Auto Accenting using nanoceramics to enhance rides
ZELIENOPLE — Auto Accenting can upgrade cars, trucks, motorcycles and off-road vehicles with a variety of accessories and custom touches.
The most popular way the shop fulfills its motto to “Enhance Your Ride” is applying a molecular ceramic paint coating that owner Joe Scalise said provides better protection for exterior and interior surfaces than what they came with from the factory.
Using wipe-on nanoceramic products containing ceramic molecular compounds that Ceramic Pro developed about 10 years ago, company trained staff at Auto Accenting spends three to 10 days preparing surfaces and applying the coating. When cured, the nanoceramics chemically bond to the surface and form a rigid coating of nanoglass designed to last indefinitely.
“It creates an extremely durable, hard exterior surface, tougher than your factory clear coat. Much tougher, actually,” Scalise said, about Ceramic Pro's exterior paint coating.
He said the nanoceramic coating provides better protection against ultraviolet radiation, enhances gloss and repels dirt. Once applied to a car, the vehicle never has to be waxed again — just washed with a silica-based soap Scalise sells at his shop.The paint coating process begins with a complete “decontamination” of the surface by washing, pressure washing and using a clay product to remove foreign particles, debris and tar from the surface.Next comes paint correction, in which chips, scratches and swirls are removed. The surface is then treated with nanoceramic primer that prepares it for the final coating. The products are wiped on by Auto Accenting's staff of five, who have been trained and certified by Ceramic Pro, he said.“Your objective is to get that substrate perfect, or as perfect as possible, prior to installing the ceramic,” Scalise said.Customers who choose one layer of ceramic coating receive a two-year warranty and those who select a five-layer coating get a lifetime warranty, he said.“The more you put on, the more durable it is,” he said.Nanoceramic coatings can be used on automotive plastic, leather, wheels and glass. Those surfaces are prepared the same way as painted surfaces, but different final coatings are used.The products can also be used to protect fiberglass boats, airplanes, heavy equipment, agricultural equipment and on counters, showers and bath tubs in homes.“We do work across all industries,” Scalise said.Ceramic-based products sold in retail stores can produce good results, but Ceramic Pro products are more advanced and produce better results because they are applied in a timed sequence by trained technicians.“These are very different from home products,” he said.When the shop completes its work on a vehicle, the owner is given a warranty, care instructions and an appointment for the annual inspections required by the manufacturer.Scalise said he has a passion for cars and described himself as a perfectionist when servicing customer vehicles.“I've been a car guy my whole life,” Scalise said. “My philosophy — educate the customer on what we're trying to sell them, earn their trust in our service by doing what we said we would.”That philosophy seems to be paying off. After three and a half years in business, Auto Accenting is opening a showroom to display wheels, tires and other custom products at the intersection of Route 19 and 68, about a block from the shop on East Beaver Street, in the spring, he said. The existing shop will be used for installation and service after the showroom opens, he added.
