Paint Correction Techniques

Common defects in automotive paintwork include



'Swirl marks' which consist of fine scratches in circular and/or spider web type patterns in the paintwork. These are generally caused by rollover type car washes and /or grit trapped between the cars paint and a traditional sponge during normal washing. These detract from the shine by refracting light rather than reflecting it. These are often the cause of dull paintwork as the full gloss and shine cannot be appreciated. These fine scratches tend to only show up in bright sunlight or bright artificial light. This is due to the fact that the scratches are so fine they only appear in the uppermost surface of the cars paintwork enabling them to be safely removed by careful abrasive polishing returning the shine to your cars paintwork.


Holograms are another often found paint defect consisting of micro marring in the paints surface. The micro marring produces a stereoscopic image producing an almost 3d effect on the paints surface. These holograms often resemble cloud like formations that appear to 'float' just above the paint surface. These can be removed by careful polishing of the affected areas.


Scratches in the paintwork can be reduced or removed by careful machine polishing. As a general rule of thumb if you can catch a fingernail in a scratch then it cannot be fully removed by machine polishing alone. As can be seen by the photo to the left the appearance of these scratches can however be reduced to good effect. Full removal would require filling the scratch with paint, wet sanding and then re polishing the area to restore the shine.


Oxidation happens to paintwork over a period of time. You've no doubt seen 'pink' dull paintwork on a car that used to be red. This is due to the 'bleaching' effect of UV rays in sunlight. This can be corrected by using a suitable paint cleaner and machine polisher to remove the oxidation and return the shine. The paintwork can then be sealed with products containing UV blockers to help preserve the shine.

Even the most badly oxidised of cars can be transformed. This Porsche 928 wasn't even pink it had turned white! After some careful machine polishing it was returned to its former glory at a loss of 6-8 microns in paint thickness out of a total of 130.


Buffer trails are evidence of a poor machine polish - usually by an inexperienced rotary operator. Typicaly seen after cars have been polished by bodyshops or dealerships where too harsh a compound has been used. These can be removed by repolishing with a finer compound and/or polish.


Stone Chips can be touched in with a touch up paint to form a 'blob'.  The blob can then be sanded back with wet and dry papers and the resulting haze polished out

Is machine polishing safe?
Using state of the art paint thickness gauges that can measure in 1000ths of a millimetre; paintwork thickness can be measured so that only a minimal amount is removed to ensure the integrity of paintwork.
Why bother with all this when the car will only get dirty again tomorrow?
Paint correction techniques are designed to last. Defects are not merely 'filled' with glazes but actually physically removed. The paintwork is then sealed so the next time the vehicle is washed the paint will look just as good, again and again.