Surface Defects: Cover them up or correct them?

[Too Stroked]

This site was founded to give some of us OCD types a place to share information on one of our favorite pastimes ? detailing cars. (You?ll have to go to other sites to satisfy your OCD needs on proper cleaning and dressing of extension cords, indexing screw heads on outlet covers and many, many other serious issues.) But one question keeps getting asked of me that I wanted to share some information on here: ?Is it better to correct or cover defects in paint?? Believe it or not, most people don?t know which they?re doing and / or why. So let me take the first crack at a discussion on this topic since it is actually quite important.

First, let?s start with where the confusion comes from and one has to go no further than your television. One sees ads all the time that claim to transform the dull, faded finish (on a car in a wrecking yard in one case) into a brilliant, shining new car finish. Now I think we all know that as the paint on a car ages, it picks up defects ? mostly in the form of very fine scratches and micro marring ? as well as oxidation from the sun?s rays. Most folks don?t knowingly introduce defects, but they also don?t understand that every time you touch your paint or drag something over it (sponges, wash mitts, towels, etc.), you are introducing marring at some level. And since this marring is cumulative, although you may not see it all at once, eventually, you?ll see it pop up.

Now there is another kind of marring ? the kind that pops up all at once. Like when you sideswipe your garage door by mistake. This kind of marring also has a television ad induced bit of misinformation in that there are a number of products out there that claim to magically remove this type of damage with a simple application of the magic elixir. Words fail me here, but more in a minute.

Let me burst a bubble right away here. I have never seen or used a single product that easily removes any significant defect. Sorry, but I had to do that. This doesn?t mean that the products advertised don?t do anything, but truly removing / correcting defects takes time and effort as well as the right products. Said another way, you generally get more out of something that requires some effort on your part.

Finally, before I get deep into the discussion of correction vs. coving up defects, it?s probably important to define both ?perfect paint? and a ?defect.? My definition of perfect paint involves a perfectly flat / level surface. As you might guess, manufacturers have struggled for years with the ?perfectly flat? part since most of them are starting with a somewhat viscous liquid / paint in droplet form. These droplets must land on the car?s surface, and then magically lay down flat next to all of their buddies that came out of the same orifice. Oh, and the paint is drying / curing / hardening as this happens. So the paint has a limited amount of time to flatten out and even the surface can work against it. (Horizontal surfaces have gravity helping them whereas vertical surfaces do not.) What this can lead to is the dreaded ?orange peel? effect where the droplets cured before they have fully flattened.

The big advantage of perfectly flat paint is that it generally reflects objects perfectly - because there is nothing to distort the reflected image. As soon as you introduce defects to the surface, the reflection becomes wavy (orange peel), dull (oxidation), or even almost non-existent (severe marring). So the flatter and more defect free the painted surface, the clearer the reflected image. This should explain how / why a vehicle with almost perfect paint gives off such wonderful reflections ? like the ones that end up in our Cheap, Shameless Reflecto Shots thread. I should note that with some relatively simple camera tricks, almost any paint can be made to look ?perfect? and reflective though. And this is actually what most of those miracle products on TV rely on.

If that?s ?perfect?, what?s a defect?  A defect is anything that negatively affects the perfectly flat paint. (Shocking huh?) Scratches, be they microscopic, small, medium or large are all defects. Oxidation is a defect; generally speaking, it?s a very fine roughening of the entire surface. And yes, orange peel is a defect by my definition. Even dirt can be considered a defect since it negatively affects perfect reflections.

This brings me to the main point of this thread. What do you want to do with defects in your paint? Do you want to correct / remove them or cover them up? Most of the ?miracle? products out there aim to cover up defects, not correct them. Most of us who have fallen prey to the OCD hazard know that the only thing we really want to do is correct / remove them. Although we might (reluctantly) have to try to cover some ?un-removable? defects up. Yes, there is a difference and you need to make a choice as to what you want to do.

I?d go on, but it?s late and I need some sleep. So I?ll turn this over to my OCD friends here for some input and return with more tomorrow.

[Pockets]

Good read Tom!

I would say that about 90% of all detailing work is daily drivers and at some point you have to accept that they will never be "perfect" we can get them to about 90 or 95% and than filling the rest in seems like the best thing to do.

I prefer to remove because even the best of products will not cover significant damage they are great at covering up the damage left behind after correction like Black Hole does.

[Blown F-150]

Great read and discussion Tom. I will definitely post up as soon as I have some time.

[Too Stroked]

Good read Tom!

I would say that about 90% of all detailing work is daily drivers and at some point you have to accept that they will never be "perfect" we can get them to about 90 or 95% and than filling the rest in seems like the best thing to do.

I prefer to remove because even the best of products will not cover significant damage they are great at covering up the damage left behind after correction like Black Hole does.

Chris hit it right on the head and I couldn't have said it better myself. Most of the detailing work I do is about the same percentage correction and cover up as he mentioned. Would I like to fully correct and not cover up a thing? You bet, but it's just not always practical. That said, the correction part is actually much harder then the cover up part. But that's what brought most of you to this site anyway! So I'd like to steer this discussion towards how one actually corrects paint defects next.

This of course brings us back to the "miracle" products one sees on TV all the time. I'd say the vast majority (probably 99.9%) of these products are 90% cover up and 10% correction. (Yes, the other way around.) But since almost everyone is looking for the quick fix, this stuff continues to sell. Here's the rub (no pun intended) though. Most of these products are loaded with fillers and last a week or two at best. (Or maybe one aggressive car wash.) Bummer, huh?

[Rollingrock]

This is a great thread and thanks to Tom for posting and getting it going.

As Chris pointed out, I subscribe to this theory.

When I take on a project I try to set reasonable expectations based on what I see and what I think I can do and balance that with the expectation they have of my ability and what they perceive as "perfect" 

10 out of 10 times b/c of our OCD'ness our 60% better is 120% better than they expect.   That said, what we do here as most of us do, is correct vs cover.

Anyone can put 29 coats of Zaino on and it will look better but why not fix it and make it look better at the same time.  I find that once I fix or correct something they take more pride in their car and try to do a better job of keeping it looking that way.   Its kind of the real LSP...that being education.   Little things like "don't dry your car off with beach towels"  or please don't use Dawn....buy a good car soap.   I find with a little chat and a minimum 45 investment they can keep what I fix for a long time.     As Rockpick has told me and posted many many many times.   This isn't rocket science.   To us it is basic but to the clients overload, or at least can be.   

[sscully]

I don't do this for $$ like others, but when I do a F&F car, it's normal life was wax 2 times per year.   
It looked great to them, but when I remove the defects, they cannot believe that it is the same car. 

The part that really gets someone, is when I show a 50-50 picture of a panel. 
- They had no idea how bad it was before.  "Our 60% better is 120% better than they expect." is a great way to put it.  When I tell them I will get it to 90%, they had no idea what 100% really is going into it.

[Too Stroked]

To get the ball rolling on defect correction, remember, most defects are carved, etched, scratched into the paint surface. Also remember that "the surface" is actually several layers thick. It's generally base (metal, plastic, etc.) primer, basecoat (color) and finally clear coat. Sometimes defects only go a little way into the top surface. Sometimes they go all the way through into the base. (If that's the case, no detailing product in the world is going to fix the problem.) Generally speaking, one can do a pretty decent job of correcting defects that do not go through the clear coat. In fact the general rule is that if you can feel a defect with your fingernail, it's probably too deep to fix.

So how does one correct defects? I'm too tired to get into that discussion tonight, but I'll be back tomorrow. And anybody else can feel free to chime in too!

Tom