Does Your Car Have RIDS? How To Fix Random Isolated Deep Scratches

How To Get Rid of RIDS (Random Isolated Deep Scratches)

We work on all shapes and sizes of vehicles, doing a variety of services. One item we love doing is Paint Correction, a term used by auto detailers to describe the process of restoring the paintwork of a vehicle. This involves fixing paint imperfections, hazing, swirl marks, etching, acid rain marks, buffer trails, fine scratches and RIDS, or Random Isolated Deep Scratches.

Many owners may not even know whether their vehicle requires any correction services. At first glance, a car may appear glossy and free of defects. Upon further inspection, however, there can be more than meets the eye. Below is a Mercedes we recently completed paint correction on. Shining a light directly onto the hood showed a number of problems:

So while a car can look glossy, it may not even be shining at it’s highest level. Enough scratches can dim the glossiness factor of the paint. The layers of your car’s exterior consist of a clear coat, a paint base coat and a primer coat. The majority of the time, the scratches are on the top layer (clear coat) and therefore haven’t actually damaged your paint yet. Over time, however, the clear coat scratches will continue to wear down until it reaches your paint base coat:

As seen in the below image, fixing these scratches and swirls can make a huge difference in the appearance and gloss of your vehicle. Our trained professionals know everything there is to know when it comes to paint correction and removing paint defects to allow your vehicle's true color to shine through, scratch-free!

Does your car have scratches impacting the look and shine? Schedule a free estimate at our Arlington location by using the button below or give us a call at 202-380-7100. Let’s see how we can bring back your car's true shining potential!