Auto detailing is about getting the best from your car’s paint. When people decide to get their car detailed, the picture that forms in their minds is a car with a beautiful shine. There is more to it, of course, but getting the best out of the paint is the fundamental task of auto detailing.
So, let’s talk a little about car paint. In this post I want to go over some of the basics. Later, in future posts, I’ll get into some of the details and the different solutions to the different problems that come up when trying to get your car looking like new.
The Purpose Of Paint
Paint has two purposes, to protect the underlying panel and to give the car beauty. The structure of paint has a couple of variations. The most common today and the one on most new cars has a primer coat, a base coat and a clear coat. This is the most common: panel and three layers. The second type is a single-stage paint, which omits the clearcoat. This is less common but used on older vehicles and some very high-end autos. The third type encountered is the three-layer structure with a tinted clearcoat.
Understanding these variations help when you are detailing your auto. Some applications remove some of the paint and it is important to know if you are removing a bit of tinted clearcoat or some of the base layer.
Types Of Problems With Paint
Understanding these variations will help you get a picture of some of the problems that occur in the paint. So, what are some of the common problems that you will encounter? Scratches. We wrote previously on how to remove scratches using detailing techniques. Scratches can be either shallow or deep and each requires a different response by the detailer.
Paint can come out of the factory with a condition called Orange Peel, oxidation causes damage. Swirling, marring and spider webbing is another source of paint damage and degradation. Paint becomes contaminated from a variety of sources. Water deposits blemish the paint and water etching causes more serious paint problems.
There are a lot of things that can cause the paint to deteriorate and not look its best. Each type of damage must be dealt with in a different way or with a different level of application.
Today, I just wanted to give you a brief overview of paint and the variety of problems that auto detailing aims to solve. Stay tuned and subscribe to our feed as be break these down and give you some hints on how to deal with these problems.