Random Deep Scratches (RDS) From Foreign Paintspots

What happened to this car's paint work? This typical family saloon was parked in the open carpark just like the rest of the cars while there was a upgrading project going on in the area. The flats around the area were receiving new coats of paint to last them for another couple of years. (I shall not discuss on how the paint get to the car's paint work as i was not there.)

When the owners discover the horror done on their car, they tried to remove the dried paint by using damp cloth/ tissue papers to wipe/ rub the paint spots. The results of the paint spots removal were not ok as the intense focus spot rubbing actions had created deep scratches on the paint work which we termed as RDS. With the use of strong lighting, pockets of RDS were 'lite up' and they are over the entire paint work.
The car was brought in for consultation and after assessing the conditions of the paint work, we decided to remove the rest of the remaining paint spots and correct the damages done. Hope the RDS were not too deep, else we may need a proper paint job on the car. The roof line area after removing the paint spots (Above picture). Not in good condition either, IMO.
A good 6 hours were spent on the paint correction work around the car. Total down time was close to 9 hours to restore the condition of the car's paint work as much as possible.

Here are the rest of the pictures from this paint correction cum restoration job. This Scenic is definitely better off right now than it was 10 hours ago.

If you see that there's a painting work going on in your area, be caution of the paint spotting problem. Thank you for viewing.

Paint Coating By Microns

The paint coating on the surface of this car is damage and the top lacquer is somehow brittle and breaks away easily. This has created a 'Peeling effect' on the paint work as i saw a large area of dull paint work without the top lacquer coating, a respray job is inevitable here.

How much is the thickness of this coating (paint/ lacquer)? This is the side view of the piece of lacquer fragment (above) and the thickness is just about a sheet of paper.

The is the paint reading took on the normal paint work (above) which is about 80+ microns.

This is the reading took on the paint surface without the layer of the lacquer coating (above), the coating thickness is measure to be about 20+ microns.
This is the bare metal plate provided with the PTG (above), it is a pure metal form without any form of coating on it. This is used to cross check the calibration accuracy of the PTG. This is the reading took from the bare metal plate, the PTG shows 0 micron.
What is the thickness of this particular piece of lacquer fragment from the damaged paintwork?
The piece of lacquer fragment is placed over the bare metal plate and the reading is took using the PTG.
The piece of lacquer fragment is measured to be about 50+ microns. A thousand microns is one millimeter and every paint correction session will remove the paint coating by couple of microns. In cases of adverse paint conditions whereby severe paint correction work is performed, it will deplete the paint work coating drastically. Prevention method/ early intervention ways like regular mild polish/ waxing by hand helps to prolong the longevity of the paint work. Thank you for viewing.

Subaru Forester Shines Again

'Overlapping' water etched marks developed on the paint work (above). This issue is an ongoing challenge for all dark colour rides.

This black Subaru has been skipping the maintenance session for sometime and the water etched mark issues are bad. The etched marks developed on the paint work are 'overlapping' and that 'overlapping' layering effect has cause the paint work to lose much of it's clarity and there goes the shine as well.


Many hours were used up on correcting the severe paint defects by machine polishing. Finally the shine, clarity and gloss were brought back to this black car. In this session, the trade off was about 10 - 12 microns of the top coating which was quite a substantial amount IMO. The hard work invested was worth it whenever i saw the smile on the owner's face.
The corrected paint work was meticulously clean up and seal off with an appropriate LSP coating.
After the final protection cum inspection process, this Subaru is ready to be handed over to it's owner. The conditions of the paint work will only deteriorate from the moment it leaves here and regular basic maintenance will help to prolong the duration till the next actual polishing session. Dark colour rides will need more attention than light colour ones, choose the colour of your ride wisely. :)
Thank you for viewing.