Paint correction intro. An illustrative way of understanding auto finish imperfection.
In this blog we are going to cover a diverse topic on paint correction. Understanding your vehicle's paint , Primer and Clear coat is critical in order to achieve the best and most efficient paint correction result, as well as a decontamination, scratch removal, and paint protection process.
At the very beginning, your car is at the bare metal/ grey body material. First, the car is sprayed with a coat of primer to ensure that all surfaces are leveled and ready for the spray paint application which will adhere to the primer. After it has been primed, the second step will be to spray with any color paint, the vehicle will look matte as shown in the photo bellow in any color paint. Just like when you paint your home, at this stage there will be no glossy reflection from the vehicle, as paint itself does not reflect light.
After paint:
The next paint step will be the clear coat application. The clear coat protects the paint of the vehicle from damage and adds a nice gloss and shine to the finish. The clear coat is professionally applied with a spray, just like the spray paint, but it is a transparent coat. The clear coat, as shown bellow, is the final painting process before your vehicle leave for the road. Now, it is your job to ensure that the clear coat stays looking glossy by washing your vehicle properly and applying a good coat of wax regularly. Now you will understand how to repair paint imperfection, but first we will briefly talk about where the following paint imperfection lays in the coat of your vehicle. Thus being, buffer marks, Water spots, swirl marks, and light to deep scratches.
After clear-coat:
Understanding imperfections.
Now that you understand the three coats that are on top of your vehicle's body material, we will jump to the unfortunate damages that form with daily use or improper auto wash and car wash machine. See on the chart bellow a detailed representation of where the paint damage lays on the finish, and the correction process.
Paint Correction
Following The above chart, swirl marks are tinny scratches on the very surface of the Clear Coat that looks like a circular scratch pattern. Although they are close to the surface, because light will reflect against the scratches, swirl marks can neglect the surface of any vehicle's original reflection making it look, well, ugly. It is crucial to avoid damaging your car from any scratches by washing your vehicle properly, and by also making sure your vehicle has a nice coat of wax to protect the Clear-Coat from any damage. This will save you money from an expensive paint correction job. Read more on how to take care of your car while avoiding paint damage.
Water Acid/spots, and other scratches are more noticeable because they are deeper in the clear coat, and sometimes they can be so deep to pass the Clear coat and reach the color paint or Base Coat of your car.
Swirl Marks, water spots/ Acid, and most scratches can be fixed by a complex method; Buffing. Compound/ Polish is what is necessary to correct the finish from many of those damages. To dive a little deeper into correction, analyze the chart above looking at the surface Clear Coat. As you can see, there are many deep scratches in the clear coat area, not in the Paint/ Base Coat of the vehicle. Those scratches and damages that lays on the clear coat can be corrected by either buffing your vehicle with a correction compound or polish product, or for the deeper scratches in the clear coat, by wet sanding. The sanding or buffing action of the machine and product will cut a microscopic amount of your car finish/ Clear Coat, until the scratches disappear, blending in with the surrounding areas. After that is done, you will have a nice, scratch-free finish.
Since you ought to always have Clear Coat on the surface of your car, you do not want to cut/remove all of its coat, so for deeper scratches that has gone through the clear coat, to the Base Coat/ Paint, another process is required in order to fix them which is by re-applying paint or clear coat on that single area.
I hope you were able to understand where the scratches lays on the surface of your vehicle. If you would like to learn more about correcting your vehicle from imperfection, follow our blog or our Facebook page.
We are a Mobile Detailing company located in Richmond, Virginia servicing its surrounding areas for many years. If you like to schedule an appointment with us, click on our website at: http://www.wingsmobiledetailing.com/
