What is Paint Correction?
Paint correction is an industry term that we as professional car detailers use to describe the labor intensive process of decontaminating, restoring, and rejuvenating the existing paintwork of a vehicle. Surface imperfections may also include bird dropping etching, acid rain etching, holograms and polishing machine buffer trails from unqualified and incorrect car wash operatives.
Car wash operatives, especially those at vehicle dealerships, use filler-based products to polish the paint surface of a vehicle. These fillers only temporarily “mask” the surface imperfections within the paint of the vehicle. Paint correction is the process of removing small amounts of clear coat or paint with the use of abrasive polishes. This levels out the vehicle’s painted surface. This process usually takes about 30 to 90 minutes per body panel, depending on how severe the surface imperfections are.
When beginning a paint correction, a thorough decontaminating wash and clay bar treatment is first performed. This is to remove any bonded surface contaminants such as tar spots and industrial fallout. It is essential to remove these contaminants before the correction process. Not taking this step increases the risk that they will get caught in the pad when polishing! This then may inflict additional damage onto the painted surface of the vehicle.
Our paint correction services require a minimum of 10 hours to level and polish the paint of your vehicle. We then seal the paint with a polymer sealant. For an additional fee, we can upgrade your vehicle to a ceramic coating. A polymer can give your vehicle up to 18 months of protection while a ceramic coating can go several years!
If you have additional questions or would like to schedule an inspection for your vehicle, please give us a call at 661-200-0710 and one of our IDA certified techs will be happy to go over your vehicle’s needs!