What is Detailing and Paint Correction?

Detailing and Paint correction are processes designed to enhance the paintwork of a vehicle, and show it off at the highest standard. The process includes removing contaminates bonded to the painted surfaces from things like acid rain and industrial fallout. It is also designed to remove swirl marks, light scratches and holograms to achieve a wet look, mirrored finish and then protecting the finished surface with a coating of top quality and almost always natural wax containing things like carnauba and bees wax. Paint correction is the first step and removes the imperfections in the vehicles paintwork. Detailing is the next step and is aimed at enhancing and protecting the paint.

Paint correction is a service used as an alternative to respraying a vehicle. People choose a paint correction service over a respray because it is almost always a cheaper option and doesn't have the associated problems of mis-matched colours and overspray, which can devalue a vehicle by decreasing its originality.

Paint correction, detailing and specialist valeting are slow, labour intensive processes and should only be undertaken by experienced and fully trained detailers to get the best results. The inexperienced and incorrect use of a rotary machine polisher and harsh abrasive cutting compounds could result in hundreds, if not thousands of pounds worth of damage to your vehicle.

What are swirl marks fine scratches?

Swirl marks are fine circular scratches. They are sometimes referred to as spider webs or cob-webs. They usually appear around the reflection of the sun or other bright light source and can be very noticeable on car bonnets in bright sun light. They are usually caused during inexperienced washing of a vehicle. dirty sponges and buckets cause fine particles of grit to be spread all over the paintwork causing damage to the surface. Car dealers can use a polish with fillers aimed at hiding the swirl marks and only show up after the cars first clean. Fine scratches are similar to swirl marks but are caused by everyday use of an unprotected vehicle.

What is acid etching?

Acid etchings are blemish spots in the paintwork caused by things like bird droppings and tree sap. Some acids, unless removed immediately can cause irreversible burns in the paintwork, sometimes causing the lacquer to crack and break up. Its is so important to remove bird droppings from your vehicle as soon as they are spotted, and preferably before they have caked in.

What are holograms and buffer trails?

holograms are usually seen as a ghost like 3d image across the surface of the paintwork. They are likely to be caused by the inexperienced use of a rotary polisher. Buffer trails are again caused by an inexperienced rotary polisher user. Both can be removed by careful re-polishing by an experience rotary polisher user.


resources

http://hubpages.com/hub/detailing-guide

http://detailingguide.wordpress.com

http://detailing-guide.devhub.com/blog/archive-201010/

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http://detailing-guide.wetpaint.com/

http://detailing-guide.blogspot.com