Labocosmetica in South Africa.
The coatings we put on your paint are made by MA-FRA in Milan and sold only to applicators the manufacturer has trained. We are one of them. This is what each product in the range actually does, and what it will not do.
Who makes it.
Labocosmetica is the professional coating line from MA-FRA, in Baranzate just outside Milan. MA-FRA have been making car care chemistry since 1965 and call the range “the highest expression of Made in Italy applied to car cosmetic”. It is a trade line rather than a retail one. The base coat cannot be bought separately by anybody at any price, which tells you most of what you need to know about how it is meant to be used.
What accredited actually means.
It means the manufacturer has trained us on the range and will supply it to us. That sounds smaller than it is, because a ceramic coating is mostly application. The same bottle, on paint that was not corrected first, in a workshop with dust in the air, gives you a worse result than a decent wax. Accreditation says we know how to use the product. It says nothing about your car. That comes from the nine steps of preparation before the coating leaves the bottle.
The four products.
The hard resin clear base coat, and the first thing on the paint. It bonds as an ultra-fine transparent layer, closes in about seventy minutes without a UV lamp, and is one hundred percent physically repairable — which matters the day the car is machine-polished again. It is not sold on its own — the base coat only leaves the factory to applicators the manufacturer has trained.
The protective layer over BLINDO, and the one that takes the daily beating from rain, road salt and detergent. It cures fast enough that the car goes home the same day. How long it holds depends on which top coat is specified for your paint, so we would rather tell you that at the car than print a number here.
A hydrophobic nano sealant for the windscreen and side glass. The manufacturer rates it water-repellent for up to six months. Full performance comes about eight hours after application, so the car stays with us overnight where the schedule allows.
Trim and Plastic Restorer, for faded exterior plastic, vinyl and rubber. It restores and protects, with UV resistance to slow the fade that Highveld sun causes. Quoted on the car every time, because the condition of the plastic is the whole variable.
Every figure above is the manufacturer’s own. The application is ours, and that is the half that decides what you actually get. What each one costs, by vehicle class.
Book a Labocosmetica application.
A coating will not stop a stone chip. Nothing in a bottle will, at any price, from any brand. What it does is make the surface harder to stain, easier to wash and slower to lose gloss. Tell us the make, model and colour and whether the paint has swirls in it already. Correction is the step that moves the price, so we would rather look at the car than guess. Kyalami, Monday to Friday, 8am to 5pm. Still weighing this up against paint protection film? We put the two side by side.