The honest answer is that it depends on how much clear coat your car has left, and nobody knows that number until it's measured.
The short answer: Paint correction runs anywhere from around $400 for a light Single Step Paint Correction on a small car to just over a thousand for a 2 Step Paint Correction on a larger vehicle with deep swirls. The real driver isn't the size of the car, it's how much clear coat is left to work with and how deep the damage runs into it. That's why any shop that gives you a firm number over the phone, before looking at the paint, is guessing.
Why We Can't Quote a Number Sight Unseen
Clear coat is a thin, transparent layer on top of your paint's color coat. It gives paint its depth and shine, and it protects the color underneath from UV and oxidation. Correction works by removing a small amount of that clear coat with an abrasive polish, leveling it out until the swirls, haze, or scratches are gone.
Clear coat is not unlimited. Every wash, every automatic car wash, every previous polish job has already taken some off. A car with plenty left can handle an aggressive correction. A car that's been through a lot might only have enough for a light pass, and there's no way to know which one you're looking at without measuring it.
That's the first thing we do, before a buffer ever touches the paint. We run a paint thickness gauge over every panel and get real numbers. Those numbers tell us what kind of correction the car can safely take, and that sets both the process and the price.
What Actually Moves the Price
Once we know how much clear coat we're working with, a few things decide where the quote lands.
Severity of the defects: light haze and fine swirls need less work than deep scratches or heavy oxidation
Number of stages: Single Step Paint Correction is one pass with a gloss-enhancing polish, 2 Step Paint Correction adds a compounding pass first to remove defects before the polish
Vehicle size: more panels means more time on the buffer, straightforward as that
Paint hardness: some manufacturers use softer clear coat that swirls easily but corrects fast, others use harder clear coat that resists swirling but takes longer to cut
Prep work: paint that's covered in old wax, sealant, or bonded contamination needs a decontamination step before correction can even start
Get Your Clear Coat Measured
Book a paint correction appointment and we'll measure your clear coat, inspect every panel, and give you an honest number for what your car actually needs.
Book online or call (702) 302-1800.
Single Step vs. 2 Step Paint Correction
Single Step Paint Correction is a single pass with a gloss-enhancing polish. It's for light haze, fine swirls, or paint that's just lost its pop from washing and sun exposure. It's the fastest option, and it's what most daily-driven cars actually need.
2 Step Paint Correction adds a compounding step before the finishing polish. That's for swirl marks you can see in direct sunlight, or scratches you can feel a slight resistance on with a fingernail. It takes more time and more product, so it costs more.
2 Step Paint Correction is the deepest correction we offer. There's no heavier package beyond it, so for paint with defects it can't safely remove, the honest answer is that some of it is permanent, not that there's a more aggressive service to sell you.
When Full Correction Isn't Possible
Here's the part that's easy to gloss over and shouldn't be. Some cars cannot be fully corrected, and an honest shop tells you that instead of selling you a service that won't deliver what you're picturing.
If the clear coat has already been thinned by years of washing or previous aggressive polishing, there may not be enough material left to cut through deep defects without going too far. If a scratch runs through the clear coat into the base coat (the color layer underneath), no amount of polishing removes it. Polishing only levels clear coat, it doesn't replace color coat that's been cut into.
In either case, the honest move is to correct what can safely be corrected and tell you straight that the rest is permanent, or that a repaint is the real fix for that panel. That's not the answer anyone wants when they're asking for a quote, but it's the truth, and it's why the inspection has to happen before the price does.
The Las Vegas Factor
Cars in this city tend to arrive with more defects than the same model would show up with somewhere milder. Sun exposure here is relentless, and UV breaks down clear coat over time even when nothing physically touches the paint. Blowing dust and sand act like a low-grade abrasive on every drive, which is where a lot of fine swirling comes from in the first place. Add rock chips off the I-15 and 215, and cars parked outside instead of garaged, and it's common to see paint here with more correction work ahead of it than the mileage alone would suggest.
None of that changes how pricing works. It just means the measurement step matters more here than it might somewhere with a gentler climate, because there's a better chance the clear coat has already taken a hit before you ever bring the car in.
Get an Actual Number, Not a Guess
A real quote depends on the paint being measured and inspected first. That's not a sales tactic, it's the only way to know what your car actually needs and what it can safely handle. A quote based on a phone call or a photo is a guess dressed up as a number.
Bring the car in, we'll measure the clear coat, walk the panels with you, and tell you honestly what level of correction makes sense and what it'll cost. If a full correction isn't realistic for a given panel, you'll hear that too.
Where to go next
Common questions
Can you at least give me a ballpark price over the phone?
We can give you a rough range based on vehicle size and whether you're describing light haze or visible swirls, but that range can move once we measure the clear coat. We'd rather give you an honest number after looking at the car than a firm one that turns out to be wrong.
Why do you measure paint thickness before polishing?
Clear coat is thin and finite, and correction removes a small amount of it to level out defects. Without knowing how much is there, we'd be guessing at how aggressive we can safely be, and too aggressive means burning through the clear coat entirely. The measurement tells us exactly what the paint can handle.
Is 2 Step Paint Correction always better than Single Step?
No. If your paint only has light haze or fine swirls, 2 Step Paint Correction is more time, more clear coat removed, and more money than the paint actually needs. The right process matches the defects you actually have, which is another reason the inspection comes first.
What if my car has scratches that go all the way through the clear coat?
If a scratch cuts into the base coat (the color layer), polishing won't remove it, because polishing only levels the clear coat above it. We'll tell you that honestly during the inspection rather than charge you for a correction that can't fix it. At that point a touch-up or repaint on that panel is the real fix.
Does paint correction remove rock chips?
No. Rock chips go down through the clear coat and often into the base coat or primer, which is deeper than correction is designed to address. Correction fixes swirls, haze, and surface-level scratching, not chips. Chips need paint repair or touch-up.