How We Research

What we do not do

We have not tested these products. We do not have a lab, a test vehicle, a paint depth gauge or a shelf of coatings. Nobody here has applied a ceramic coating to a panel and come back eighteen months later to see what happened, and nothing on this site should be read as though somebody had.

We also accept no free products, no sponsored placements and no payment for position. We are an Amazon Associate and we earn a commission when you buy through a link here, which is disclosed on every page carrying one and explained in full on the affiliate disclosure.

What we do instead

We compile what manufacturers actually publish, cite every figure to the document it came from, print the blanks where a maker will not commit to a number, and do arithmetic in front of you. That is a smaller claim than a test lab and it has one advantage: you can verify every part of it yourself in about two minutes.

1. 1Compile published specifications. Manufacturer product pages, technical data sheets and product manuals, read directly. Silica and solids percentages, orbit throw in millimeters, backing plate sizes, GSM, pH claims, dilution ratios, stated durability, coverage per car, warranty terms.
2. 2Cite each figure to its source, with a retrieval date. Every product record on this site names the page its numbers came from and the date we opened it. Every page carries a source block listing them.
3. 3Print the blanks. Where a maker publishes nothing, the row reads “Not published”. Those blanks are counted and they cost the product points. A guess dressed as a specification would be worse than an empty row, and this category is full of sites that fill them in.
4. 4Do the arithmetic. Cost per ounce, cost per application, cost per year against a published durability claim, applications per bottle from a published consumption rate. Every one of those calculations is shown with its inputs.
5. 5Report other people’s claims as theirs. A durability figure is always written as the manufacturer’s claim — “Gyeon claims 36 months”, not “lasts 36 months”. That construction is deliberate and it appears everywhere on this site.

How a pick is chosen

Every ranked page runs through the same published scoring rubric, which lives in one file and applies to all 39 product categories on the site. Six axes, each scored from a published figure, with any axis that has no published input dropped and the remaining weights re-normalized.

Commission never enters that calculation. There is no field for it in the product record and no term for it in the rubric. Where a product we earn nothing on is the right answer, it is the answer — several pages here recommend products sold direct by makers whose affiliate programs we have not joined, and those pages say so.

Why the buttons say “Check price”

Prices move constantly, and a remembered price is worse than no price because a reader acts on it. This site therefore renders a price next to a buy button only from a live price data layer, and only while that data is less than 48 hours old. Beyond that window, every number disappears on its own and the button reads “Check price on Amazon”.

At the time of writing the live price layer is not enabled for this site, so that is the state you will see everywhere. It is the correct behavior rather than a shortfall.

Separately, product records carry a list price captured on one stated date from a named source. That figure drives the cost-per-ounce and price axes of the rubric and the budget pages, it is always shown with its source, and it never appears inside a button.

How to check us

• Open the source link under any specification. Every product write-up names the page its figures came from.
• Compare the figure on that page to the figure in our table. If they differ, tell us and we will fix it.
• Re-derive any score: the axis working is printed under every product, with the input, the band and the weight.
• Disagree with a band. The bands are a judgment and they are written down in one place rather than scattered through prose, precisely so they can be argued with.

Specifications on this site were compiled September 8, 2026 across 162 products and 76 documents. Every one of them carries the date it was last verified.

When we are wrong

We will be. A maker changes a formula, a specification page is updated, a price moves, a product is discontinued. When that happens the page is corrected in place, the Last verified date is updated, and a dated note is added where the correction is material. Errors are never silently deleted.

If you find one, tell us. The full policy — including the re-verification cadence for each type of page — is in the editorial policy.

What we could not verify

Two makers whose products appear on this site could not be checked at source. Gtechniq’s own website returned a bot challenge on every attempt, so Gtechniq products here are documented from authorized-retailer listings and carry no manufacturer durability figure at all. One CarPro coating variant could not be retrieved, and the page that would have compared it says so rather than filling the gap from a forum.

Those gaps are stated on the pages where they matter, because a comparison with a hole in it that admits the hole is worth more than one that quietly papers over it.

Who writes this

One named person, on every page. Not a rotating cast, not an editorial team, not an anonymous staff writer. Sawyer V. is an enthusiast who reads manuals, compiles specifications and does the arithmetic — not an expert, not a professional detailer, and not somebody with a lab. That is stated on every byline for the same reason everything else on this page is stated: because you should know what you are reading.