New Honda Civic with Dealership Paint Protection Sealant - How to care for it

[Dharmaboy]

Hi there
I am new to detailing. As the title states, the dealership put on their paint protection package which is their sealant. It was at a discount price with the rest of their undercoat spray etc to prevent against winter salt and brine. I have a clear bra on the front bumper and hood. Should I clay the car at all with the sealant on there? Will clay barring the surface remove the sealant they put on?

Should I Carnuba wax over the sealant without claybaring?

Thanks for all your suggestions.

[LSNAutoDetailing]

Congrats on your new car. IMO anything the dealership does is subpar to what your can do. The so called coating is probably just a QD with some SIO2.

I just bought a new vehicle and put it through our typical new car prep.

LSN Autodetail: 2019 Ford Mustang GT/California Special - New Vehicle Prep
LSN Autodetail: 2019 Ford Mustang GT/California Special - New Vehicle Prep

The dealership told me there was a “coating” on the vehicle. I can attest that after the Iron X and foam bath there was nothing on this car. Certainly nothing was on the vehicle after it got compounded and polished. Then I applied two coats of CQUK.

IMO, you are starting from ground zero. As for the clear bra, it can be polished and coated just like paint.




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[Dharmaboy]

thank you for the quick reply. I don't own any iron remove right now. Should I just wash and towel dry the car for now and only claybar the car after I have purchased and used the iron remove in a few weeks?

[LSNAutoDetailing]

Typically I try to do all the decontamination processes in one shot. Engine, wheels, Iron-x, foam bath then clay.

You shouldn’t clay unless you’re prepared to polish.

My suggestion is to go to the How-To section at the banner of this forum and go through all the Mike Phillips videos.

There is a systematic approach, which is what I think you need first before doing anything.

Good luck!


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[TTQ B4U]

Hi there
I am new to detailing. As the title states, the dealership put on their paint protection package which is their sealant. It was at a discount price with the rest of their undercoat spray etc to prevent against winter salt and brine. I have a clear bra on the front bumper and hood. Should I clay the car at all with the sealant on there? Will clay barring the surface remove the sealant they put on?

Should I Carnuba wax over the sealant without claybaring?

Thanks for all your suggestions.

is it a sealant or Simonize or JaxWax brand "coating" ? Just curious. Both are popular products used at dealership with I'm sure many others. Most are sold with a "warranty" against damage, etc. but what you're really paying for is that warranty not the product. Growing up in the car business back in the 80's and 90's we would sell the heck out of them against back then the hot topic Acid Rain Damage.

regardless, I would simply approach the car with little to no worry about what happens to their sealant. I would re-do it all from scratch and put a real product / coating on there.

[glen e]

Dealership sealants/protection are the greatest source of profit on the car. Sometimes it could be up to 400 to 500% mark up. They are all usually just simple polymers like a crystal seal, and go onto the names of Simonize, permaplate etc., certainly they are not coatings as that would take too much time and could elicit some comebacks for bad applications. I agree with the above , just pretend it has nothing on it, don’t pay anything for it if it’s already done, and get Started on your own for a decision on protection. I was a general manager of the dealership for 4 years in Pgh and then on the manufacturer side for 25. I had so many of these pitched it to me over the years by companies that sold this dealer profit builder.

[Desertnate]

Congrats on your new car. IMO anything the dealership does is subpar to what your can do.

Beyond the good advice on products and process already given, I think this is an important item to remember.

A little over a year ago, we bought a used Honda from our local dealership. The sales experience was surprisingly good, and our salesman was quite proud of the "free detailing" they gave the car before we picked it up. When I got it home and started working on it I came to realize they only partially washed the car and they applied a sealant. They essentially applied the sealant to a dirty car!

[Mike Phillips]

Dealership sealants/protection are the greatest source of profit on the car. Sometimes it could be up to 400 to 500% mark up.

The lingo used in the dealership world is,

Profit Center


Any of the upsells is pure profit. Due to fierce competition for sales, in part due to the introduction of the Internet back in the mid 1990s, there's less profit in the sale of a car so profit centers have been the way dealerships make-up for lost profits in the actual price of the vehicle.

At least that's my understanding - I'm not a car salesperson and certainly don't play one on TV - BUT I have called on a lot of dealerships in my life so it's only natural to pick up on a few things here and there.

Also - nothing wrong with a dealership making a profit, I'm all about capitalism, but the flip side of that coin is there's nothing wrong with the customer making their own decision on upsells. For some people it's the right thing to do and money isn't an issue.

They are all usually just simple polymers like a crystal seal, and go onto the names of Simonize, perms plate etc.,

While I agree with you Glen, and again, my experience calling on the detail department of dealerships showed me first hand that the "coating" being applied to a car when a person paid for the protection package was almost always a detailer hand applying a synthetic paint sealant, times have changed and my "guess" is at least at some dealerships they truly are applying real ceramic coatings.

If I were in the market for a new car and a salesperson told me they were going to apply a ceramic or quartz or even polymer coating to my new car I would query them to find out exactly what the product was and what was the prep process.

The majority of work involved with applying a coating is in the prep work, not the actual application of the coating.

[glen e]

Of course there are dealerships out there that are not part of the Norm Mike, but again calling on almost 1000 dealerships in my career, shows that all these are just sealants...easy and safe to slap on by an inexperienced apprentice . Dealers don’t want to take the time or the effort to do a proper prep or a coating..When a true coating is involved, like in some Porsche dealers, it’s a little bit like tint, and it’s usually vended out to a specialist in their area that does it for the dealership.

The one that is most outrageous, in my experience, is “interior protection”, which 98% of the time is just scotchguard.

I wonder if Cory from CarPro could chime in here and tell us how many dealers he knows of that use a true ceramic coating that he possibly sells.

[Dharmaboy]

The lingo used in the dealership world is,

Profit Center


Any of the upsells is pure profit. Due to fierce competition for sales, in part due to the introduction of the Internet back in the mid 1990s, there's less profit in the sale of a car so profit centers have been the way dealerships make-up for lost profits in the actual price of the vehicle.

At least that's my understanding - I'm not a car salesperson and certainly don't play one on TV - BUT I have called on a lot of dealerships in my life so it's only natural to pick up on a few things here and there.

Also - nothing wrong with a dealership making a profit, I'm all about capitalism, but the flip side of that coin is there's nothing wrong with the customer making their own decision on upsells. For some people it's the right thing to do and money isn't an issue.





While I agree with you Glen, and again, my experience calling on the detail department of dealerships showed me first hand that the "coating" being applied to a car when a person paid for the protection package was almost always a detailer hand applying a synthetic paint sealant, times have changed and my "guess" is at least at some dealerships they truly are applying real ceramic coatings.

If I were in the market for a new car and a salesperson told me they were going to apply a ceramic or quartz or even polymer coating to my new car I would query them to find out exactly what the product was and what was the prep process.

The majority of work involved with applying a coating is in the prep work, not the actual application of the coating.

Thanks for the input Mike. I checked my car out and there is not a single swirl or light scratch on it that I can find from most of the panels I was looking at. If I were to claybar, and then polish. What type of pad and polish should I be looking at for a paint job that is near mint?