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Dave KG, one of my favorite detailing writers, recently published an article addressing the question of paint correction: Paint Correction--What You Should be Considering! You may find it an instructive read. Here is his conclusion:
I have never achieved nor sought to achieve 100% correction, though I would have like to have removed a higher percentage of swirls than I did the last time I polished Luthien.
What level of correction do you aim for?
100% correction - this seems to be what is aspired to by most who do machine polishing, but just what does this mean for your car's paintwork? Is it really safe to go for? Are there really tenable benefits?
First off, in order to restore the finish of a car to make it stand out from a crowd, attract the eye and restore colour and clarity, you do not need to remove every single little mark! 90% correction of all marks on the paintwork will result in a major turnaround on the car, and this would likely be achieved with the loss of 5um of paint or less... Getting another 5% correction (removal of some of the RDS) may cost you another 5um of paint, and the difference you actually see in practice becomes a lot less pronounced. Shooting towards 100% correction and you may well be looking at very significant paint removal to ensure every RDS, scratch, etching is removed... Now 100% correction is a great thing to claim you have, but in real world terms what has it bought you? There's no enhancement to clarity, gloss, depth - that came at the 90% level. All you achieve is the knowledge that some deeper scratches are also no longer there, and this may well have cost you a large amount of paint thus pulling the integrity of the clearcoat into question along with dramatically reducing the scope for future correction work to be carried out.
Being honest, achieving 100% correction is easy - keep polishing and you'll soon remove enough paint to correct a mark... but sensible correction is what you should be aiming for and should be the top most consderation when it comes to paint removal... how much is sensible to remove, and what correction is sensible to obtain given the car's future life. There's little point in removing 30um of CC on a car to get 100% correction (where 5um gave 95%) if the car is a hard working daily driver which is going to pick up marks again in the near future... not only is the CC integrity pulled into question, there is dramatically reduced scope to remove the marks that the car will inevitably pick up. Whenever carrying out paintwork correction, don't just think about getting the marks out - consider a lot more: what is safe; what is sensible; what achieves the results you are looking for without removing huge amounts of paint....
Obviously if one is considering a garage queen, then 100% correction is something more important, but again be very careful about what the work you are doing means for the paintwork in correction... As above, actually carrying out correction is comparitively easy... Carefully consider what you are doing and what this will mean for the paintwork you are working on is much harder and is to me far more the mark of a good detailer than raw correction alone.
So, check you're removal rates - does one hit with IP remove 5um of paint, get 95% correction and look superb? If so, does getting out Fast Cut Plus and battering a further 10um away for the sake of a few RDS make sense? It may do, on some cars, but does it on the car you are working on? I would urge great consideration of this, and pay very particular attention not just to how many marks you are getting out but rather the amount of paint you are removing and what this is going to mean for the life of the paintwork.
I add here that I am not suggesting we all stop going for the best correction we can - this is something every detailer, including myself, strives to achieve along with the best possible finish in terms of clarity and gloss... But what I am proposing is that far greater care is taken on the actual amounts of paint removed and that more than just outright correction is considered as to me there is much more to correcting a car's paintwork than this.
First off, in order to restore the finish of a car to make it stand out from a crowd, attract the eye and restore colour and clarity, you do not need to remove every single little mark! 90% correction of all marks on the paintwork will result in a major turnaround on the car, and this would likely be achieved with the loss of 5um of paint or less... Getting another 5% correction (removal of some of the RDS) may cost you another 5um of paint, and the difference you actually see in practice becomes a lot less pronounced. Shooting towards 100% correction and you may well be looking at very significant paint removal to ensure every RDS, scratch, etching is removed... Now 100% correction is a great thing to claim you have, but in real world terms what has it bought you? There's no enhancement to clarity, gloss, depth - that came at the 90% level. All you achieve is the knowledge that some deeper scratches are also no longer there, and this may well have cost you a large amount of paint thus pulling the integrity of the clearcoat into question along with dramatically reducing the scope for future correction work to be carried out.
Being honest, achieving 100% correction is easy - keep polishing and you'll soon remove enough paint to correct a mark... but sensible correction is what you should be aiming for and should be the top most consderation when it comes to paint removal... how much is sensible to remove, and what correction is sensible to obtain given the car's future life. There's little point in removing 30um of CC on a car to get 100% correction (where 5um gave 95%) if the car is a hard working daily driver which is going to pick up marks again in the near future... not only is the CC integrity pulled into question, there is dramatically reduced scope to remove the marks that the car will inevitably pick up. Whenever carrying out paintwork correction, don't just think about getting the marks out - consider a lot more: what is safe; what is sensible; what achieves the results you are looking for without removing huge amounts of paint....
Obviously if one is considering a garage queen, then 100% correction is something more important, but again be very careful about what the work you are doing means for the paintwork in correction... As above, actually carrying out correction is comparitively easy... Carefully consider what you are doing and what this will mean for the paintwork you are working on is much harder and is to me far more the mark of a good detailer than raw correction alone.
So, check you're removal rates - does one hit with IP remove 5um of paint, get 95% correction and look superb? If so, does getting out Fast Cut Plus and battering a further 10um away for the sake of a few RDS make sense? It may do, on some cars, but does it on the car you are working on? I would urge great consideration of this, and pay very particular attention not just to how many marks you are getting out but rather the amount of paint you are removing and what this is going to mean for the life of the paintwork.
I add here that I am not suggesting we all stop going for the best correction we can - this is something every detailer, including myself, strives to achieve along with the best possible finish in terms of clarity and gloss... But what I am proposing is that far greater care is taken on the actual amounts of paint removed and that more than just outright correction is considered as to me there is much more to correcting a car's paintwork than this.
What level of correction do you aim for?
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100% correction for me is considerd a new paint job...
I've got all kinds of scratches and chips. I'm going to have a few parts painted, but not the whole car. I plan to go to town on it with some M80 and a G110 once I get them and see were that gets me but I know I'm never going to hit 100% and I don't need to. I drive the car every day, as long as it looks really good (by my standards) I am happy.
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