Uhh, Scratches, will it buff out and how?

[CITADELGRAD87]

I hit a metal bar on the freeway yesterday, didn't see it until I ran it over. After a Jan 1, 2005 pickup date, this was the longest I have owned a new car without a single scratch. The streak is now over.

Anyway, there are several scratches, all about 3 inches long, ranging from what look like clearcoat depth to one where the undercoat can be seen, can't tell if it's down to bare metal. They are very narrow, though, like what a knifle blade would do.

Will any/all of this come out/buff out/etc?

What's the best aproach?
Touch up?
Thanks.

[marlinspike]

If it's down to the base coat, it won't buff out (buffing a clearcoat paint never works well anyways though, but it won't work at all if down to the base coat). What part did you scratch?

[grinner]

run your fingernail over the scratches. The onse you can't feel will buff out. The ones you can wont. There are several wax products that are the same color as your car that come close to hising these. Make em less evil, anyway.
Do this first, then do the buff thang. Like heading to a big show, you may wanna have the car color sanded with 2k grit then professionally buffed after that. At the very least, use a clay bar to wax afterwards.
I don't buff mine myself anymore. Got too many burns and overall dammage from my noviceness and have found letting the pros do it allows piece of mind that is more than worth the coupls houndred bucks to have it done right.

[CITADELGRAD87]

Originally Posted by marlinspike

What part did you scratch?

The driver's door, about halfway between the trim and the bottom of the door.

Natch.

[HEMEEE]

Originally Posted by CITADELGRAD87

The driver's door, about halfway between the trim and the bottom of the door.

Natch.

Aw man, this is NOT good!! I have 2 very small chips on each front fender (half the size of this spot> ) and I got an estimate from the dealer yesterday, since they already had my car... $756. HA!

I have the name of a guy that does auto paint repair and comes to you. I got this guy's name from my sister, who knows squat about cars, but she said he did a great job on her repair. I have a friend with a body shop that I'm getting an estimate from and, depending on his figures, I may give the traveling guy a call. PM me If you'd like his info, he's out my way and I don't know how far he'll travel but it's worth a call and he may network with others in your area.

[marlinspike]

To repaint a door should run $350.

[dynodon]

Bummer, I wish people would cover their loads and watch what falls off their vehicles better.

Work with a fine glaze or polish (Don't use anything that says the word "compound" because those usually take off all shine and require massive amounts of work to get the shine back). Work right on top of the fine scratches first, and keep working out so you don't make grooves in the paint or make that area look different from the rest of the door.

For the deep ones, if it is just in the clearcoat, get some clear touch-up paint and fill the scratch with a toothpick or very fine brush one layer at a time till you fill in just above the surface. Then when fully dry, use a tiny bit of 2000 grit sandpaper (glue some to a little wooden block) to sand down the filled in paint only to the surface of the rest of the paint. You will probably dull the paint near the scratch, but then work with your glaze again to bring that back.

For scratches in the primer, you need to put in some color coat and finish as above with clearcoat.

Unless they are REALLY bad, I usually prefer to live with a scratch rather than repaint a panel. Even a very good body shop will have a hard time matching the paint exactly. Sometimes a repaired panel will look OK in one light, but totally different in another light. Sometimes the texture of the paint will differ. But rare is the shop that can make it look 100% like it never happened.

Try filling them in, and live with it for a while before deciding to repaint. You might consider consulting with your insurance company if you have comprehensive, it might be covered if you decide to repaint or have a shop do the touch-up. If you have a shop that can do it right, then go for it if you can't handle the repaired look.

Try not to let a shop take a high speed buffer to the panel to try to fix it, the panel will wind up looking different from the rest of the car and if they aren't very good, they could do more damage. You can do what you need right now by hand.

[turbomangt]

Is there any way you can post some pics for me to take a look at closer? Gary

[C-Man]

I've used my random orbital (RO) Porter Cable 7336 with Edge 2000 pads especially made for paint to remove minor scratches that my son puts on my car as he moves his bike in and out of the garage. I used PoorBoys SSR2.5 and followed it up with Poorboys SSR1 and it removed the scratches that cannot be felt with the fingernail.

A RO polisher is a wonderful tool for the novice (which was me before I got the C). You can't really damage the paint unless you drop it on the car. It's not like a rotory that will burn the paint if you are not careful.

[II kings 9:20]

FWIW I really like GS27 for scratches that are not deep. I have used the same tube for years on several cars with very good results.