Paint Correction: What Is It?

By now you have probably heard us mention our paint protective coatings like Ceramic Pro or Opti-Coat Pro. These coatings add shine and protection to your paint, glass, wheels, plastics and more. However, you may not be familiar with the process in applying these Capitol Shine products. It all starts with figuring out if your vehicle requires any paint correction. If there are any imperfections in the the paint, such as scratch or swirl marks, a protective coating would lock them in, so these imperfections need to first be fixed.Let's Start with Paint DefectsThe truth is, 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. Consider the Dodge Challenger in the above picture that recently received Capitol Shine's Ceramic Pro.The car was purchased used from a Dodge dealership in Maryland. It looked clean and glossy until the owner inspected it more. What was found were tiny hairline scratches covering the entirety of the car:These scratches are most likely the result of drive-thru car washes as well as washing with a dirty rag. If you think about it, a dealership's main goal is to move cars, but the problem is that cars always look better clean. Since there are so many vehicles on the lot, many of these dealerships choose the most efficient way to wash cars instead of the RIGHT way. The results are scratches and swirl marks from drive-thru car washes OR from a dirty rag that "washed" a number of cars before the one you purchased. That means all of the dirt, sand, grime and whatever else that was on the prior vehicle clings to the rag and scratches the next car.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, and we don't want that, do we? After all, the purchase of a vehicle is one of the largest investments you will ever make, so retaining the value of this investment is important for many reasons.What Is Paint Correction?Luckily, there are auto-detailers (such as yours truly) who can fix these marks. As explained in a previous article (see here), 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, which is where touch-up paint comes in handy. The trick is fixing the scratches before this happens.As can be seen in the above pictures, fixing these scratches and swirls can make a huge difference in the appearance and gloss of your vehicle.Here's another before and after shot of the Challenger, see the difference in shine?After Capitol Shine's trained professionals fixed the defects, the Dodge Challenger was ready to receive a protective coating. The owner chose Capitol Shine's Ceramic Pro 9H, which is the hardest paint protection available.If you are unsure whether or not your vehicle requires paint correction services, that's no problem! We can give you a FREE estimate in just 30 minutes. To schedule this estimate, a protective coating like Ceramic Pro or Opti-Coat Pro, or any of our other services, please head over to our scheduling page and make an appointment! Please schedule at least 24 hours in advance to insure time and date.