How much does paint correction cost on the Gold Coast?

Paint correction is the process of refining a car's clear coat to reduce swirl marks, scratching, oxidation and the general dullness that builds up over years of washing. It is machine work, done under inspection lighting, and it is the single biggest change you can make to how a car looks without repainting it.

There is no flat rate for it, and anyone quoting you one over the phone has not seen your paint. Here is what actually moves the price.

What changes the cost

The size of the vehicle

This one is simple: more panels take more time. A dual cab ute or a large SUV has considerably more surface area than a hatchback, and every square metre of it has to be worked through by machine.

How far gone the paint is

A car with light swirl marks from automatic car washes is a very different job to one with heavy scratching, oxidation or a clear coat that has been baking in the Queensland sun for a decade. The worse the starting point, the more stages of polishing it takes to bring back.

How many stages it needs

A single stage polish removes lighter defects and lifts gloss. A multi stage correction cuts harder first, then refines that finish back to clarity. Most cars sit somewhere between the two, and part of our job is telling you which one yours actually needs rather than selling you the bigger number.

The condition of the clear coat

Correction works within the clear coat you already have. If it is thin, failing or has been polished heavily before, there is a limit to what can safely be taken off. We would rather tell you that up front than chase a result the paint cannot give.

Where it sits in our pricing

Our Full Detail package starts from $350 and includes a machine polish to remove swirl marks and light to medium scratches. That covers a lot of everyday cars.

Paint that needs more than that is quoted on its own, because the work involved genuinely varies. Send us the car and some photos in daylight and we will give you a real number.

Is it worth doing?

It depends what you want from the car. If you are selling it, corrected paint changes the first impression more than almost anything else you could spend the same money on. If you are keeping it, correction is also the right first step before any protection goes on, because a coating applied over swirled paint simply locks the swirls in.

We do paint correction at our Nerang studio, where the lighting lets us see what we are actually doing to the paint.