A One-Year Coating When You Change Cars Soon

You keep a car for two or three years and then change it. Or you are trying ceramic coating for the first time and don't want to commit to several years ahead on the first attempt. In both cases you want the same thing: paint that looks good for as long as you have the car, and washing that takes less time than it does now.

FEYNLAB The Original Ceramic is the shortest commitment among the ceramic lines we install. The manufacturer describes it as a one-year ceramic paint coating — a hard layer against UV and dirt, with water running off in beads instead of spreading across the panel.

A short commitment is a decision, not a concession

A coating built for five years assumes you will have the car for five years. If you hand it over after two, you have paid for time you won't use.

A one-year layer leaves the door open. In a year you decide again, and by then you decide from experience: you know whether you still have the car, whether the coating gave you what you expected from it, and whether it makes sense to move up a line. Nothing is being postponed into the unknown — the decision simply waits until you have more to go on than you do today.

How long each line holds, and how you can tell on the paint that the layer is still working, is covered in How long ceramic protection lasts.

What changes about washing

Washing a car with a ceramic layer differs mainly in how much work drops out of it. Dirt doesn't key in as firmly, so in most cases the shampoo releases it and a second pass with the mitt isn't needed. After rinsing, water pulls into beads and runs off, which shortens drying and takes passes off the towel.

This isn't about washing the car less. The wash stays; it just gets shorter — and what you don't have to scrub can't scratch the paint.

What Original Ceramic cannot do

It won't repair what the paint already has. The layer goes on top of whatever is underneath, and tends to lock minor defects in. If the paint needs levelling, we propose paint correction beforehand as a separate step — once the coating is on, it can't be done without taking the layer off.

It won't stop a stone. A chip thrown up by a lorry goes through ceramic just as it goes through bare paint. The front of the car is a job for PPF film, not for ceramic.

It won't protect against dried bird droppings or insects left in the sun. They come off a coated surface more easily than off bare paint, but time works against you just the same.

Who a one-year coating doesn't pay off for

The largest part of the job isn't applying the layer, it is the preparation: washing, decontaminating and degreasing the paint. That doesn't get shorter because the layer is meant to last one year instead of five. If you keep a car for years and would renew a one-year coating every season, you pay for the same groundwork over and over; a longer line is the better fit there.

It also makes little sense on a car you are selling in a few months. A buyer will notice the layer, but little of the money comes back in the price. On a vehicle that goes back to a leasing company in a few months, the thing to do is a one-off pre-handover prep, not a new layer.

The differences between the ceramic lines, and what each one adds, are on the ceramic surface protection page.

What we need from you

Send us the make, model and colour of the car, and above all how long you want to keep it. A photo of the bonnet in daylight helps — it usually tells us whether the paint needs correction before the coating, or whether decontamination is enough.

If it turns out a one-year layer isn't enough for you, we will say so straight away.

Request ceramic protection