Machine Polishing & Paint Correction from £275
at SK Zone, 36 Upper Brook Street, Stockport · approx 2 working days
The same car, before and after
Our own workOur own work, filmed in the unit. The first clip is the paint as it arrived — swirl marks and hazing across the panel under the shop lights. The second is the same car after correction, with the strip lights reflecting as clean straight lines instead of a haze.
A hard light source is the honest test — it is what makes swirls visible in the first clip, and what makes the finish in the second clip mean something.
Registrations blurred. More of our work →
Paint correction is the machine polishing of your lacquer to remove the defects in it, rather than hiding them under a filler that washes out in three weeks. Under proper lighting most cars turn out to be covered in swirl marks from years of sponge-and-bucket washing, plus wash marring, bird-etching and the odd scratch. We wash and decontaminate, clay the surface, tape up the trim and edges, then measure the paint depth before a machine touches it — that reading is what tells us how much lacquer there is to work with and what is safe to remove. Single-stage enhancement takes out the majority of light swirling and brings the gloss back, and is the right call on most daily cars. Two-stage correction cuts harder and then refines, and is what you want before a ceramic coating or on a car being prepared for sale. Anything deeper than the lacquer cannot be polished out by anybody, and we will tell you that rather than burn through your paint chasing it.
Estimate only — the final price is confirmed once we have seen the car. Nothing is charged online.
Price it properly first
The build tool gives you a figure for your exact car, and you can stack this with anything else.
Common questions
What is the difference between single and two-stage?+
Single-stage is one compound-and-finish pass — it removes the majority of light swirls and restores gloss, and suits most daily-driven cars. Two-stage cuts with a heavier compound first and then refines the finish, taking out deeper defects. Two-stage is what we do before a ceramic coating, because there is no point sealing defects in for three years.
Will it remove every scratch?+
No, and be wary of anyone who says it will. Polishing removes lacquer, so it can only remove a defect that sits within the lacquer. Run a fingernail across the scratch — if it catches, it has gone through and needs paint, not polish. We measure paint depth first and work to what is safely there.
How long does the finish last?+
The correction itself is permanent — that lacquer is gone and the defects with it. How long it *looks* corrected is down to how the car is washed afterwards. Straight back to a sponge and a bucket of grit and it will swirl again within months. Two buckets, a grit guard and a decent mitt, and it will hold for years. A ceramic coating on top makes it far more forgiving.
Do I need this before a wrap or PPF?+
Before PPF, yes — film is optically clear and magnifies whatever is underneath it, and you are sealing that in for years. Before a wrap it matters less because the vinyl is opaque, but the paint still needs decontaminating properly or the film will not key.
Can you do it on a wrapped car?+
Vinyl cannot be machine-polished like lacquer — it is far too thin and heat-sensitive. We can decontaminate and seal a wrap, but correction is a paint process.