Paint Correction in Dallas
Machine polishing that permanently removes swirl marks, wash scratches, water spot etching and oxidation from your clear coat. Not a wax that fills them in for two weeks — actual removal. We measure your paint before we touch it, then dial the process to what your car can safely take.
Stage 1 from $349 · Stage 2 from $599 · Stage 3 from $1,199
What Paint Correction Actually Removes
Your clear coat is a thin transparent layer over the color. Nearly every defect you can see lives inside it. Correction levels that layer with machine polishers and progressively finer compounds until it’s flat and reflective again.
Swirl Marks
Fine circular scratches that show up as a web or haze under direct sun and gas station lights. Almost always caused by automatic brush washes, dirty towels or circular wiping. The most common defect we correct, by a wide margin.
Water Spot Etching
North Texas has hard water. Minerals left behind when droplets dry in the sun bite into the clear coat and stop washing off. Caught early they polish out completely; left for a year on a black car they get stubborn.
Light & Moderate Scratches
The fingernail test tells you most of it — if your nail doesn’t catch in the scratch, it’s still in the clear coat and can be corrected. If it catches, it’s through to the base and needs touch-up or paint, not polishing.
Oxidation & Fading
Dull, chalky, washed-out paint from years of sun. Extremely common on older vehicles parked outside in Dallas, and worst on reds and blacks. Polishing cuts back the dead oxidized layer and exposes clean clear coat underneath.
Holograms & Buffer Trails
Streaky, 3D-looking marring left behind by a rotary polisher in inexperienced hands. Very visible under harsh light. Fixing someone else’s buffer damage is a job we get called for regularly.
Bird & Chemical Etching
Bird droppings are acidic and in 100°F heat they can etch clear coat in a single afternoon. Same for bug splatter and tree sap left to bake. Shallow etching polishes out; deep craters may only improve.
Paint Correction Prices
Three stages, based on how much defect removal your paint needs. More stages isn’t automatically better — the right one depends on your paint’s condition and the standard you’re after.
Single Stage
$349 / from
- Full hand wash and decontamination
- Clay bar treatment
- Paint depth measurement
- Single-stage machine polish
- IPA wipe and LED inspection
- Sealant applied to finish
Most popular
Two Stage
$599 / from
- Everything in Stage 1
- Iron and fallout decontamination
- Cutting compound pass
- Refining finishing polish pass
- Most swirls and water spots gone
- 6-month sealant included
Three Stage
$1,199 / from
- Everything in Stage 2
- Heavy cutting compound stage
- Medium and final refining passes
- Depth measured throughout
- Show-level gloss and clarity
- 2-year ceramic coating included
Pricing Factors & Add-Ons
- Large SUV / truck surcharge — +$150–$350
- Headlight restoration — +$79
- Trim restoration (faded plastics) — +$89
- Engine bay detail — +$59
- Wheel face correction — +$120
- Upgrade to 3-year coating — +$300
- Upgrade to 5-year coating — +$700
- Interior detail bundled — +$109
How Paint Correction Works
Five steps, no shortcuts, and no spray wax at the end to fake a result that isn’t there.
1
Inspection under LED, and paint depth measured
2
Wash and full decontamination
3
Test panel
4
Machine polishing, panel by panel
5
IPA wipe, final inspection, then protection
Paint Correction FAQ
The questions we get asked most about paint correction, answered the same way we answer them in your driveway.
Do the fingernail test. Run a nail lightly across the scratch — if it glides over, the scratch is in the clear coat and correction will remove it completely. If your nail catches, it has gone through the clear coat into the base or primer.
Scratches through the clear coat can be improved and made much less noticeable, but polishing cannot put paint back. Those need touch-up or a body shop, and we’ll tell you that at the inspection rather than take your money for a job that can’t succeed.
Stage 1 is four to six hours on a sedan. Stage 2 runs eight to twelve, usually a full day. Stage 3 is sixteen to twenty-plus hours and means a two-day booking. Large SUVs and trucks add meaningfully to all three. Paint correction is slow work — the time is the service.
It is when depth is measured first, which is why we gauge every vehicle before starting. Correction removes a few microns of clear coat each time, and a typical factory finish has enough for several corrections over the car’s life. On a repainted panel or a car that’s already been heavily buffed, there may be very little left — we’d rather find that with a gauge than with a polisher.
Correction removes damage. Coating prevents it. Correction gives you a perfect surface and no protection; coating gives you protection but seals in whatever is already there. They’re designed to be done together, in that order — which is why our Stage 3 includes a coating and the others can be upgraded to one.
Stage 1 yes, in a garage or shaded covered area — we bring our own lighting and power. Stage 2 and Stage 3 need controlled conditions and many hours, so those are better scheduled as a drop-off or a multi-visit booking. Tell us your situation and we’ll work out what’s realistic.
The correction itself is permanent — those defects are gone for good. How long the paint stays looking that way depends entirely on how it’s washed afterwards. Go back through an automatic brush wash and swirls return within months. Hand wash with the two-bucket method, keep a sealant or coating on it, and it holds for years.
Related Services
Correction is step one. Here’s what belongs with it.