Ceramic Paint Coating Lingo - The evolving language in the car detailing world

[Mike Phillips]

Ceramic Paint Coating Lingo - The evolving language in the car detailing world


Let's talk about the new lingo that has evolved with ceramic paint coatings. Below are some traditional words used when talking about "waxing a car" and their new replacements when talking about "coating a car".


We use say compounding and polishing - now it's paint correction

We use to say applying a coat of wax, now it's installing a ceramic coating

We use to say wiping off a coat of wax, now it's giving the panel a final buff

We use to say, removing wax smears, now it's removing high spots




In reality, the action of doing any of the above for coatings is the same action when working with waxes, the only thing that has changed is the product and now the lingo.
And when you start using the new lingo around the people not up to speed with ceramic paint coatings...

They are going to look at you as though you are from Mars!

[BudgetPlan1]

Care to expand on Glass Coatings v. Ceramic Coatings v. Quartz coatings?

There are some articles out there and I'd guess that it boils down to semantics most likely but would be interested to hear your thoughts.

[Bruno Soares]

Care to expand on Glass Coatings v. Ceramic Coatings v. Quartz coatings?

There are some articles out there and I'd guess that it boils down to semantics most likely but would be interested to hear your thoughts.

It is all semantics. Because they all contain SiO2 which is Silicon Dioxide, a component that is used in the manufacturing of quartz, glass, and I suppose ceramic as well. The name variations are all for marketing.

[mwoolfso]

Agreed.. a lot of it is marketing but every now and again the change in language makes sense from the standpoint of operations.

Mike talks about a "jeweling wax"; which to me means "cleaner wax" right now - and he says, "it's all in the abrasives". I say, "wasn't this always the case even with AIO's?".

I'm not sold as of yet on the notion of a jeweling wax but if we compared formulas we would know for sure whether or not a "jeweling wax" is more than just marketing and product differentiation. That's not likely to happen. Net/net.... time will tell on all this lingo evolution.

[Mike Phillips]

Agreed.. a lot of it is marketing but every now and again the change in language makes sense from the standpoint of operations.

It's mostly a lot to do about nothing but once the genie is out of the bottle it's kind of hard to put her or him back in...

Mike talks about a "jeweling wax"; which to me means "cleaner wax" right now - and he says, "it's all in the abrasives". I say, "wasn't this always the case even with AIO's?".

I'm not sold as of yet on the notion of a jeweling wax but if we compared formulas we would know for sure whether or not a "jeweling wax" is more than just marketing and product differentiation. That's not likely to happen. Net/net.... time will tell on all this lingo evolution.

Completely understand your confusion or doubt. Here's what I know though.... there are hundreds of cleaner/waxes on the market. That's the generic name for them. Some of you like to call them AIOs or if you're anal retentive, cleaner/sealants.

Here's the link to the article I wrote where I wrote the definition for this new category,

Jeweling Wax - Definition


Here's the part that I "think" explains it best. Note the word in red bold text. It's like that on the page I linked to also.

A high quality jeweling wax is too good to be lumped into the cleaner/wax category already populated with hundreds of cleaner/wax options ranging from the extreme spectrum of mediocre to very good.

Now let me do my best to make the point with a challenge.


Nu Finish is a cleaner/wax. Technically it's a cleaner/sealant since the protection ingredients are not wax-based.






I challenge anyone to get the results you see in the two articles below using Nu-Finish.
You can try by hand or machine, your choice.



1971 Corvette Original Paint detailed by Mike Phillips





Or these results...

McKee's 37 = Winner BEST PAINT!





Big Picture = Not all cleaner/waxes are jeweling waxes.

But like I always say,

Find something YOU like and use it often

[Mike Phillips]

Care to expand on Glass Coatings v. Ceramic Coatings v. Quartz coatings?

There are some articles out there and I'd guess that it boils down to semantics most likely but would be interested to hear your thoughts.

Not really.

If I do it would be in a new and dedicated thread. I had other plans for this thread but it's already going south of where I expected.

[mwoolfso]

Mike, I'm definitely not confused. "Cynical" or "skeptical" would be better when it comes to some uses of "language" in this industry - and not just this forum, or the AGO store and the product manufacturers represented. I certainly agree with your point that there are tons of products out there that range from crappy to awesome; and then adding a value or TCO dimension yields even more perspective as well.

I'm certainly happy that the industry is growing and evolving; hence so should the language when it comes to the post-marketing work.

- I was at a paint store some years back and the cashier was having a conversation with a customer; old-timers with decades of experience in this industry. The customer never used the word "paint", but rather "coatings". I smirked a bit as I was going through swatches and listened. It was clear to see this person had a passion for the paint industry and I laughed mainly because I just can't see people that use paint switch to another term.

NOTHING CHANGES UNLESS IT HAS TO.....

- On the other side, you have your industry leaders that make attempts to change the conversation. IBM many years ago took the paradigm called "virtualization" and up-ended it. This was a word that was creeping into the broader IT industry back in the 2000's; but the technology itself was in several popular products going back to the 80's and 90's. IBM began to use the term "cloud computing" instead, and the industry took this by storm. Why? Because "cloud" was a term that took the present technology to deeper levels. It actually changed the conversation IT folks have amongst themselves and the business. New business models were developed and today you cannot escape "cloud computing".

- Maybe those behind the "jeweling wax" are looking to change the course. Good luck.

I said my piece on the jeweling wax in the launch thread. I never intended to debate the value of a jeweling wax here; just bring the term to the context you laid out in the OP. If NOTHING CHANGES UNLESS IT HAS TO..... help us all understand your perspective why these terms are evolving and the good, bad, ugly associated with it. I think it would be an awesome conversation.

[Mike Phillips]

.


Whole bunch of good stuff cut out...

If NOTHING CHANGES UNLESS IT HAS TO.....

help us all understand your perspective why these terms are evolving and the good, bad, ugly associated with it.

I don't know if single person is given or due credit for the below, I know I use it often in my work,

"Words mean things"


I can remember back to when we did NOT have all the great products we have today. Specifically, all the great abrasive technology available today that did not exist before clearcoats were introduced. I was calling on body shops when body shops were converting over from shooting solvent-evaporation lacquers and enamels to basecoat/clearcoat paint systems. Back then, about the best abrasive technology available was Meguiar's early #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #9 cleaners and polishes.

All of the brands we all talk about (and some take for granted), simply did not exist. The introduction of the Internet leveled the business and marketing playing field and made it possible for the average entreprenurail type person to launch their own product line and from this we now have an abundance of brands for car detailing supplies. Some good, some less than good.

Back to a few years ago, before the Internet. Back then we did not have great AIOs or cleaner/waxes. About the best cleaner/wax I knew of and used was Meguiar's #6 and #19 and this was because the abrasive technology was diminishing abrasives.

Since then, and just in the last few years, some really good one-step cleaner/waxes (or cleaner/sealants or AIOs - whatever you want to call them), have come out onto the market and they work so good that they can in some instances replace both compounding and polishing. Here's an example. Even I was surprised with what I was able to do with this one-step product.


Review: BLACKFIRE One-Step Cleaner/Wax by Mike Phillips








And "normally" I would do a traditional multiple-step process to a car like this, that is,

Compound
Polish
Wax





I've been so impressed with some of the new cleaner/waxes I've used that I decided in my own mind that some products are so good it's simply not fair to lump them into the cleaner/wax category. So as my normal tendency, I just came up with my own term and shared it.

Note: ANYONE with the inclination can be a writer and do like me, create new terms out of thin air. The rest of you don't have to accept it if you don't want to, that's up to you. What I've seen over the years is most people do accept it and now look at how these terms I also coined are part of our normal, everyday lingo.

• RIDS
• LSP
• Test Spot

There are more, maybe I should make a list. But those are the top three terms I either coined or made popular simply by speaking them in classes, in videos or on TV plus writing tons of text using them including 5 books. (yes, I use the term Test Spot on my boat book too)

And again - ANYONE can do as I've done, just start writing.



But to your question,

help us all understand your perspective why these terms are evolving and the good, bad, ugly associated with it.

I believe the reason these terms are evolving is to enable everyone to speak about the same topic, idea or product and everyone has a uniform understanding of what is being spoken about.

I did NOT come up with the terms used in the ceramic paint coating and I probably would NOT have used the terms I listed in the first post of this thread. I don't know who decided to use the word "install" instead of "apply" or "high spots" instead of "smears", and off the cuff, I don't like them. BUT like I've also said, once the genie is out of the bottle, it's kind of tough to put him or her back into the bottle again.

I originally wrote this article just to have an article sharing what I wrote in the first post of this thread. I don't know about the rest of our forum members or all the hundreds of lurkers we get here each day but I spend a portion of my life teaching people the craft and art of car detailing in all it's dimensions and when I start to reference information over and over again, instead of typing it out each time I need to reference it I write an article about it and then I can simply share the article and avoid spending so much time typing the same thing over and over again.


Make sense?

[mwoolfso]

Of course it makes sense.

[acuRAS82]

Care to expand on Glass Coatings v. Ceramic Coatings v. Quartz coatings?

There are some articles out there and I'd guess that it boils down to semantics most likely but would be interested to hear your thoughts.

Add “Resin-based coatings” in there, unless it’s universally understood that it belongs in one of the above 3 (in case I’m just behind the times).