This black 2012 Infiniti G37 came through the shop back in November 2025, and it is still one of my favorite cars to have worked on. Lowered, aftermarket wheels, vented hood, and an owner here in Panama City who clearly cares about it. The catch with a car like this is the paint. Black paint on a fourteen-year-old car shows every swirl, every water spot, and every wash scratch it has ever picked up.
Why Older Black Paint Needs Correction First
A lot of people ask if they can just put a ceramic coating on and skip the polishing. On a newer car with clean paint, sometimes. On a car like this, no. A coating locks in whatever is underneath it, so if you coat over swirls and haze you just get very well-protected swirls and haze. That is why this job started with a two-step paint correction. The first step is a heavier compound that cuts the deeper marks out of the clear coat, and the second step is a finer polish that refines the surface and brings back the depth and clarity black paint is supposed to have.
The Work
Like every coating job here, it started with a careful hand wash and a full decontamination to pull the embedded grit and iron out of the paint. Then the two-step correction, panel by panel, checking the work under the lights as I went. Once the paint was where I wanted it, the surface got wiped down to remove any polishing oils so the ceramic coating could bond straight to the clear coat. The coating went on the whole car, and then it sat while it cured. I do every job myself, start to finish, so nothing gets rushed and nothing gets skipped.
The Result
We took the finished car down to the marina at golden hour, and the photos tell the story. The reflections in the doors are sharp instead of hazy, the black looks deep and wet, and the whole car reads like it just came off the lot. Beyond the looks, the coating means the paint is now sitting under a hard, slick layer that sheds water, releases bugs and bird droppings, and stands up to the Gulf Coast sun and salt air a lot better than bare clear coat ever could. Washes get easier and the gloss holds.
If you have an older car with black or dark paint here in Panama City and it has lost that depth, this is the fix. Correct the paint first, then protect it. Take a look at our ceramic coating options or reach out and tell me about your car.