It’s a sorry sight that no one wants to experience: arriving back at your car to find a huge great scratch down the side of it. It could also be something else like suddenly discovering that your car paint is chipping, peeling away, or experiencing something nasty like “orange peeling.” It’s when these things happen that we find ourselves in need of paint correction. But why? Why bother? Why is paint correction important for cars? Can’t we just be more philosophical about it?
Background: How Does the Need for Paint Correction Come About?
Your car’s paint is entirely exposed to nature’s elements and most of the risk of damage comes from that. Impacts from debris thrown up from the road can cause tiny indentations in the clear coat which ultimately let in oxygen, water and other components to create problems. Paint can also peel and fall off because of poor-quality painting at the manufacturing stage — it has been known to happen.
On top of that, there are vandals and animals that might scratch our cars, as well as the acid from tree sap and bird droppings, not to mention the potential collisions we could get into each day. The list goes on and on. In response to all these things, we need the process of paint correction to fix the chips, fill in the scratches, restore the paint shine and full glorious colour.
Paint Correction Keeps Cars Looking Their Best
Cars start with that showroom shine, the allure of which is possibly a big reason for your choosing that model in the first place. With the right kind of care, the paint will retain all or most of that shine, but the majority of us will allow the quality to slip somewhat over time. Even worse, we may even allow paint damage to go unfixed, which gradually sees more and more unsightly paint problems become visible on the paint’s surface.
Correcting paint when the problems are still minor keeps the paint from deteriorating further and also keeps costs of correction down to a minimum. Stopping the rot while it’s in its early stages will keep your paint looking more even and attractive.
Paint Correction Helps Retain Resale Value
Another benefit of keeping the paint looking its best with paint correction is the better retention of resale value. If you’re selling your car, then potential buyers form a huge part of their final decision (and the price they’re willing to pay) based on the very first impression they get of the car. When the paint is shining to showroom quality and completely blemish free, you’re more likely to get a better sale price than if you’ve just left it to fate.
Paint correction is therefore an investment in resale value. Uncorrected paint is just another reason for a buyer to deduct money from your asking price as they will have to pay to get it corrected themselves.
Paint Correction is a Useful Skill
Another value of paint correction is something for the car owners. Using DIY paint correction kits is a useful skill and can help save some money when correcting minor damage. Some damage is best left to the professionals to fix, but some is quite accessible even to the enthusiastic amateur. It’s therefore a useful thing to know how to do.
Paint Correction Prevents Rust
When paint damage is left untreated — even minor damage — the effects can soon snowball into more serious issues, including corrosion and rust. The chips and blemishes in your paintwork are essentially holes in your “protective shield” around your car’s paint. These holes allow water and oxygen in, and rust can start to take hold, and then spread. Some simple paint correction can stop that in its tracks.