The moment you take the keys to a brand new car and drive it out of the showroom, you know that this entails your car’s exposure to the environment around it. A car is no small investment, and your first vehicle purchase is often a life milestone.
The journey to car ownership can be a struggle, which is why buyers want to maintain their vehicles as best as they can. Not only does the car continue to look nice when taken care of, but it also allows the value to depreciate slower than an uncared-for car would depreciate.
If you have driven for a long enough time, or have had exposure to multiple vehicles, it is probably a well-known fact to you that cars are not invincible to the elements, or even to other drivers around. Extreme temperatures and nature’s facets can affect the exterior finish of your car, along with other vehicle owners you encounter on the road. These can cause paint damages through scratches, dents, and fading.
DIY repairs are often something people consider when it comes to problems like these, but unfortunately, those without the proper experience or tools can cause further damages. Here are some common mistakes that amateurs make when repairing car scratches and chipped paint:
1. Using Car Paints
The chemical composition of car paints is only about 12 percent solid at maximum. Conducting paint jobs on your own is extremely difficult to do because of all the layering and procedures that require special tools to achieve a professional finish. It is also going to be very time consuming, as you will need to run through about twenty layers of paint, not to mention considering the way the thickness will play out with the rest of the car. When it comes to car detailing for minor scratches and damages, it’s important to remember that certain car paints can’t be used. This is especially true when you’re attempting a DIY repair.
2. Scrutinizing the Perfection of the Detailing Job
Car repairs are usually never going to be perfect, especially when they’re a DIY job. Looking too closely and scrutinizing the repair paint job will be disappointing because these car detailing jobs will always be subtly different from the way it was originally. The trick is to take it as it is and view the car from a certain distance, which is going to be unnoticeable for the most part.
3. Wrongly Assessing the Scale of Damages
Some damages are simply going to be too large in scale for a DIY repair job. If wrongly assessed, this will merely frustrate you because of the amount of work you will be putting into it without any progressive results. This may also cause you to purchase materials that will not fix the damage properly, such as auto touch-up paints for large damages that may need filler and a full respray of car enamel paint.
When assessing damages, be sure that the job is something passable as a DIY car detailing project rather than a job for a full scale detailing professional service.
4. Searching Endlessly for the Perfect Colour
Searching for the exact colour palette of your car’s exterior coating can be a struggle. This is because some car manufacturers have a special mix of paint that makes their coat unique. Asides from the usual white and black paints, some car detailing jobs have a metallic range, which can be a crystal-like red or a midnight blue. With colours as special as these, you won’t find them on a store shelf in your local hardware store because car manufacturers mix them, especially for their own cars.
Conclusion
While many small dings and scratches are repairable by the many cars detailing products available for consumers, some jobs may be for professional detailing work. If you have no experience with detailing and paint repair jobs, this may be a job for professionals to attend to.
If you are looking for a car detailing service in Calgary, Drip Detailing has been providing high-quality bodywork and paint jobs for automobiles of different sizes for the past three years. When dealing with something as expensive as your car, it’s understandable to want nothing but the best. Luckily for you, we pride ourselves on top-notch services!