Paint Correction Murfreesboro, TN | What Is The Purpose?

Now that the car paint has been completely cleaned and stripped in preparation for the ceramic coating application, it’s time to level out the clear coat and remove some scratches! Because ceramic coatings are the most durable form of long-term paint protection that exists in the detailing world, any little imperfection that is in the paint is there to stay as soon as the coating is applied. Here in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, we get rain, snow, ice, hail, tornadoes, pollen, bugs, and pretty much anything else you can think of that would damage car paint! For that reason, we must go through a paint correction stage prior to the ceramic coating application to remove paint imperfections and create a smooth surface with which the ceramic coating can bond. There are 2 major types of paint correction: Paint Enhancement & Paint Correction.

What is Paint Enhancement

To oversimplify, paint enhancement is a less extreme form of paint correction; it is not as deep and aggressive as paint correction. We simply are enhancing the car’s paint and making the visual appeal look better. When we perform paint enhancement, we are telling the customer what paint imperfections WILL be fixed, and what imperfections WILL NOT be fixed. Paint enhancement is the most common type of correction we do! Why is that? Well, most customers don’t care about the tiny imperfections that they really can’t see anyway, and they are concerned most with getting that ceramic coating on!

What is Paint Correction

Paint correction is nothing more than more aggressive paint enhancement. Paint correction is more about correcting the deep imperfections in the car paint that NEED to be corrected and can only be done through more aggressive measures. When we are dealing with a vehicle whose paint is REALLY DAMAGED, or a client who has a detailed eye, we will perform paint correction to remove the maximum amount of scratches, swirls, etchings, and paint imperfections as possible. Once again, this is necessary not only for visual appeal but to create a smooth surface with which the ceramic coating can bond to the paint.

What Happens During Paint Correction?

First off, a clear coat serves as a protective barrier and a visual appeal for our car's paint. Although a clear coat serves as a protective barrier, it’s a relatively thin substrate, resin, or thin substance. So you might ask, “How thick is the clear coat?” We like to use the analogy to that of the cellophane wrapper on the outside of a cigarette box. It is about that thick. It’s very very thin. So although on a diagram it looks as if there is a lot of clear coat, the truth is, we don’t. And so what that means is, we don’t have a lot of protection for the outside of our vehicle when it comes to what we need to correct. 

So, to simplify this entire process, paint correction is an auto detailing procedure that our paint correction specialist performs in order to remove swirl marks, minor scratches, hazing, marring, and other imperfections on the vehicle’s clear coat. We do this by using specialized machines, such as an electric polisher, various polishing pads, and polishing compounds to safely remove microscopic layers of clear coat until we have successfully leveled the surface again. With that in mind, not every vehicle is predisposed to the same imperfections and damages. This is why paint correction is different from other parts of the detailing industry. Paint restoration and enhancement requires a lot of knowledge, understanding, and context on our part, because we have to make the decisions as a specialist in order to give our clients the best opportunity cost method when restoring car paint, all the while still giving our clients the results they want while preserving as much of the car’s clear coat to create the perfect bond for a nano-ceramic coating.