Paint correction

[Dalek]

So what is this ‘paint correction’ I keep hearing about?
How does it work and what is involved? Is it worth it on 20 year old paint? Will it help with faded paint? Is it expensive and how long does it last?
Has anyone on here had it done and was it worth it?
As you can see, I know nothing about it but I’m sure someone on here does.

 

[GazHyde]

Moved this to the beauty parlour so it's taken a bit more seriously.

Had paint correction on a couple of my Zeds and my TT is screaming out for it right now. It obviously depends on how your paint is currently as to the difference it will make for yours!

 

[mrscalex]

Moved this to the beauty parlour so it's taken a bit more seriously.

Had paint correction on a couple of my Zeds and my TT is screaming out for it right now. It obviously depends on how your paint is currently as to the difference it will make for yours!

I’ll have ago at explaining then as the laughs have been halted and you’ve not actually said

It’s removing faults from the top most layer of paint on a car which in most cases is the lacquer.

Swirls, scratches & oxidisation being some of the most likely.

It could range from a polish with a machine polisher. I just did quite a bit of this on my brother’s 1 Series recently. In this case acid damage from bird poo mainly.

To removing in relative terms significant amounts of lacquer to eliminate deeper scratches. I’ve done this too on a Z3 that had rubbing damage from a cover. I used abrasive paper at 1500>2000>3000 grade. Then machine polish.

It has its risks doing yourself. At a detailers/body shop prices start from around £200 but that would only cover a certain time with the mechanical polisher (MOP). They would also have meters to make sure they don’t remove too much lacquer if they need to do something more full on with abrasive paper. More money of course. I’m sure you could spend £500+ on a high class detail.

 

[andyglym]

As an example of what a detailing specialist would do/charge

http://www.mpautodetailing.co.uk/detailing_services.html

You could do it yourself but it is an involved process. You need to wash the car thoroughly then apply some contaminant remover to each panel then wash of, clay bar it (this ensures that all fine contaminants are removed) then give it a MOP as stated. There are different grade compounds for light to severe swirls/fading etc. The MOPs are colour coded to the compound for ease of identification. Course MOP (if required) working your way to a fine MOP for shine. Polish with your chosen product using good quality applicator then lock in with a good quality wax. Time and prep are key. I'd get an old panel from a scrappy to practice on first. Loads of YouTube vids on kit and process. Allow 2 days if doing yourself, in my view, taking your time one panel at a time, if not, as said, circa £500 for a good paint correction from a professional detailer.

Edit: The difference will be night and day and if decontaminated, polished/waxed regularly it'll last for years

 

[billz]

If you are going to do paint correction you will need to check the paint depth to determine the amount of lacquer you have to play with. This will be harder to do if you have had a respray.
If you have chips then no amount of correction will help without using paint to fill up the chips you will also need to blend these in to the original paint.
If it is just scratches and swirls then you will need to probably use a sharp abrasive polish followed by the stage 2 polish before finishing off with a final polish. If you are going to attempt this then you will need a Rotary polisher, as a DA will not give you the best results you will also need various pads and a full set of polishes from abrasive to very fine, if you have to remove scratches then you will need to rub it back so long as the scratches are not too deep.
If doing a full correction then go to the sets of polishes designed for this purpose. I would not use Maguires, AG or poor boys.
When i have carried out machine polishing i use either Menzerna or 3M polishes but there are quite a number of different brands.

 

[billz]

So what is this ‘paint correction’ I keep hearing about?
How does it work and what is involved? Is it worth it on 20 year old paint? Will it help with faded paint? Is it expensive and how long does it last?
Has anyone on here had it done and was it worth it?
As you can see, I know nothing about it but I’m sure someone on here does.

Explained in my first post of basically what it is and what you need.
Is it worth it on 20 year old paint. Most definitely
Will it help with faded paint. Usually
Is it expensive. Yes it can be. doing it yourself requires Rotary Machine Polisher, Pads, Compounds masking tape a good high powered torch to check the swirls, really good polishing cloths and also panel wipes, this is on top of the washing and claying
If getting it done professionally probable at least £500 and could be upto 1k
how long does it last. Depends how you wash and polish the car

 

[Dalek]

My car is a fairly light colour (Pistachio) and I thought that maybe the final finish would not be as successful as it would be on a dark colour.
Has anyone had this done professionally and how was the outcome?

 

[billz]

I had mine done professionally and it highlighted how bad the respray i had done a few years ago was. Looked a lot better. If it is just fading and swirls you have i would bank on around a couple of hundred quid for a polisher and the rest of the kit. You will need to do it in an enclosed environment to prevent any grit landing on the car as you polish or you could make it worse. Time wise you will need a couple of hours on each panel and around 3 hours for the bonnet.
When i did a full machine corrective polish it took me around 16 hours and that just got it to a reasonable condition so you can see why professionals charge so much. Usually takes 3 to 5 days depending how bad the paint is

 

[ted whitehall]

So what is this ‘paint correction’ I keep hearing about?
How does it work and what is involved? Is it worth it on 20 year old paint? Will it help with faded paint? Is it expensive and how long does it last?
Has anyone on here had it done and was it worth it?
As you can see, I know nothing about it but I’m sure someone on here does.

As a professional Detailer, I would always say its worth doing, the level of correction is down to the car owner, ranging from swirl removal upto full paint correction and even to show winning standards but allof this costs money, as you can imagine it is a very labour intensive job, I would not let anyone offer to polish your car if they do not have a paint depth meter, there are a lot of detailers popping up that have started as hobbyists and do not have any previous experience with car paint, I have many videos on youtube under my name ted whitehall and some of them have explanations of what is involved, hope this will help your decision.

 

[Dalek]

As a professional Detailer, I would always say its worth doing, the level of correction is down to the car owner, ranging from swirl removal upto full paint correction and even to show winning standards but allof this costs money, as you can imagine it is a very labour intensive job, I would not let anyone offer to polish your car if they do not have a paint depth meter, there are a lot of detailers popping up that have started as hobbyists and do not have any previous experience with car paint, I have many videos on youtube under my name ted whitehall and some of them have explanations of what is involved, hope this will help your decision.

Thank you Ted, that was very informative. Just what I was looking for.

 

[Nodzed]

So what is this ‘paint correction’ I keep hearing about?
How does it work and what is involved? Is it worth it on 20 year old paint? Will it help with faded paint? Is it expensive and how long does it last?
Has anyone on here had it done and was it worth it?
As you can see, I know nothing about it but I’m sure someone on here does.

I had my first Z3 (Montreal Blue) done professionally, The paint was not good, scratches, badly swirled etc. I wasn't expecting much but it came back looking like a new car, what these guys can achieve is incredible. But as said go to a credible experienced detailer.

Pic of the car after paint correction

 

[Dalek]

I had my first Z3 (Montreal Blue) done professionally, The paint was not good, scratches, badly swirled etc. I wasn't expecting much but it came back looking like a new car, what these guys can achieve is incredible. But as said go to a credible experienced detailer.

Pic of the car after paint correction

View attachment 147887

That does look amazing. Might have to give this a go on mine.