Paint Correction

One of our most frequently asked questions; what is paint correction?

Well let’s start at the beginning. - paint damage. I’ll list three of what I consider to be the main types, that I see day-to-day.

The most common type is ‘swirl marks’, which are collections of tiny scratches that look like cobwebs within your paintwork. If you’re anything like I was back in the early days when I used to wash my dads car for pocket money on a Sunday, you’ve probably been trying to wash these cobwebs out and are getting frustrated that the more you scrub the worse they get! haha we’ve all been there! Unfortunately this type of damage is caused solely by poor washing/maintenance practice, which is why this type of damage is sometimes referred to as ‘wash marring’.

Swirl marks surround the light source on the paintwork of this Porsche 911 GT3

Another type of damage I often see is ‘holograms’ or ‘buffer trails’. These only reveal themselves in direct sunlight, or under a light source usually in the 3500-5500k range. I sometimes think they look like lightening strikes that dissipate from the light source when looking at the paintwork, and they’re caused by poor machine polishing, typically when the pad/polish doesn’t match the paint type or if the polish hasn’t been broken down sufficiently. It’s quite a technical process to machine polish, so I wont go into detail here as you’ll either nod off, or be left with more questions than answers… so lets save that discussion for another blog.

Buffer trails on the upper rear quarter panel of a Ferrari 488GTB

Then we have random deep scratches, sometimes referred to as RDS, which are a bit more sinister as some of these actually pass through your paintwork down to the metal (or plastic / carbon fibre etc). In my experience these are caused by something as innocent as a tiny bit of grit caught up in your wash media, contamination on a drying towel, or they’ve been deliberately caused by some mindless Herbert gouging a key into your paintwork.

Deep scratches on the rear wing of a Ferrari F12 Onyx

So what’s the answer to the above? paint correction.

But what is it? It’s the systematic removal of paint damage via machine polishing. By definition, at least. But that doesn’t mean much to the layman. Basically, think of your paint as being the skin on the car, and like your skin it can be exfoliated. The process of polishing is abrading away the upper most layer of the paintwork to reveal fresh paint underneath - and in the interests of keeping it simple, the upper most layer of modern paintwork is ‘clearcoat’ as that’s the only workable layer when machine polishing. By doing this we are re-levelling the clearcoat, usually by 3-5 microns, which sounds dramatic but actually 1 micron = 1/1000th of a millimeter. The majority of paint damage is within 2-3 microns, so we are removing a really minimal amount when you consider the average amount of clearcoat on a car is around 50-60 microns. Those epic 50/50 pictures you see is the reduction of one side by a few microns, and what a difference it can make! So before you book your car in for a costly re-spray, consider a paint correction instead, as it’s entirely likely that a good detailer would be able to rectify the damage, at a fraction of the cost.. and it’ll probably look better, too!!

Flawless paint finish on a Porsche 911 Turbo following my Paint Correction treatment