This Black Ford XR6 unfortunately suffered from overspray from a nearby factory and severe swirl marks from years of incorrect car washing. It once had a nice deep gloss but years of neglect had this car looking dull, lifeless and covered in swirl marks and scratches.

A Stage 2 Paint Correction was performed on this car over a total of 6 hours, an hour and a half was spent clay barring the car for overspray removal, clay bars are like play dough and are rubbed over the surface with a lubricant, clay barring removes any contamination embedded on the paint work to give it a smooth as glass feel before polishing the paint work.

After the clay barring was complete around 4.5hrs was spent machine polishing the paint work, this involves using a premium cutting polish and polishing pad to remove the heavier swirl marks and scratches, once the heavier swirls and scratches are removed a finer polish and finishing pad are used to restore a deep gloss to the paint work, the end result leaves the paint work looking flawless.

Unfortunately like a lot of cars this near new black Toyota Corolla has fallen victim of the car wash café and their poor car washing techniques, after several trips to the car wash café the owner has noticed the paint no longer looks as good as it once did and is now covered in swirl marks and light scratches and lost its gloss.

This Stage 2 Paint Correction was performed at a total of 7 hours work. Machine Polishing to remove any imperfections in the paint work is a lengthy process and produces far better results then a quick cut n polish performed by most car detailers or car wash café’s, a proper Machine Polish is not something that can be done within an hour or two, this process involves Clay Barring the paint work to remove any contaminants then a Two Stage Machine Polish to remove any imperfections in the paint work and bring it back to a flawless high gloss finish, the end result is simply amazing.

Unfortunetly like most red cars, especially earlier models with single stage paint over time they tend to become dull and life less and require a good polish/wax every few months to maintain their appearance not just a quick wash every few weeks, this Honda Integra is a perfect example.

A Stage 2 Paint Correction (Machine Polish) was done to bring the gloss and colour back, a service like this on a vehicle in this condition can be expected to take up to 6-8 hours using different polishing pads and polishes to restore the dull paintwork back to a high gloss finish without leaving buffer trails like inexperienced car detailers.

Here at Superior Shine Mobile Car Detailing we offer a unique Paint Correction service, unlike many detailers and car wash cafe’s that advertise a cheap “Cut n Polish” we want our customers to understand the time and skill it takes to get a flawless finish on your paint, whilst there is many different names you can call it such as Buff, Machine Polish, Cut Back, Cut n Polish we prefer to use the term Paint Correction as our polishing service is unique.

Most detailers and car wash cafe’s can do a Machine Cut n Polish usually within an hour, however most of these detailers leave the paint looking much worse then it did before they started, leaving whats called Holograms or Buffer Trails from using a Pad or Polish that is too agressive and spining the machine to fast, which results in burning the paint work and leaving a hologram effect, this can be rectified with a finer polish & pad combo however most operators will skip this step as they cannot see the holograms unless the vehicle is in direct sunlight however the car may look great with a deep reflection in the shade.

How is the Paint Corrected?
The paint is machine polished with a combination of compounds, polishes and buffing pads. Using the correct products and technique is critical in achieving perfect results. Not all paint works are the same, there are many paint variations that car manufactures use which can make it challanging to select the right combination polish & pad as some finishes may be hard or soft or pose other problems like sticky-ness, repaired panels can also change things as it is most likely a different brand paint used and applied differently to the factory finish.

How much paint is there to correct?
Most factory paint finishes have anywhere from 80-200 microns of paint thickness. Lets say your car has 140 microns, the interesting part is 1000 microns equals 1mm so the overall thickness of your paintwork is most likely around 0.14mm. 140 microns is the overall thickness including the undercoat, colour coat and clear coat. As you can only polish the clear coat this leaves us with around 0.04mm of clear coat to polish, this is why there is no room for error when machine polishing. Alot of detailers and car wash cafe’s will start hacking into your paint with the incorrect polish & pad and do more damage to your paint work then there was to start with. This is why you should expect to pay good money for quality workmanship.

Before & After:

 

More Information: http://www.superiorshine.com.au/paint-correction.html