Polishing & Paint Correction. What’s the difference?
Paint correction: The art and science of correcting paint through the use of different polishing techniques. Let’s elaborate.
Even a fresh, brand new paint job will have flaws in it. Flaws that range from “orange peel”. to paint nibs, to sanding marks left in the finish from the factory finishing work, and quite a few other various issues. Brand new paint jobs are not immune from having issues and can still require a tremendous amount of corrective paint work to bring out it’s clarity, deepen the gloss, and definition in the finish. Throw in swirlmarks, additional scratches, and some other blemishes from being improperly washed and cared for prior to being purchased, and it becomes fairly apparent why you could use a very good detailer in your corner!
Paint correction: The art and science of correcting paint through the use of different polishing techniques. Let’s elaborate.
Even a fresh, brand new paint job will have flaws in it. Flaws that range from “orange peel”, to paint nibs, to sanding marks left in the finish from the factory finishing work, and quite a few other various issues. Brand new paint jobs are not immune from having issues and can still require a tremendous amount of corrective work to bring out its clarity, and deepen the gloss and definition in the finish. Throw in swirlmarks, additional scratches, and some other blemishes from being improperly washed and cared for prior to being purchased, and it becomes fairly apparent why you could use a very good detailer in your corner!
Good, professional polishing and paint correction work can bring just about any vehicle back to life. We are not at all limited to bringing out a lot of “wow-factor” in new vehicles that would seemingly require “very little work”. We can take a vehicle that has been neglected, or that is starting to show it’s age a little bit, and bring it back to a “better than new” condition. However, since polishing removes microscopic levels of paint to achieve correction (similar to how imperfections are removed from wood thru sanding), the results can vary. In our experience, most vehicles can benefit from just any level of polishing and still have that “perfect” finish hidden under all those swirlmarks.
A good detailer who is adept at paint correction, will be able to restore your vehicles finish for you and then some, but buyer beware. A poor detailer can wreak absolute havoc on your vehicles finish and can sometimes leave your vehicle in worse shape than when they started. That can result in even more costly corrective work to fix. We recommend you find yourself a proven, experienced detailer, with years of experience practicing paint correction, that you are comfortable working with. When paint correction work is done well, it’s simply ridiculous how beautiful your vehicle can look. Take it a step further and lock the new finish in with Kenzo by igl coatings, or one of our other ceramic coatings, and enjoy that finished look for years to come! But I digress.
Ok, so what’s the difference between polishing and paint correction? Simply put there is no difference. Polishing is paint correction and paint correction is polishing. Often, when detailers talk about polishing and paint correction however, we tend to draw a line between what we refer to as “Enhancement Polishing”, and the more involved and advanced practice of removing and reducing blemishes (minor to severe) we refer to as “Paint Correction”. They are basically two sides of the same coin in this regard and often come with even further levels of “done-ness” within each other as well, to further blur the lines.
For example, you can have a very quick enhancement polish to simply shine up some old dull paint with very little focus, if any, on reducing blemishes. You can also spend a little more time performing an enhancement polish and reduce the blemishes slightly and produce a more even, deeper shine. On the flip side we can have what some refer to as a “Single Step” paint correction or a “Multi-Step” paint correction. The main difference being the goal of how much of the defects we are going to work towards reducing and removing. Simply put, paint corrective polishing is what we do to reduce and remove blemishes, in order to produce an even, very deep finish in your vehicles paint. The amount of time spent polishing, plus the techniques and products used, will determine how much correction is achieved, as well as the final results in the vehicles finish.
We hope this helps you understand a little more about the differences in how these terms are used in the industry. Talk with your detailer about your goals. A good, professional detailer should be able to discuss your options and find a way to match his or her services to suit your needs.
Thank you for reading our blog. As always, if you have any comments or questions, please feel free to reach out anytime. We are real people dedicated to helping other real people and we would love to hear from you!
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