Perfect Finish — Local services in Apex

I hired Perfect Finish to apply a spray-on ceramic coating to my vehicle. Perfect Finish touted that they received significant training from the coating manufacturer itself on how to use it. The finished product “looked” great. However, come to find out, the product was applied to many areas of my car that, according to the product manufacturer, it should not have been applied to. These areas included the leather seats, the vinyl interior, and even some of the plastic exterior. Perfect Finish indeed acknowledged the mistake, steam cleaned the leather seats to (hopefully) remove the product, and applied a product appropriate for the leather in its place. Provided no long term effects from the product misapplication result, the mistake seems to have been remedied sufficiently, albeit with additional hassle on my part.

I’d like to think that the product misapplication was attributable to Perfect Finish receiving incorrect training from the manufacturer or remembering that training insufficiently. No matter the reason, I recommend using caution on hiring them to apply these ceramic coating products. At the very least, do your own research beforehand about what products are appropriate for where. And ask what products are going to be used, how they will be applied, etc.

My suspicion is that if I had just purchased a typical wash and wax, Perfect Finish would have shined without this nick in their coat. Indeed they seemed knowledgeable and the finished product looked great. But I’m afraid that their imperfect knowledge of the coating products makes me question their knowledge of other things as well.

In fact, Perfect Finish also alleged that 15% tax had to be collected. Afterwards, I confirmed with multiple other mobile detailers in the area, and none of them collect near 15% tax. My tax accountant also balked at the high rate. At best, then, this seems to be another area where Perfect Finish’s knowledge falls short of perfection.

Interaction with Perfect Finish was mostly professional, with some exceptions. Perfect Finish arrived about 10-15 minutes late to the initial appointment. And, when I showed up later for the misapplied product to be removed and remedied, the staff members present at the time were about to start working on a different car (which would have taken quite some time for them to finish), without knowing that I had made an appointment with the owner. Fortunately, though, they called the owner and received instructions to work on my car as scheduled.

Based on my experience, I cannot recommend...

Daniel and his team seemed super nice, very welcoming, and all.

Let me share my experience though. About 2 to 3 months ago I requested a quote from them, and I was quoted $600 for a ceramic coat. I thought to myself that's reasonable, other places are charging near this or a little over. A few weeks go by and I schedule an appointment and confirmed $600. Daniel tells me to drop off the car before 8:30a, which I do and Lyft home. A few hours go by and he calls me and goes over pricing... ceramic coat - $600, followed by hydrophobic coat - $400, I thought oh okay I can still do that... and finally polishing - $500. So a grand total of $1,500, almost triple the original quote. I thought to myself I can take out a small loan and tell him to start. About 3 hours go by and I call him and tell him to stop, financially I wasn't in the place to do it, I told him I would pay what has already been done, about $450, I comply but he suggests polishing the whole car for $700. I say no, I really can't just please stop. He calls his guys and tells them to stop, and I Lyft back over to pick it up. I get there and start talking to his guys, who seem nice. When it came to payment the guy insisted $500, I said no Daniel and I agreed to $450.

I find it hard to give someone a quote for something and leave out what else it costs to do that. $600 turned into $1,500. Like I said the team is nice but this place and their practices seem iffy. I just wish they were more upfront about it when I got the quote so I wouldn't of paid for a Lyft there and back, and argue with his guys over $50.

Not to mention, they supposedly polished the front half of the car, but in reality I get a better result when I just wash it at home.

I can't recommend these guys, there is a company right across the street, whom I won't name, that comes out to about the same price, maybe a little more. The difference is when I went to get my quote, the quote was everything, and I got multiple booklets and information regarding the ceramic coating, the process, and aftercare, even before I wanted to...

I had Perfect Finish correct sap marks on the hood and roof of my 6-month old truck. I then had them apply the 10H ceramic coating on the corrected paint as well as coating the plastic trim and tonneau cover. Throughout the entire process they kept me informed of progress and even invited me to inspect the corrected hood and roof before the coating was applied. It was just over a week-long process of getting all the sap out and coating the truck, but the results are outstanding. Their professionalism and attention to detail is unsurpassed. My friends and neighbors are jealous of the appearance of my truck, but the best part is seeing road construction crew members stop working and watch me drive by in my truck.

Update ~1 year later: I've lifted the truck and added new wheels (that I also had Perfect Finish ceramic coat) and it still looks great. I have done minimal work to clean the truck. In the last year I've washed it 3 or 4 times. It is parked outside, near pine trees no less. The truck had not been washed for several weeks and had only gone through a light rain shower prior to the picture beside the railroad tracks. One of the coolest things about the ceramic coating - the windshield still beads water where the wipers go while the corners of the windshield don't once it gets pretty dirty. Conversely, I used to religiously apply RainX to my vehicle windshields and the wipers would wear it away leaving just the corners beading water. Now I never do anything and on the rare occasion I do wash my truck, it takes about 30-45 minutes and it looks like I spent all day on it. I will definitely be ceramic coating my new vehicles from now on. It is a HUGE timesaver and basically allows me to ignore my vehicle and have it still look great. I realize some people want their vehicles to look miraculous as much as possible and spend time and money to keep them looking that way. From my perspective, the real value is to have my truck look great all the time and exert minimal effort to keep...