Detailing and paint protection in Harrogate, since 2015
About Arclight
Run by the people who do the work. It started on driveways, it now has its own lit, heated unit, and it still measures every car before it makes a promise.
How it started
Eleven years, four moves, one rule.
Weekends on driveways
Tom started detailing at weekends while he was still working in the valeting bay of a Harrogate dealership, out of the back of an estate car. He had spent years watching new cars go out with swirls put in by the people meant to be looking after them. Most of the early work came from people who had seen a neighbour's car come back.
Full time, and a van
Inside two years the weekends were booked months ahead, so Tom left the dealership, went full time and bought the van. The maintenance round he started that year still runs every weekday, and some of the cars on it are the same ones he was washing in 2017.
The unit at Kestrel Court
Correction and coating need controlled light and clean air, and a drive gives you neither. Taking the unit at Kestrel Court meant turning work away for the best part of a year while the lighting, heating and air filtration went in. It was the right call: film and coatings are now nearly all of what we do.
Today
A team of three, more than 1,400 cars corrected, coated or filmed, and a waiting list most months. The rule is the same one Tom started with: measure the paint first, and tell people the truth about what it needs, even when the truth is a smaller job.
Why the unit matters
Most detailing is a fight against light, dust and cold.
Light
Ceiling bars and handheld inspection lamps set to daylight colour temperature, so swirls, haze and holograms show up in the bay exactly as they would in the sun. Yellow workshop light hides defects, which is how a car can leave a garage looking perfect and look terrible in the first sunny car park.
Air
Filtered air, a sealed floor and a bay that stays shut while film or a coating is going on. One speck of grit trapped under film, or caught in a coating while it levels, is there for years. On a drive in Harrogate you are fighting pollen, leaves and passing traffic; in the bay we are not.
Heat
The bay is heated all year. Film settles and coatings cure properly only within a set temperature range, and most coatings need hours dry before they meet rain. In a Yorkshire winter a drive cannot give you either, which is why coated cars stay with us overnight.
Your car while it is with us
A correction and coating can mean two or three nights with us, and film on a full car can mean five. That is a long time to leave something you care about with anyone, so this is exactly how we look after it.
- Locked in overnightEvery car at the unit is inside the bay behind the roller door, never left on the forecourt.
- Alarmed and watchedThe unit is alarmed, and recorded cameras cover the bay and the forecourt around the clock.
- Keys in a safeKeys go into a locked safe the moment the car is booked in, and come out only to move it.
- Insured while it is hereOur motor trade policy covers your car while it is in our care, on the road or in the bay.
Three things we will not bend on
The rules the business was started on.
Measure before we promise
We take paint depth readings before we quote for correction or film, so what we tell you is based on your car, not on a guess or a price list. If a panel has been resprayed or is already thin, you hear about it before any work starts.
Say no when no is right
If the paint is too thin to polish safely, or a maintenance detail would do what you need, we say so, even when it costs us the bigger booking. People come back to a business that told them not to spend money.
Show the work
Before and after photos, the paint readings and a care guide go home with every car, so you can see exactly what you paid for and how to keep it that way. Nothing we do should need taking on trust.
Who looks after your car
Three people. You will meet at least one of them.
What drivers say
Live Google reviews, straight from our own profile.
Weekly maintenance round. The car never looks dirty now.
Front film on the GT3, edges wrapped. Can't find a seam.
Brought a tired classic back to deep gloss. Worth every hour.
Come and see the unit
Bring the car, see the bay, and we will put the lights and the gauge on your paint before we talk prices. It takes twenty minutes and there is no charge.