Paint protection film, ceramic coating and tint in Red Bank, NJ

Protection for Red Bank cars

Red Bank is about 20 minutes from our Ocean Township shop outside rush hour. Cars here take a different beating from highway cars: street parking on Broad Street and Monmouth Street, tight spots in town lots, damp mornings by the Navesink and trips over Route 35 and the Parkway. Buff & Beyond protects them with paint protection film, ceramic coating and window tint, all done in house.

Paint protection film

Doors swinging next to yours, bumpers tapping in tight spots and shopping carts rolling loose all leave marks. LLumar self-healing film takes the light scuffs and paint transfer for the paint, and fine scratches in the film fade with warmth. A hard hit can still dent the metal, but the paint on top stays protected.

Film is sold by coverage. Basic Front covers the front bumper, full hood, mirrors, headlights and fog lights, and is usually done within a day. Full Front adds the full front fenders, so no film edge cuts across them, and takes one to two days. Full Front Plus adds the A-pillars, the roof edge over the windshield and the rocker panels, also one to two days. Full Body covers every painted panel over two to three days.

For a car that mostly stays local, door edges, bumpers and rockers matter as much as the hood. Full Front Plus covers the front and the rockers, and Full Body adds every door and the rear bumper, which is where parking marks usually land. Film is wrapped around panel edges wherever possible and carries a manufacturer backed warranty.

Ceramic coating

Cars that live near the river deal with salt in the air and gulls overhead. Bird droppings are acidic, and on bare clear coat they can etch a mark in a day of summer sun. On a coated car they sit on the coating, which gives you time to clean them off. Street parked cars also collect dust and road film fast, and a coating lets it rinse off with less scrubbing. Dark paint gains the most, because black and dark blue show every swirl from a rushed wash.

A coating seals in whatever is under it, so every coating starts with a wash, decontamination and an inspection under strong light. Swirls and light scratches are polished out before the Gyeon coating goes on in a climate-controlled bay. That is why we sell paint correction together with a Level 1 or Level 2 coating, and why we show you what the paint needs before we start.

Window tint

A car parked downtown through a summer afternoon gets hot fast. Ceramic tint rejects a good share of the heat coming through the glass, so the cabin is cooler when you get back from dinner or a show at the Count Basie Center. It cuts glare off the river and wet roads, adds privacy for whatever is on the back seat, and slows fading on the interior. If you want to start small, tint the rear windows and add the front later in a matching shade.

We install LLumar ceramic film in 70, 50, 35, 20 and 5 percent shades. The number is how much light gets through, so 70 is nearly clear and 5 is very dark. Ceramic film has no metal in it, so phones, navigation and key fobs work normally, and it stays clear from the inside at night.

Doing it together

Many owners do all three at once: film on the panels that take chips, a Gyeon coating over the whole car including the film, and tint on the glass. Together that is The Beyond Package, and it means one visit and one drop off instead of three.

Visiting our Ocean Township shop

The shop is at 1304 Brielle Ave, Building B, Ocean Township. We are open Monday to Friday from 8:30 to 5:30, and Saturdays by appointment. Call (732) 801-2078 or send the estimate form, and we will book a drop off time and tell you how long the car will be with us. We have been in business since 2008, and every job is done in house by our full-time staff.

Questions from Red Bank drivers

Does a coating stop scratches?

It resists the fine marks from washing, but it is not armor. Keys, stones and carts can still mark the paint, which is what film is for.

How should I clean tinted glass?

Use a soft microfiber cloth and an ammonia free cleaner. Rough towels and household glass cleaners can scratch or cloud the film.

Tell us what you drive on the estimate form and we will recommend a starting point.