nate5150

I am old school and the term "paint correction" is new to me. I dumb it down as a multi stage buffing/compound as you work through the clear coat... I have never had a car wrapped or ceramic treated or PPF'd or any of that.


What I do know is that my paint needs some love to remove some swirls and restore since the car is a 2007. Can anyone who has had it done tell me the general ballpark you have paid for a paint correction service? I am not talking about anything beyond it like films or anything, just a full paint correction to bring back the new looking shiny non swirled clear so the paint pops again?

Thanks!!

harveyf

I recently had a new basecoat/clearcoat finish on my 63 Jag Etype "polished". The charge was $900 for 12 hours of work. This was in the Raleigh, NC area, for context.

I would note a few cautions. Modern cars are indeed painted with a basecoat and a clearcoat. Since paint thickness means money to the mfg, they don't lay on anymore clearcoat than they have too. So there is not a whole lot to work with and there is some risk involved. So you want to get someone with a track record. If your person breaks through the clearcoat, there will be a lot of screaming and yelling but I doubt that you will get a new paint job as recompense. My car was painted with double the clearcoat that a typical OEM would apply.

So my guy said he only 'polishes'. First he cleaned the car really well and cleaned the paint with a clay bar. He used a liquid fluid on a wool pad with a Rupes random orbital machine. He said he doesn't remove paint but he spent a lot of time blowing his wool pad out so something was being generated. Whatever, he followed up with a specialty polish and he offered a ceramic coating,, which I declined. It looks really good.

He was adamant that he would not perform any wet sanding, etc. as required to remove orange peel or deeper defects, due to the liability. I respect him for that. So a guy that is going to do wet sanding probably charges more, due to the liabiliity. This kind of work is what I would call "paint correction" and it by all rights should be much more expensive.

And finally, you want to know the history of your car. If it has been polished or corrected previously, I personally would not go back to the well a second time.

I hope that helps.

Stash987

I had mine polished right after buying it a few years ago. I paid 450 for the service, they offered another level beyond that which included wet sanding,
but wasn't needed to take care of the swirl marks and restore to a glassy finish.

Spyder_2011

I do my own paint correction but from what I’ve seen and heard from others it ranges from $450 to $1400 depending on the amount of work needed and the level of expertise of the detailer. There are plenty of shops that offer polishing services but I’d say 70% of them are hacks and you should be careful using them. Many will do more damage than good including burning through edges, generating pigtails and or leaving holograms all over the paint. The lower end shops won’t bother to tape things off and won’t clean up the residue left behind in the door jams etc.

Seek out shops that are recommended by others and look at their work before committing.

sectachrome

+1 on this. I would ask around your local PCA region group and see who people recommend.

XuTVJet

Unless you have a show car, you can save a mountain of money doing this yourself for a few hours of your time and get 90%+ of the results. It think it's bonkers what some shops charge and you'd be hard pressed to tell a huge difference between a shop's work using all sorts of fancy products and "stages" vs just washing the car, removing iron/rust in the paint, clay baring, polishing, and waxing with basic and common products.

- Wash the car, but don't dry it.
- Hit the panels and wheels with an iron removing product. Spray off after a few minutes and then dry the car.
- Take a clay bar and run a hose over the car to keep the panels wet while rubbing the bar over the panels so that the clay doesn't stick.
- Buy a $80 Harbor Freight DA 6" random orbital buffer, swap out of the 6" backing pad for a quality 5 inch hook and loop backing pad, and 5.5" quality orange light cutting pads and then use a light cutting polish and hand buff off with microfiber towels. If you have heavily swirled paint, then use next stage higher cutting compound followed by the light cutting polish.
- Use an easy to apply wax of your preference

Every year this is my process for all my cars. I have have a small two door car done in 3 hours. There is absolutely no need to tape off assuming you remove any polish of black weather stripping within an hour or so and cutting it out of direct sunlight. You won't burn through the paint with a DA random orbital.

Spyder_2011

I do agree that polishing a car can be a DIY project if you take the time to learn the techniques. I do however know that a DA with the right pads and compounds can and will burn through paint and I also know what figuring out the right combination of products and pressure to use to achieve good results without damage isn’t that easy. I’d start by practicing on a car that’s less concerning for your first couple of tries or maybe snag a panel from the junkyard to get a feel for how the equipment works.

Dana R

I've been doing my own compounding/polishing for decades. If you're new to it, use one company's system and you will not burn through the paint. I have an $80 paint thickness gauge that guarantee's it. I don't actually use Griot''s Garage random orbital, but I've given them for presents, and their system is almost foolproof. About $200. When you use the clay bar, use plenty of lubricant. I wouldn't just use plain water. I add "no rinse" car wash to the water for better lubrication. For most polishing jobs I use Meguiar's Ultimate compound. For my black car I follow with Ultimate Polish, but there's marginal improvement. For waxing, I prefer Collinite Insulator Wax. It's a liquid (warm it up first and shake well) that's easy to apply with the random orbital on slow with a red wax pad. Let it dry for an hour or two and buff off with micro fiber towels. The water beading is very impressive, and it will last a long time if you let it completely dry before buffing.

sectachrome

It's not really any different than doing mechanical work on a car. Can "anyone" do it with some basic tools? Sure, I guess. But to do it well takes a lot of time and experience. I've done a lot of detailing and taken courses etc. - it's a major rabbit hole. If you have a passion for it and want to go down that hole, great. Not everyone is interested in DIYing either and that's totally fine too. Having a qualified professional who you trust to work on or detail your car is a wonderful thing sometimes.

XuTVJet

You'd have to try really hard to burn through clearcoat with a random orbital buffer, especially on late model Porsche which has very tough and resilient clearcoat. I've been detailing my own cars since the mid-1990s and have had all sorts of colors including black and never had an issue with clearcoat damage. I suppose if you sat in one area for more than a minute or used a real aggressive polishing compound and pad then you might be able to do some damage. But in most paint detailing cases, all one should need is a lighter cutting compound. If your fingernail gets caught in a scratch, they you'll need a true buffer and that's where you can do some damage if you don't know what you're doing.

nate5150

is that a 987.1 ? What TAIL LIGHTS are those?

XuTVJet

Absolutely true, but some of these detail shops act like they're doing God's work and charging accordingly. With $200 in equipment and products, you can achieve 90%+ of the same result in a few hours vs a shop that says they spend 8+ hours. Assuming of course, your paint just has the typical light damage most every daily driver has.

And don't get me started about all the various paint correction products. It's become ridiculous and so difficult to weave your way through the silliness.

nate5150

Thanks everyone - this forum is a gold mine of knowledge. I am going to DIY the car and avoid the $1,500 to $1,800 I was quoted.

nicetheory

I'm interested in seeing how you do!

nate5150

I spent all day yesterday from 11AM to about 5PM doing external work on the car. I bought a pressure washer (SO HELPFUL!) and did a pre wash, foam soak, wash, rinse. Then I clay bar'd. Then I hit it with some iron remover. Then I dried and took into my garage. Hit it with a 3D ONE compound and URO Fiber 50/50 pads. Finished it all off with an SI02 spray and she looks amazing. I removed about 90% of the swirls and did about 90% of what a "paint correction" would do for the out of pocket cost of the materials that I keep forever. Saved about $1,500 doing it myself. I'll get a pic later when sun is out. Car goes in Tuesday for limo tint.