Paint correction sounds like something is being added to the car. It is the opposite. Polishing removes a very thin layer of clear coat, and everything it can and cannot do follows from that.
How polishing works
Modern paint is built in layers: primer, colour, and a clear coat on top. The gloss you see is the clear coat. When it is flat, light bounces back cleanly and the colour looks deep. When it is covered in fine scratches, light scatters and the paint looks dull.
A scratch is a valley in that top layer. Polishing does not fill the valley. It lowers the surface around it until the valley is gone. A machine polisher, a pad and an abrasive do this a little at a time, panel by panel, under lights strong enough to show what is left.
One stage of polishing, with a fine abrasive, deals with light swirls and haze. Two stages means a firmer cut first, then a finer one to bring the gloss back. Which one a car needs depends on the paint and on what has been done to it.
What comes out
Defects that sit in the top of the clear coat respond well:
- Swirl marks from washing and drying
- Haze and dullness from automatic washes
- Light scratches from hedges, bags and fingernails around door handles
- Water spots and light etching from bird droppings, if they are caught early
- Buffer trails left by an earlier, hurried polish
These make up most of what people dislike about their paint, which is why a corrected car can look so different.
What stays
Run a fingernail gently across a scratch. If the nail catches, the scratch is likely through the clear coat, and polishing cannot remove it. Taking the surface down that far would leave no clear coat at all. We can often soften its edges so it shows less, but it will still be there.
Stone chips are missing paint, so there is nothing to polish. Clear coat that is peeling or has turned chalky has failed, and it needs a body shop, not a detailer. Deep etching can sit below what is safe to remove.
Why we measure first
Clear coat is thin, and it does not grow back. Every correction spends some of it. A car that has been polished several times, or repainted in places, may have much less to spare than it looks.
So we read the paint thickness on every panel before a polisher touches it, and we look hardest at edges and body lines, where paint is thinnest. Sometimes the right answer is to stop short and leave a faint mark in place, because chasing it would cost paint the car will need later.
We will show you those marks at the inspection, before you agree a price. A correction should leave the car looking better and still leave it something to work with next time.