07/06/2026
One thing that we really pride ourselves here at KC Elite Car Care is 'good enough', in any aspect of our services, is never something we will do. We will always strive to give you the absolute best outcome from actually understanding how coatings work on a chemical side of things, how things should properly be done, being incredibly OCD and nitpicky on every square inch of your car, and NEVER charging customers for services that they aren't actually getting any benefit from or actually working. Being able to buy a product and install it on a car is one thing that some 'professional' shops will do, but actually understanding how that product works, how it actually bonds to the surfaces, and making sure that it's actually applied properly is completely different.
Take ceramic coatings for instance, in todays market they now offer PPF film that has a ceramic infused top coat (no not a real ceramic coating, but for a customer that doesn't want to spend the money to do both it gives them a good option to at least get something on the car over the PPF areas). These films while they have their place, applying an actual ceramic coating on top of them is an absolute waste of money and doesn't do anything. Common knowledge of applying a ceramic coating is shown in the image that I posted. You have to THOROUGHLY strip the surface of any substances or containments to ensure that the coating will bond to it. If you do not strip the surface of everything the coating itself will NOT bond correctly resulting in smearing the product around, the coating not lasting very long at all, and the coating not hardening to it's full strength to give it all of the proper protection/hydrophobic properties that it's intended for. This in turn makes all that money you just spent on getting your car coated pretty much wasted for no reason at all other than the shop being lazy and trying to turn out 'good enough' results to get as many customers as possible. Think about it in this way you have a surface that already has a ceramic infused top coat that is designed to be chemical resistant and hydrophobic, trying to apply a LIQUID coating to this surface that is literally designed to reject things and they are expecting it to adhere and bond properly? There is only two things that could come from this and it's either A. The PPF they used has an incredibly worthless ceramic infused top coat that was easily wiped off from surface prep. Which if that's the case then you just overspent on a PPF for no reason at all. Or B. You just paid to have a ceramic coating applied to your car and it's not even properly bonding to any surface the PPF is applied, meaning that you just paid for something that isn't going to work at all.
This then brings me to the next point and one that is abused by shops to take an easy way out of things while making the customer feel like they are being taken care of. Some shops will tell you to bring your car back in "X" amount of days so that they can go over it all and any concerns. As a customer that makes you feel like they are really making sure they fix any issues that could happen. Well sadly that isn't how coatings work at all and can't just be easily fixed by wiping something on it etc. Say you get your car back and you notice an area that there is water spots all over and before you even take it out of their parking lot. You bring it back after the "X" amount of days and bring up the water spots that you noticed. They are going to wipe down those areas and then spray a maintenance spray on it and tell you that it's all good and give you some excuse of why the water spots were there. This is however a sign that the correct time and thoroughness WAS NOT taken before applying the coating to that area obviously, and 100% that coating they tried to apply didn't bond properly, or they didn't even apply the coating to that area period in some cases. Then trying to just wipe it off and spray a maintenance spray on it, is just like putting a band-aid over it and hoping that it'll be 'good enough' for that customer. The only way to actually fix this issue long term would be to start the process all over with removing ALL of the coating from that panel, and then reapplying the coating to the entire panel again AFTER it's been properly prepped this time. Those are just the areas that you can very easily spot as a customer and tell that the proper prep was not taken in that job. That doesn't take in account all of the other areas that you might not be able to see, and if they already lacked in that area there is a very good chance there's multiple other areas that are like that too.
Trying to offer all of the latest and greatest innovations on the market is a great thing to strive for, but when doing so you HAVE to do your research and understand how and if those items will work together even. Yes they can just continue to put the maintenance spray on the car over and over again to mask the issue, but the maintenance spray isn't going to fix the issue at hand, or give you the actual protection that you paid for in getting your car ceramic coated. If you just wanted to apply the maintenance spray you could of saved $1000's by just doing that vs paying for an actual ceramic coating.
With this all being said we just wanted to thank all of our loyal customers and friends that we have made over the years of being able to serve Kansas City and striving to give them the ABSOLUTE best possible finish and outcome from every single car that leaves our shop. Just know there is a reason we are booked up the way that we are, and we make sure we schedule the actual right amount of time to properly complete each and every job here at the shop. We will never overbook our shop to try to get as much business as we possibly can, and we will ALWAYS strive to be a QUALITY shop over a QUANTITY shop every day of the week.
Call or message us today for any of your Ceramic Coatings, Paint Protection Film, Window Tint, or Detailing needs. With packages ranging from all different price points, you really can't afford NOT to protect your investment!
