FAQ
Most frequent questions and answers
Typically, if you bring your vehicle to us in Harker Heights for your auto detailing, three days is a good estimate for how long we will need your vehicle do conduct a full paint correction, prep work, coating, and curing. It’s important to understand that the coating takes 24 hours to cure before it can be exposed to the elements and is not recommended to take the car before then. Getting water on a freshly-coated car or truck could leave water spots in the coating that could only be removed with a machine polisher. For Ceramic Pro Sport and Bronze ceramic coating packages, a typical schedule might look like this:
Day 1: Drop off in the morning at our shop in Harker Heights. If you live in Killeen, Copperas Cove, Belton, or Temple, we can likely take you back to work or home if you need us to, to facilitate ease of drop off. Wash, dry, Iron X, clay bar, detail, tape off surfaces that cannot be polished, two step compound/polish (or one step polish as needed) paint correction, ceramic coating in the evening. This is subject to change based on the condition of the paint and problem areas, which may change once the car is being polished. We will keep you informed every step of the way.
Day 2: Pick up in the evening (or next morning on Day 3)
For Silver/Gold packages a day 3 is required because the last coating of 9H must cure for eight hours before the Top Coat is applied. So the morning of Day 2 the top coat is applied, and the car needs to cure for 24 hours until the morning of Day 3.
The short answer – highly unlikely, but please read on for an explanation. To understand how paint correction works and why we cannot likely get it 100% scratch free, first realize that every time you polish (for light paint correction work) or compound (for heavier work), you are removing microns off of the clear coat. Eventually over the life of a vehicle, the clear coat can fail (you’ve probably have noticed cars like this where their hood is completely devoid of any clear coat – note, not the same as it being oxidized). Our goal is to make the car as visually good to the naked eye as possible, while still leaving clear coat for future work and UV protection. This is true even on new vehicles, but older vehicles also need extra special attention in this regard, as their clear coat has degraded slightly already from the elements, washing, previous paint correction, etc.
I like to think of paint correction and detailing work like a diamond – most likely we will be able to get the paint very good to the naked eye. However, if you took an LED headlamp or the lights we use to it, you will likely see some imperfections, much like a jeweler would see flaws in a diamond using a jeweler’s loupe. Additionally, the general rule of thumb is, if you can catch the scratch with your fingernail, it likely won’t come out. Of course we will always attempt to make the best of your car, taking into consideration the paint condition, age of the vehicle, and any areas you point out during a walk around inspection prior to us starting work.
Getting the car closer to perfection when we are conducting auto detailing, is, of course, easier if it is in our Harker Heights shop with all of our lighting. Even traveling mobile but local to Killeen/Copperas Cove/Temple takes us away from our 300,000 lumens of light. You don’t always want to have every light on when doing paint correction, but it is definitely much harder to do in Austin or other mobile areas.
The short answer is really time. Even the least expensive package still involves multiple days of work, even if we are doing it in our shop in Harker Heights. If we are traveling to Austin or other areas, there is travel time and expenses involved. Since we refuse to let any vehicle leave the shop less than the best condition possible, our prep time on each vehicle is a minimum of six to ten hours alone, not counting other time such as the actual coating, etc. We essentially give this part of our labor away to ensure we are competitive. That doesn’t diminish the passion we have for the craft, nor the quality of work you receive. You’re not just paying for some auto detailing here in Harker Heights (and that’s not to diminish standard an auto detailer), you’re paying for literal days of work and attention dedicated only to your vehicle. We promise that you will not find anything like your experience here at Harker Heights Ceramic Coatings anywhere in the Copperas Cove/Killeen/Harker Heights/Temple area.
YES!!!! We weren’t a believer either – until we realized how the water beads off, bugs melt off with the slightest pressure, the car remains clean for longer, the paint always feels wet…It’s AMAZING! Even here in Central Texas, we had rain forever, and our Corvette and F250 easily dried off. Some things can be presented in in pictures, or videos, and some things might need to be seen in person. Please check out our vehicles next time you see us. In the mean time:
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Sorry, we don’t do that type of work, but we do have some recommendations for minor paint chips, dents, etc, and people that can do the work (or give you tips on how to do it as well). Most of our recommendations for body work and paint work we refer to Caliber Collision in Killeen (they also have branches in Temple and Copperas Cove). Understand that paint correction is not body work or painting, which can sometimes confuse people. Paint correction is the act of polishing or compounding minor imperfections from the paint, whereas as body work and painting are just that. The City of Harker Heights prevents home businesses from conducting any sort of paint or body work in our shop. Killeen and other cities usually have similar codes. For dent repair we use someone who often travels to the Temple/Killeen/Harker Heights/Copperas Cove areas, but lately due to extensive hail storms has been stationary in Temple at a shop.
On a case-by-case basis, we may travel to a client (Austin is usually our most common destination, although we have also gone “mobile” to even places as close as Killeen and far as Dallas), but we prefer that vehicles are detailed and ceramic coated at our shop in Harker Heights. We have over 300,000 lumens of LED shop lamps angled at various locations so we can see each panel to the fullest while making minimal mistakes, as well as a large dehumidifier and massive shop fans, which helps improve the conditions for the professional grade materials we use from Ceramic Pro. Working in a typical garage can be cramped, high humidity in the Texas heat, poorly lit (we do have some portable lights, but it’s no where near what we have in our shop), hot, and otherwise a not very desirable location to work on your vehicle. We will definitely not work on a vehicle outside, especially in the Texas summer. This may change slightly in the winter time when the weather is more mild, but not when it is too cold, as that also affects conditions. We have traveled from the Killeen/Harker Heights many times to the Austin/Cedar Park areas for certain paint correction and ceramic coating jobs, and once to the Dallas area. We are flying to a client in Arizona in September 2021 to apply Ceramic Pro to his 2020 Audi R8 V10 Plus.
Yes, we are registered in the State of Texas and with the City of Harker Heights, we have an Employer Identification Number (similar to a Social Security Number, but for businesses), we have business liability insurance that not only covers you while your vehicle is in our hands, but also covers your vehicle should we have to drive it, such as dropping it off to you, or moving it in the driveway). Our shop has a full security system and video/audio surveillance with 30 days of hard drive backup, both inside and out of the shop, and the house/shop has a full monitoring service through Vivant. Any break-ins, fires, etc are monitored. If you have any concerns about our shop or professionalism, we will gladly give you a tour of the shop or speak to you on the phone to help!
We have a Square Terminal chip reader or swipe, Venmo, PayPal, CashApp, Apple Pay, Zelle, and we accept cash to pay for your auto detailing and Ceramic Pro ceramic coating packages. We do not take checks, unless you are a previous customer.