mig1980

Good day everyone. I am looking for professional opinion on an issue as I know many on this forum do auto detailing, etc as a profession.

I have a 1998 Corvette coupe (red) that I took into a very reputable shop in my area to have paint correction done and to have OptiCoat Pro Plus applied to it.

I picked up the car a few weeks back and after getting it home under the lights of my garage I noticed that the paint still had a substantial amount of imperfections (hairline scratches, etc) on it.

After talking to the owner of the detail shop, I was told that they were not able to complete remove all imperfections because the imperfections were deep into the clear and going that deep could compromise the clear and therefore compromise the paint on the car.

What he said made sense but I have seen many cars on this forum (as old or older than mine) that have had paint corrections and look flawless.

Any insight on this? Is the shop right or can my car's paint come out flawless without compromising the integrity of the paint job?

Here are some pictures of how it looks today. Tried my best to take the pictures without flash or light reflection. All pictures below are from relatively the same area on the hood of my vette.

0Adam's Polish

It's hard to say a 100% by looking at the pics, that being said I think some of them would come out. A good rule of thumb is if your finger nail catches in the scratch it will not come out completely. One more thing that I might add is the C5 has a very hard clear coat.....at least all the ones I have worked on.
Hope this helps.

joeybsyc

Another thing to realize is that photos can lie. You can take a pic of your car covered with light dust, dirt, or even scratches and without even trying, it'll usually look good in a photo...and if you're trying to make it look perfect in a photo then it gets even easier. Some people use photo filters and apps to "enhance" their photos and make the car look like glass, even if it's not quite that smooth or shiny in real life.

I've seen cars in person at shows, then see pics the owner posted online and you'd swear they were 2 different cars. The online photos make the car look way better than it is.

With that said, you can indeed get some of those out better with some work, but achieving complete perfection on paint that old is unlikely.

Grzldvt1

I own a very high end detailing shop in Los Gatos, CA, a high end suburb in Silicon Valley. Read that as my details run $400 - $2000+.

Cliff notes - yes those scratches can be corrected without compromising the clear coat, based on what I see. In real life, seeing them live, maybe, maybe not.... BUT
Old paint smold paint, paint age has very little relevance. How it has been corrected in the past is the HUGE difference.
I have corrected 40 year old paint to perfection. It is all about technique and knowing what pad/compound combination works for the particular situation, and how much paint/clear coat is left to work with.

I have corrected more C4's and C5's than I care to think about without compromising the clear coat, and yes I am very, very sensitive to taking things down too far.
I give your detailer major kudos for being conservative and doing the right thing based on his/their knowledge.

It is not about using major compounds to crank down the clear coat to clear the scratches, but about technique and knowing what compounds can do what you need with the absolute minimum damage and clean the mess up.

I have 8 different brands of compounds that I use based on the situation I am dealing with. This also includes 10 different pads for cutting and polishing.
I might look at a Corvette and use one combination, and a completely different combination on another one based on color and scratches.

Yes, deep scratches taken down, such as Adams Polish mentions can compromise the clear coat. They are 100% correct, but what I see in the pictures a vast majority can be eliminated by the right compound, the right pad, and the right technique.
I just corrected a huge black Benz S63 that had 3 years of car washes abusing the paint. Using the right pad/compound, and technique, the first pass cleaned up a majority of the mess. This particular set of compounds requires a little higher speed but no pressure other than the weight of the dual action. The pad selection was a Microfiber cutting pad.
The second pass was a white polishing pad with the polish compound, which gave the illusion in the sun the car was pristine. In no way shape or form could you find anything.
Admittedly, I have spent several years perfecting a technique that will go to my grave, so don't ask
The final topper was Ceramic Pro, which hides nothing and actually shows off more scratches than it will ever hide.. I thought the customer was going to have to go home and change his pants he was so ecstatic over how it turned out.

Bottom line ASK the detailer what they think before leaving your car. I always ask the customer what is it they are trying to solve and make recommendations based on their answer and set an expectation of the final finish before they walk away. It can change as we progress and will contact them to let them know.

Hope this novel helps

mig1980

Thank you very much for the feedback everyone. Especially Steve (Grzldvt1)!!This is the reason I am glad to be a part of this forum. A lot of knowledgeable people.

At this point, the detailer I dealt with is out of their comfort zone. When I approached them to do the correction on my car (not the first car I have taken them) I was asked what I was looking for and I mentioned that I wanted all imperfections on the paint removed. The detailer said, "sounds good!"

They do good work on newer cars with less damage to the paint but anything with medium to high damage, I will never use them again. It's unfortunate because I paid a substantial amount of money for this work. I talked to the detailer after with my concerns and received simply reasons why they couldn't do any better. I was told they invested a lot of time correcting it to this point and that I "definitely got my money's worth".

Interesting because to me, I am paying for an end result, not time invested. I could spend a week polishing my car but that doesn't mean that the outcome is going to be nearly as good as someone like Steve that has years of experience and has perfected his process. I guess the detailer thought that "removing all imperfections" meant "only remove half of them". Lesson learned.

In the future, I maybe interested in correcting the paint on this car again and will look at this forum for input on where to go.

JoshVette

As mentioned with the fingernail test, if you can even just barely feel it with the tip of your fingernail then it's likely too deep to remove completely. It can be reduced and edges rounded off to make look better but if those are the only two scratches you have and all the rest came out of the car well enough then I would trust those are too deep to remove without compromising the clear.

I've been detailing over 11 years now and more C5 Vettes then you can imagine. I would tell you the same thing.

mig1980

Thanks Josh. Unfortunately the whole car is like that. Those picture were just an example of an area. I'll have to revisit paint correction on this car at some point. Probably next year.

JoshVette

Also you could ask the detailer/shop who performed the work if they used a rotary or just an orbital to do the correction.

I'm willing to be they only used the orbital and with the extremely hard clear coat of the Vettes they will need to use a rotary with multi steps to get it perfect. This is a bit more skilled work though so I'd make sure they are experienced in that sort of corrective work.

I've done this level of correction and it can easily be a 20+ hour job to do it right and not leave any buffer trails behind.


Josh

mig1980

Thanks for the input Josh. As I said, I have cut my losses with this detailer. I won't be doing any more business with them. I will reach out to one of the few detail experts on this forum to get it as near perfect as possible sometime next year.

Grzldvt1

Not anymore. I have two rotary's collecting dust. I use a Flex 3401 or a Rupes Bigfoot in my shop with excellent results.
I have corrected more C5's and C6's than I care to think about. It is all about using the right pad and compound combination with the proper technique.
For instance I had a 2015 black Benz s63 with two+ years of car wash scratches. Tried two new compounds that clearly stated use NO pressure on a Porter Cable. Very, very leary of those directions. Benz clearcoat is as hard or harder than the Vette. Used an Orange medium cutting pad to remove a majority of the scratches, then followed up with a white polishing pad and then their polish product, and was blown away by how pristene the finish was. No swirl marks, no buffer marks, just the perfect finish. Customer was blown away. Coated the car with Ceramic Pro.