Originally published in Mog Magazine Issue 080, March 2019
Written by Matti Rogers at Mog Magazine
Photographs by Luke Dillon Photography
Looking after our pride and joy is not only a pleasure, it’s something we tend to do as part of a routine of keeping up with the Jones’s.
Drive down many suburban roads and avenues on a Sunday morning and it doesn’t take long to spot the Sunday morning car cleaning brigade.
Buckets of hot soapy water over the last decade have been replaced with more and more bottles of cleaning materials and the trusted pressure washer! You can even buy now a waterless cleaner which you simply spray on and wipe off, really? I here you say that just can’t be right, sadly it is and many people now are using these types of products to clean their cars without the need of water.
Team MOG met a couple of young guys Ry Tombs and Callum Davies last year who have created a range of car care and detailing products under the brand name of Pyramid Car Care and we have to say what they have done has impressed us.
When we were trying to find out more about the new technology in car cleaning, or as they would rather say detailing and paint protection we were lucky enough to be invited to their premises to watch and try for ourselves the various products they sell as they detailed and ceramic coated one of our subscriber’s cars, a beautiful 2017 Aero 8.
To start with Ry and Phil the technician washed off the car with special detergents and good old water. Ry explained that to start with all paintwork needs to be completely clean of all waxes, contamination and anything that really shouldn’t be on the paint.
Roads are not the cleanest places as we all know, tar and all sorts of contaminants end up stuck to the paintwork of our cars and the first job is to thoroughly clean the paintwork and outside of the car.
After a number of hours Ry was pleased to announce it was ready and the car now was moved into a dry, warm and very clean area of their workshop where the detailing could commence, these guys are meticulous 3 hours to wash the car!
Trying to understand what paint correction is or as it’s sometimes known as decontamination was the first question we had to ask Ry from Pyramid Car Care who in plain English replied “ Correction or decontamination is firstly the removal of everything off the paint that shouldn’t be there, from tar and road film to brake dust particles and fallout that has bonded to the surface of the paint. I remove it with a variety of products… and when all is removed, and the paint is as clean as it should be I then with a variety of mops and compounds polish the paint and bring back the lustre of the shine to as it was if not better than when it left the factory.”
Now in the workshop under special lighting rigs each panel was worked on by Phil, he started to machine polish each panel, carefully removing any imperfections and swirling from the paint. With a variety of different sized machines each panel was worked on starting from the doors and working round to the wings and finally the bonnet(s). Once each panel was done it was carefully examined with a handheld light that apparently shows everything.
To be honest my eyes being 50 years + could not see some of the detail that Ry could see, but until each panel was perfect they would not move on to the next one. On a relatively new car with hardly any miles on it we found it surprising to see how much work went into getting each panel to bring it up to perfection. Ry explained that he often works on brand new cars and you would be horrified how poor the paint finish is!
Hours later and it’s now time to wipe over a special alcohol solution, the car was now ready to receive the ceramic coating. Over the last few years Pyramid have been working with a manufacturer in the United States developing their own very special ceramic coating.
Ry explained they had gone through many developments and trials before finalising their special formula in 2018. The coating has been tested on vehicles for over 2 years and the results have surpassed all of their goals.
Once coated Pyramid Car Care say the coating will last 24 months and in some cases longer without a need for reapplication. What the coating does is actually bond directly to the top surface of the cars paintwork creating a hard surface, that cannot be scratched off or removed with chemicals; if you actually ever wanted to remove it you would need something like sandpaper, and yes we have seen it removed with 2000 grade wet and dry. Ry went on to tell us that on one of the test vehicles they used in 2017 that after coating the car a month later they covered the bonnet in brake fluid, and after 20 minutes
its simply washed off leaving no marks.
So back to the Aero 8, two technicians in under an hour coated the car and buffed each panel with special black microfibres; the results were stunning as you can see from the pictures.
The coating only needs to be left for 4 hours to cure before it can be used again, but as it was the weekend the Aero 8 was left to cure overnight so we could all go home and return the following day bright and early.
The following day we arrived back at the unit to not only watch the inside of the car finally being cleaned and leather protected by Phil, but to also see Ry do his final inspection of the paintwork
Our experience of having one of the MOG Fleet cars ceramic coated a few months ago, is that cleaning becomes easy, with a simple wash down and leather off is all that is required fortnightly to keep the car looking tip top and the shine seems to have lasted forever. The hour
or so weekly clean has now been reduced to fortnightly which is a great result.
Interested in having your Morgan finished and protected with Pyramid Car Care’s Premium Ceramic Coating? Purchase a bottle and do it yourself or contact Pyramid Car Care by emailing info@pyramidcarcare.co.uk to discuss having your car professionally detailed by the team at Pyramid Car Care or by one of our recommended detailers in your area.
Products featured in this article:
Don’t forget, this was an article by Mog Magazine. You can purchase a printed copy of their latest magazine on eBay or a digital copy on Pocket Mags.
Finally a special thank you to Matti Rogers and the team at Mog Magazine for writing this article, Luke Dillon for the photography and to our customer Dave for lending the Aero 8 for this demonstration.
