface, right,
of the wheel. So I got Fuego on there.
It's hot out or suns in.
It gives me more time.
But the other thing is it provides lubricity
to go in and actually detail the wheel.
I mean, that's the most important part.
Because even with a boar's hair,
I mean, even some of the softest,
the softest brushes,
not enough lubricity,
we've seen the damage.
There's no question for sure.
Yeah, I mean, we could joke about,
all right, next time.
Or next big box story. It doesn't matter.
I mean, you can see
wheels that is great
that they designed them this way.
They look pretty cool.
But crap.
Man, they can make it look bad quick.
Man, yeah, they just went south
in a wrong way.
All right, let's get into
this out of the specialist group.
This comes from Sean.
Sean, I think it's a good question.
I have to defer
again because
I just still get to even apply
one piece of PPF down to
do a car. So got to defer
over to you. But the question
really is about
putting PPF down
and there's this brand that he had.
He was a kid and he said, you can get
this kid or you can get this kid.
There's a one level
and then a second level.
I think it's one with a top coat
with some protection and whatnot.
I don't know. I'm not getting into it once again.
I don't know PPF so don't quote me
on it. I think that was the basis
of it. But explain
to everybody that might be wanting
to think about PPF in 26
and go, hey, what
do I need to do with hyper
clean coatings?
What do I need to think about PPF
and should I even put a hyper
clean coating on PPF?
Yeah, so
I kind of said this to Sean's
post. There's a ton of misconceptions
about top coat
ceramic infused top coats
all these different things that go on
with PPF.
And the confusion lies at the feet of
the marketing around this stuff with
the PPF companies themselves.
Sure. Now
game changer.
Game changer. I'm sitting over here
looking at my table and we have manufacturers
that have sent us PPF
to specifically test our coatings
with their PPF
even some of these people
who own the PPF companies and we
actually know people that manufacture
PPF. Okay, they're not just a middle
man like some of the big companies, they
actually have a manufacturing facility here
in the United States.
When you sit down and talk to them
as well as their head chemist
and everybody, you start
to realize they've convinced themselves
of something that they can't
back up. Okay.
When you're talking about something like pain protection
film, you need to realize no matter how much top coat,
no matter how much ceramic
infused top coat, whatever
it is still an extremely
porous surface.
And when something is porous
we can coat it.
And actually
there's a reason
to coat things like vinyl wrap
and pain protection film
because they're always going to fall short
of the level of protection they need
from the element.
Yeah, absolutely.
Right, so
I always tell people
my belief on pain protection film
we've put
every one of our coatings on pain protection film
all of them work fine, all of them
install fine, everything's great.
I just, yeah.
But when you're applying
one of our coatings on
PPF
there is a thing that you tell people
to make sure that they do.
Yeah, you lay it on even more heavy
because you have a more
porous surface than pain.
Okay, same with vinyl wrap.
Vinyl wrap actually to the maximum
is in this position.
So, but I always also tell people
if you're
coating PPF and there's PPF companies that have
released coatings that have failed so
miserably in the marketplace it's like caused
a huge riff in the installer network
and it's still going on to this day.
So, even PPF companies
don't get this right when they try to
they're not in the coating business
that's what everybody needs to realize
they're not in the coating business even
a little bit and most of them are not very
educated on the coating business.
They'll tell you that and admit that behind
the scenes not something they're going to say publicly
by the way, so
which is understandable.
So,
I tend to believe
that if you have these extremely porous surfaces
the best thing you can do
is bring that car
back in the shop if it's yours
or someone you're doing it as a business
and just use something like
Uno or Stack
yearly.
So, number one it gives you a chance to
inspect the paint protection film and how it's
wearing and the way that the customer is
taking care of it or you yourself
but also
it's just such a porous surface
it's just going to soak up more coating
which is going to give you more longevity
which is going to protect things a little better
it's just a good rule of thumb that I use
but you absolutely can put
Trey or Sparta, we've had people put tons
of Sparta on PPF and they love how it works.
Our
lineup is designed
to be very flexible
on purpose because that's
really the latest technology it's not
some rigid surface it's about flexing
and moving with the surface that it's bonded to
and so use them however
you want if people want my recommendation
you should be coating PPF
every year.
And so that would be using
more of whichever you choose
but probably not the Sparta
right? Not the Trey
there's some customers that say
that's what they want so provide it
it doesn't matter how much you argue with them
Agreed but the average
right if you're going to have a
system or a theory behind
which most of your customers
are probably going to come and go
hey man what do you recommend here?
Stack is a perfect option
and heavy stack right?
Heavy on the stack
We always get these questions
about things like RVs
things like anything like that
when the surface
is extremely porous
when we say lay it on
that means lay it on
like don't
put a couple drops and try to do it
it's like man you're going to have a
long work time on PPF much longer
usually than paint
lay it on thick, lay it on
half the hood, watch it beat up
let it sweat as much as you can
so you know that more active ingredient
more solids are being left behind
go ahead and wipe it off
you'll be good to go. We've done a million of them
I think there'll be some PPF
installers that might push back
and go listen I might
not see this guy again
I've gotten them for PPF
I'm going to get them for Trey or Sparta
and get them in that three to five here
and hit them
again it's not a right or wrong
not a right or wrong
because
their business model
might not be set up
that their customer comes back
we're seeing a flaw in that
and we're starting to see
Thank you this is why I was going to have to
we're starting to see
very very large
PPF operations
understand
that they maybe took a wrong turn
not a wrong decision just took a wrong turn
some of them abandoned
coatings altogether which was a huge mistake
and they're
realizing it now at least the smart ones are
and so
look I've always told people
you know for guys that tell me
that they're in really competitive markets
I'm like
you realize if you put stack on the whole car
in 20 minutes you could just offer this
as part of the service that you charge the same
for because it's going to take you like 20 minutes
and you get more peace of mind
10 bucks cost me too much
it's crazy right so
I would say to everybody
I get it
and that may be what you have to do with some people
okay
I think you could make a nice
extra living in your shop
or mobile if you say I'm coming out here
to do this every year
we'll send you a reminder
come up with your price for it
$299 $399
if you're in a strong market you get a strong brand
$499
it's a lot of money for
very very condensed amount of work
I mean prep everything
you could have this done in an hour hour and a half
there's a lot of money to be made
and you're taking care of the customer on an elite level
I think it's kind of a no-brainer
yeah agreed
okay let's get into this question
and I found it to be very interesting
and a little confusing to
I might not remember it correctly but
the question had basically to do with
Trey or Sparta
and was the customer
had Trey on the car
and Sparta
on their car in a different vehicle
and they felt that Sparta's hydrophobics
were better than Trey
yeah
I mean that's exactly
there's a reason
that you go to the elite level
coding
is if you want all of the experience
durability
hydrophobics
best cleaning ability all those types of things
you go for something like Sparta
I mean that's the best of the best that we have
I would say this
are you going to notice a dramatic difference
in hydrophobics
you'd have to be
pretty knowledgeable about what you're looking at
okay
you'd have to be really at the top level
of a consumer to go
I see a dramatic difference
but there is a small difference because you're talking about
a higher solid count
left on the car
so you're going to have more hydrophobics
and better things
and
the unfortunate part
of a Sparta on something
and then for whatever reason they want to go cheaper
on another vehicle
or more value driven and go down to Trey
or go down to Uno
it probably needs to be part of your talking point to go
your other vehicle has the best
on it
so this is what the best looks like
do you want it to look like this then you need to use the best
you need to get my best package
that's not to say
you don't see awesome stuff with Trey
or Uno or any of those things
if you're a tricky customer you might want to stick on Sparta
it is interesting
the continual will always be
that
they'll evaluate a coating based on
hydrophobics
it just is what it is
hydrophobics are the key indicator
the way most people look
at a coating
you know
we could always some of us could go
could one coating have gotten clogged
right you could
and ask questions
but at the end of the day the average person
looks at a car and goes
hey the hydrophobics the way these beads
look there's smaller beads on this
car or more beads than this car
you and I are sending pictures
oh shoot I didn't send you that picture
I meant to send you a picture
but you sent me a picture and I meant to send you another picture
of a product that we've been
working on and seeing some of the hydrophobics
on the cars
and we go on wow
2026
hey when it comes to beads
man we might have some of the best out there
yeah no it's
it's just the way the market is right
like people look at hydrophobics as this is
the exact reason why
I got a coating and there's going to be a lot of people that
that's the reason they got it
it's like the most satisfying thing to them
so I think it's just all about where you place
it to the customer
but yeah I mean if you go from uno to tray
you're going to see a little bit of a difference
you're just talking about
the strength
the contact that all of this stuff
put together
you're going to see a bit of a difference
so we're thinking tray vs sparta
and we know prep is key
you know do you prep
a car differently with tray than you do sparta
or is it just
you know if somebody chooses to get a polish
then or a compound
once I get to three
and five year everybody's getting a polish
I think you're talking about
you know when you're trying to get
something to last longer
you know prep work becomes
extremely important
when you're trying to get something to last a year
with the technology the way it is now
you can do a simple nice
thorough decon and you can get stuff the last
12 18 maybe even 24 months
there's a peace of mind
of three and five year somebody's
made the investment they want it to look nice
getting some scratches and swirls
out and things like that
it's a different type of customer
that's my opinion
there's plenty of cars that just
want to know that their car
is protected
that's why we have stack and uno and dos
and things like that when you get to three to five
year you're usually talking about a different customer
and those customers want the paint
to be as shiny as possible where does that come
from it comes from the coating along with
how you finished out the panel
with polishing and compounding
and things like that and so I just
find that it's a different customer but
every three to five year for me is going to get
some type of polish
and even if it's a new car
because you know this is something we've gotten into
you know if it's a new car does it
necessarily need a polish
I don't you know do you
choose that with your customers
different than I choose with my customers
different than other people with them
I you know I had a guy that you know he was a newer
car and only had maybe I don't think
a thousand something miles on it
and I quoted him with
for a polish is a while ago right
and and he goes
okay cool that sounds fair I think it was like
anyway I don't want to list the number because everybody
everybody goes into something on numbers
I won't list the number
my number might be different because
my needs are different than your needs
so once
I got the work done
and I returned the vehicle back to him
I let him know that the number
wasn't as high
as the number I quoted
because I told him I said you have a newer vehicle
I did not need to polish it
sure so I didn't
quote him and I didn't charge him
not quote I didn't charge him
for the polish now
we've gotten a question
inside the specialist group which rolls
right into this
if you've got stack and you're going to put
stack on a car
do you have to polish the car
like somebody asked
should I put a one step on
if I do stack is that a must
you know I think this comes to that
process where people are looking
and I can understand
looking for a just blank
an answer
so
one of the big misnomers
is we have to
do all of these things to
put a coating on
and that comes from a different time
there was some necessity because the technology
wasn't as good
sitting here at the beginning of
2026 the only thing that matters
to bond
a coating to a car
is that you have naked paint
which means you have
nothing interfering with the
coating and the painted surface
the clear coated surface
that is all that matters
you can get a five year
and not do polishing or whatever
and coat it as long as
it's naked paint and it's going to be just fine
we would say
there's a lot of reasons
to just run over it and give it a
clean up when you're starting
to talk about something lasting five years
and let me go ahead and exfoliate a little
bit of this light oxidation that happens
as soon as the car's done painted
done being painted
but the truth is always
going to be the truth that scientifically
the only thing you need
is naked paint to get a coating to bond
so if you're putting stack on
and this is one of the reasons it was invented
you don't have to polish the car
that comes down to
does the customer want the ugly swirls
gone
do they want their car
to look better
and have some of that
those spider webs and
random things taken out of the paint
that's what it was down to
because the guy earlier that was questioning hydrophobics
we could if we took a look
and once again we're not coming after
this guy
we're just generally talking
like you could take maybe take a look
at a car that did a
a three or five year did
Tray or Sparta and whether or not it got
polished before
well I wonder if
then we could see just
a little bit more hydrophobics
I wonder if you could
see just a little bit better
clarity is where I would really think
for those of us that have been around
paint long enough we know that we're leveling
when we put some type of
polish or abrasive
onto the paint we're leveling down
leveling
taking off the higher parts
and making it more even
so then when the sun hits it I get a better
reflection of what was underneath
in a sense I could
create a glossier look
100%
that clear coat has been
perfectly smooth
there's no question I mean that
a lot of the gloss
on the elite level is all about how you've
leveled the clear coat and then finished
it out right and then
you put on top of that a really
really glossy coating and all of a sudden
you got the recipe for something that looks
pretty incredible but again
I think stack and
uno maybe even to some
people dose needs to be looked at
a hybrid where you go
there's going to be certain customers that want to pay
for a polish and there's certain customers that
don't the only
concern when you're putting on a coating is
whether or not you have
naked paint and that going to be achieved
with cleanse with white
with all of those different you know
with flago to get all the contaminants
off all that kind of stuff
making sure you have no bonded contaminants
if you have to clay you have to clay
but again
we got to state this as a factual
scientific statement
if the clear coat is
with no interference
coding bonds
that's exactly the story and in some
cases
some people use products that are heavily oil
based then don't do
a thorough wipe step
they would have actually had a better bond had
they not polish the car
because that introduced
another contaminant in between
coating and not to get down a hole here
because it's not the purpose
that's why that wipe step
being done thoroughly slow yourself
down load the car
up with it to you know
especially if you use
there's a lot of you guys using polishes
that I'm telling you is causing
some of the issues you're seeing
we've been stating that for well over 18
months now two years almost
so
you just need naked clear coat so
go ahead and decon and get the car
prepped and slap stack
on it if that fits the customer
all right so we can see definitely out in the
market if we want to go look at
and we'll just go ahead and tip our hat
it's been cool at least I thought it's been pretty cool
to see Mildren go out and put
this hey I'm using stack and I'm
doing a 199 and
he'll say no polish
ceramic coating you know it is
interesting how some people are
starting to make certain points
around what they're going to do
and how they're going to use the you know
work on the car I think he's somebody
that way if anybody wants to ask him
you can get a lot of people to send you
messages and you can get a lot of
great great marketing tool it's
a great marketing
$200 stack
ceramic coating put onto the car
it's all it's all about where you're located
you know I mean some of you guys might be
at 299 399 some are going to be
at 199 149
but you got to remember the whole idea of it is
you know you're working on the car for an hour
hour and a half
that's pretty good money you know
Brian's been doing this a long time
you know he knows how to get around a car
he knows how to train his team to get around a car
and more importantly he understands
I need people to talk to me
and that's
gets people to talk to you
right like oh I've been interested
in ceramic coating let me talk to him
how many of those people you guys end up
calling to Trey or Sparta is limitless
it's limitless so people see these
things and then the people that come in
and take advantage you go hey my guys love doing it
it's not doesn't beat their body
up it's nice quick service
people see the gloss on their car after
having this applied they're ecstatic
they got some protection everybody's
happy so you got to find
and understand why those things are used
and then how do you capitalize on
them
you definitely have to have your system ready
okay so let's break that down
one more time we get a car that comes in
what are we gonna hit it with
how are we gonna do it walk us through
you know is that 10 minutes here
and then 15 minutes here at the
end of it how long does it take
me and what have I done yeah cleanse
flago if you're
in a place that the car needs clayed
you got to fit that into your process
dry the car off
get all the cracks and crevices cleared
out with some type of blow tool
whatever you use to blow out cracks
and crevices go do a
thorough wipe with our
white product and start applying the coating
you should be in and out on a mid-sized
SUV which is what most people
see that's why we use it because
that's the number one seller in the United States is
mid-sized SUVs
you're in and out if you're
efficient in under an hour and a half
that's that's two hours max
yeah I mean it should
if you're at two hours
you need to look at parts of your process
yeah you should yeah
you're basically just having to wash and
de-con the car and put down a
20 minutes should be max
call it 30 if you're
yeah if you're trying to be if you're not if you're not experienced
mm-hmm yeah man you should be
rocking and rolling and it's
a great service and I'm glad to see
that he's putting that out to his
area and he gets
a lot of response and again
guys remember it's a foot in the door
thing you're getting people
to talk to you because you're like
I got this great service
you're happy if they purchased that
service but there's going to be a lot of people
that want to get a three and five year coating as well
yeah
all right so we're going to end with this and I did not
prep Nick so he doesn't know this question
it's coming we'll end the episode with this
as we go into
2026 you know for me
I don't do it as often as I used
to but I used to always do
a goal for the year no I didn't
right a lot of people love to set goals
but Nick and I aren't gold people we don't
do that for me I've
always been a word of the year
where it kind of gives me a path
to guide myself right
so for me here at HQ
I gave us the
word purity I don't know why
that that name stuck it just it just
really did because when I think of
26 I think of wow
getting to 27 and looking back
and going
that was a year because
Nick and I know internally what
we have planned out for 26
and it's bigger is greater is
more than we've ever done
and that's not high
I think once people start to see as we
get through the year and the products
that are put out the media that's put out
all the different things that between
the two of you and I we've been working on
I think we're going to get to 27
and we're going to go wow
that was a lot so if there's a
lot to do and there's a lot
coming out of HQ
I think that's why the name
and the word purity kind of
stuck because it was like I've
got to refine things I got to make sure everything
is great because there's
going to be so much coming out
if it all comes out and it's not
pure wow
well we can get into some problems so
I you know I really is my word
for the year here at HQ and it's kind of a weird
word I I've never thought of that word
before but I really do
look at the the products and
probably why I sent you a message recently
about going back in and trying
to refine a product that we
have coming out and how can we make
this product easier how can it be something
internally that is is more
efficient for our team to
produce right how can I
purify what we do
here at HQ do you
have a word or you have anything with
your team as you've talked to the media
team like what you guys are looking
for into 26 yeah it's not
a word I think it's just
more of
you know the way
the last half of 25
went and and kind of some things we've
seen internally
is
you know I would probably say set the
standard you know that
we want to have talked about
we want to be our own standard
I think a lot of people probably
think
and I could see why from the outside you would think
this is that we
heavily worry about what other people are
doing and we really don't
you know we really
like I said I mean
you know we've been notified of a few
thing of a few people
who now all of a sudden have
some products that look very eerily
similar to our lineup
that really doesn't bother me and I've
had to say this to a couple people that
it's like
those people aren't going to last
right because if you don't set the standard
and you don't
actually know what you should be doing
internally there's no way
you're going to make it out alive
right so we're more concerned
of setting this and I think everybody
could take this is like
you know there's a lot of
really negative stuff on the internet especially
you know in any industry and our industry
is no different but our industry
again I'll say is no different
every industry has this
negativity it's like
if you guys notice man
we stay in our lane
because we have a standard we want to live up to
and if we live up to that standard I think the
chips fall where they're supposed to fall
and that's kind of where our head
is at is like doing our own thing
being in our own lane you know even when we
say things like the industry
we're talking about the industry the way most people
talk about it we're talking about anybody that takes care
of a car you know we're talking about all
of those kinds of things and so
I'm extremely excited for
2026 I want to thank everybody
for listening I want to thank
everybody for all the support and we look
forward to a great year and
we'll catch you guys next week
About this episode
Exploring the world of ceramic coatings, this episode dives into how to ensure proper bonding with clear coat and the best practices for applying coatings on paint protection film (PPF). The hosts discuss the evolution of detailing products, the importance of using the right concentrates, and the impact of product choice on results. They also address common misconceptions about PPF and coatings, emphasizing the need for thorough preparation and the benefits of using high-quality products. Listeners will gain insights into effective detailing techniques and the latest trends in the industry.
Original notes
Welcome to 2026!
Marshall and Nick discuss the evolution of the auto detailing industry as they welcome 2026. They explore the shift from traditional concentrates to more efficient products, the risks associated with improper use of concentrates, and the importance of product quality.
The conversation also delves into paint protection film (PPF) and the significance of setting industry standards. As they share their aspirations for the year ahead, they emphasize the need for purity and setting a high standard in their work.
Chapters
00:00 Welcome to 2026: A New Era for Detailing
02:03 The Evolution of Concentrates in Detailing
05:52 The Risks of Concentrates: A Cautionary Tale
12:00 The Importance of Product Quality and Efficiency
18:00 Understanding Paint Protection Film (PPF) and Coatings
30:49 Setting Standards in the Detailing Industry
54:09 Goals and Aspirations for 2026
Pints and Polishing Auto Detailing Podcast
Nick Walters and Marshall Hill
0:00
57:41