Can you just compound certain areas or do you have to do the whole car?

[cfiiman]

I was just wondering. I completely corrected my paint a couple years ago and it was a job. I now have certain scratches in certain panels and was wondering if I could just polish those or if you had to do the whole car to make it "match"? Thanks for any advice, I searched but couldn't find an answer.

[Paul A.]

I just spot repair on my own car. I'll get the occasional light swirl here and there and when they get somewhat numerous, i only correct those areas. I have never noticed any difference in "matching" the surrounding areas. All you are doing is simply leveling just a tiny amount of clear (well, in my case clearcoat) and that should be transparent to anyhting around it.

I always evaluate the depth of the defect and never chase anything too deep though.

[Paul A.]

And the obvious suggestion is correct, then reapply your LSP.

[Legacykid]

Ive had clients bring me cars that just wanted a 1 step polish, and certain areas were so bad I just hit them with a 2 step. So yeah its fine.

only thing I would see as bad is under certain conditions, like if the car hasn't been polished in a while and you hit one panel and not the rest it may look off. But im guessing thats not the case.

[Paul A.]

I agree with Legacy...if the entire vehicle needs correction and you only do certain spots it'll stick out like a sore thumb. You mentioned you did a full correction some time ago and that shouldn't be the case and you can bring those defects out and the whole car should look good.

[cfiiman]

I agree with Legacy...if the entire vehicle needs correction and you only do certain spots it'll stick out like a sore thumb. You mentioned you did a full correction some time ago and that shouldn't be the case and you can bring those defects out and the whole car should look good.

Thanks for all the replies guys. Yes I corrected the whole the car maybe 4K miles ago. It is a show car and mostly sits in the garage between shows. The paint is beautiful it is just at certain angles you can see scratch here or a swirl there, etc. I'll probably just work on spot areas with the most damage and then fine polish the whole panel lightly as a last step, that won't be too much work I wouldn't think since I'm already correcting in the areas. Thanks for the advice.