# How many times can I do paint correction to my car?



## Mike Phillips (Jan 26, 2007)

*How many times can I do paint correction to my car?*

*Mike Phillips carefully washing an old 2-door Mercury*










I see this question all the time,

*How many times can I compound or do paint correction to my car?*

Then I see people try to answer this question, (including me), and while our intentions are god, our THINKING IS WRONG.

*Don't think like this,*

Instead of wondering or asking how many times you can compound or correct the paint on your car before you buff through the clearcoat?

*Think like this!*

After you polish and wax a car, *STOP DOING THINGS TO THE PAINT THAT WOULD CAUSE YOU TO HAVE TO COMPOUND THE CAR AGAIN.*


Don't take your car to a Swirl-O-Matic car wash.
Don't wash your car with worn-out, contaminated wash mitts.
Don't wash your car with scratchy brushes.
Don't dry your car's paint with contaminated, scratchy drying towels and chamois.
Don't put anything on the hood, roof or trunk lid like a bag of groceries, or a box, or anything as this will SCRATCH the paint.

Treat your car's paint like it will scratch VERY easily because it will. If you treat your car's paint carefully then you shouldn't have to COMPOUND it once a year or once every two years or even ever again. If you treat your car's paint carefully the most you should have to do is POLISH it or use an AIO on it and these two product are not a concern. Compounding isn't a concern either as long as your sane in how you treat your car.

IF - IF you're NOT going to take care of you car - then don't do full blown paint correction in the first place. Duh. :dunno: Instead - just use a great AIO i.e. a cleaner/wax, cleaner/sealant or cleaner/coating then stick a fork in it and call it DONE.

_It's a great question.... _

_How many times can I compound or do paint correction to my car?_

But in most cases, our thinking is wrong. We're looking at the issue the wrong way thus the answer is wrong. Think differently. Take care of your stuff. Buy good wash mitts or washing towels. Buy good drying towels. Keep the things that touch your car's paint clean and uncontaminated.

Hope this helps...

Remember - WASH and DRY your car CAREFULLY


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## Guest (Oct 14, 2020)

Read it twice, still don't see how many times I can correct the paint on my car?


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## atbalfour (Aug 11, 2019)

DannyRS3 said:


> Read it twice, still don't see how many times I can correct the paint on my car?


Well for you it's easy... one time less than you the other day Danny!

Too soon?


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## Mike Phillips (Jan 26, 2007)

DannyRS3 said:


> Read it twice, still don't see how many times I can correct the paint on my car?


The answer is ONE. One time.

After you do a full blown paint correction i.e. COMPOUND the paint - after this, don't do stupid stuff, which causes you to have to repeat the compounding step again. Polishing is very safe as it only removes small amounts of paint.

The Big Picture is, moving forward, however you're going to "touch" the paint, do so carefully and make sure everything that touches the paint is clean and soft - NOT contaminated.

I would say most swirls and scratches are re-instilled into a car's finish when the car is washed and dried. When you wash and dry a car the things that "touch" the paint are your wash mitts, wash towels, (or whatever wash media you use), and your drying towels or chamois.

These items can become contaminated with sharp pokey things like dried leaves, sticks, rocks, dead bugs, etc.

This is why I tend to be a huge fan of microfiber products that have a FLAT WEAVE. Fluffy weave towels are too easily contaminated a much harder to inspect and detect the contaminants.

Make sense?

Didn't mean to make it trick question or >click bait< - was pointing out that if we do a better job of taking care of our car's paint AFTER any detail job, then we should ever have to compound the paint again. Thus the answer is ONE TIME.

That's also why I chose to use pictures of cars being washed, not cars being compounded.


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## Guest (Oct 14, 2020)

atbalfour said:


> Well for you it's easy... one time less than you the other day Danny!
> 
> Too soon?


Oh... mate.. ouch...

haha


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