The car is clean, and yet it doesn't look like it used to. The colour lacks depth, the paint doesn't shine, and in direct sunlight you can see fine swirl marks on the bonnet and doors. In the shade or under an overcast sky there's no trace of them. Light enhancement is for you: a single step of machine polishing over the whole car that brings back the shine, evens out the look, and removes minor surface defects.
If only one or a few specific spots bother you, a step down – spot correction of a specific defect – is enough. If you see swirls and scratches across the whole car, even under an overcast sky, that's a job for paint correction, a step up. Not sure which one is your case? Start with paint diagnostics.
Why one step is enough
Gloss isn't a colour or a layer on the paint, it's the shape of the surface: the flatter it is, the more light it reflects in one direction, and the deeper the colour looks. Fine swirl marks sit only in the upper part of the glossy layer, so levelling them out takes just one step that removes very little of it. Polishing always thins the paint a bit, but whatever we don't remove today stays in reserve for the time more will be needed. How much of that reserve a car actually has, and where polishing hits its limit, we cover separately. One step won't level out deeper scratches; correction handles those.
What you're paying for
- Inspecting the whole car. We go over the paint panel by panel, tell you what we see and what enhancement will level out, and measure the paint thickness. That tells us where we can afford to remove material.
- Telling real shine apart from wax. We'll ask what you've used to treat the paint in recent months. Waxes and quick detail sprays fill scratches with fillers that wash off within a few weeks. Enhancement changes the paint's surface itself, so washing won't take its shine away.
- One step of machine polishing over the whole paint. Done with a machine and polishing compound, only within the top glossy layer, without deep sanding. The result is a uniform look across the whole car, not just the repaired spots.
- Paint ready for protection. Protection is applied to a clean, levelled surface. If you follow enhancement with protection, the paint is already prepared for it.
Enhancement covers the whole car, so the price mainly comes down to the paint area: on a bigger car we work the machine over more panels. The other factor is how dense the network of swirl marks is. A sparse one levels out faster; a dense one takes more time on each panel, even though we still stay within one step. We can only tell you the price for your car after inspecting the actual condition of the paint.
To make the shine last
New swirl marks mainly come from washing: brushes in a car wash, a dry cloth, grit left on the paint. How to adjust your washing routine is covered in the article Swirl marks after the car wash. You can slow it down with a protective layer over the paint – basic surface protection for a shorter period, ceramic surface protection for a longer one. And if you also want the interior sorted alongside the paint, take a look at detailing.
Tell us how the paint looks
A few sentences are enough: how old the car is, how you wash it, and what's bothering you about the paint. If you can, attach a photo of the bonnet against the sun.