Soft paint
Soft paint is primarily used in Japanese cars such as Honda, Toyota and Lexus. Easy to damage, but efficient to correct. Sometimes even improper washing pressure or a poor quality microfibre can damage the paint. Correction is efficient, whereas finishing can be tricky due to the micro-marring risk. With soft paint, a ceramic coating is essential to add a sacrificial layer that resists day to day wash scratches.
Hard paint
Hard paint is primarily your German cars, so Mercedes, Audi and BMW etc. Harder wearing, but more time consuming to correct. Removing defects demands more aggressive compounds and slower arm speeds, but once corrected, it’s easier to finish as there is less risk of micro-marring. Adding a ceramic coating once a car with hard paint is corrected is strongly recommended to increase the strength of the clear coat.
The 5 most common paint defects that require machine polishing
Swirl marks
Swirl marks are induced by poor wash techniques, inconsistent washing, harsh chemicals or harsh brushes. They appear as spider web style scratches and can be removed with our single stage or multi stage correction, depending on the condition of the paintwork.
RIDS
RIDS stands for random individual deep scratches. These can be caused by people keying your car, incredibly poor washing or very slight accidents. They appear as deep lines in the paintwork where you could feel the depth under your fingernail. If that is the case, the scratch will require an infill. If it’s lighter than that, it can be reduced or removed with sandpaper and polishing, part of our multi stage correction.
Bush scratches
Bush scratches appear as lots of pale coloured long lines down, typically, the passenger side of your vehicle. They are very common for people who live in villages. They do not tend to be the deepest and are easily fixable with our multi stage correction.
Holograms
Holograms are hazy, faint, wavy lines caused by rushed prep work under a rotary polisher. Though not easily visible, they show up when light hits them, leaving horrible wavy lines. The good news is that these are easily fixable with our single stage correction.
Water spots
Water spots are dried minerals that hard water has left behind after being left to evaporate without being properly dried. These are fixable, depending on severity, with our single stage polish.
