Paint Correction | Kokomo IN
What Is It?
Previously referred to as “buffing,” paint correction refers to the process of using a new age, top of the line, dual action polishing machine to polish away as many defects from the vehicle’s clear coat as possible. Generally speaking, here’s how it works…
Since swirls and scratches in the clear coat CANNOT simply be “filled in,” the area on top of, and around the scratch must be cut down. Think of it like a rough sawn table top that gets sanded down to create a super smooth finish to the naked eye. This is the same concept, but instead of using a sander and sand paper, we’re using a polishing machine, a polishing pad, and an abrasive polish. Depending on the thickness of a particular vehicle’s clear coat, how badly the clear coat is damaged, and how far the client wants to correct it, will determine how many steps will be involved. Now that you have a general idea of what paint correction is, you can click the button below to get pricing, or you can scroll down to learn more about what the different paint correction steps entail!
Paint Correction Steps
Paint correction can be anywhere between 1 and 3 stages depending on the variables previously explained in the last section. Generally speaking, the 3 main stages consist of using a heavy cutting polish, a medium cutting polish, and a mild finishing polish. Most of the vehicles we come across only require 1 to 2 stages, but the option for that 3rd stage is always there just incase. So to make it easy for ourselves and for the client, we like to break it down into 2 main categories, paint enhancement and actual paint correction.
Paint Enhancement is when we just need to perform 1 stage, using our mild finishing polish and a soft foam cutting pad to “enhance” the paint. This process will remove some of the light surface level scratches & swirls and leave behind an unbelievable glossy finish. Depending on the vehicle’s age, along with some other variables, many clients are happy with this one step. However, some clients want to go a little deeper and remove even more swirls and scratches. That’s where actual paint correction comes in…
Paint Correction is what we refer to as anything beyond that one stage paint enhancement. If we feel like the one stage enhancement will still leave behind several random isolated deeper swirls and scratches, we will move into a 2 stage, and rarely, a 3 stage paint correction process to fix some of those deeper, more visible scratches.
Keep in mind, in this process, we are essentially “sanding” and removing a layer of the vehicle’s clear coat down to the bottom of the deepest scratch. With that said, we do not want to remove too much of that important, protective clear coat. Some scratches can reach rather deep into the clear coat, leaving us to have a conversation with the client to come up with an educated and mutual decision on how deep we want to correct. Occasionally, a scratch will be deep enough to reach all the way through the clear coat and into the actual paint, primer, or even the bare metal of that panel. In that case, the scratch cannot be corrected and will require the re-painting of that particular panel in order to make it go away.
Either way, by the end of the paint enhancement/correction process, your vehicle’s paint will look better than it ever has, with an unbelievable glossy, wet look!