Check out what a little Meguiars Scratch X can do for your car.

[TAG UR IT]

Tuesday morning, I went over to a buds house for some 101 lessons on removing scratches from your paint.

Basically, I've had more and more scratches show up over the last year that I could not tell you how I've gotten. It looked like someone set down a box on the back rear of the spoiler and BAM...there were about 9 vertical scratches and one horizontal. All over, more scratches in the clear coat that when washed and dried, stand out like a sore thumb. It's been getting on my nerves.

I've used the Mothers Stage 1 polish, Stage 2 shine, and a coat of wax. But, it just doesn't get rid of all the scratches or all swirls. So, I called my bud who restores old trucks. We used various sandpapers on the clear coat cutting down a bunch of scratches making the beautiful black paint very cloudy looking. We hit it with some rough compound, then the stage 1, 2 and wax. I stayed up from 12:30am to 4am yesterday morning doing the hood and trunk. I used Meguiars Scratch X for a basic swirl removal on the hood by hand...applying and removing. I used Mothers Stage 1 w/ the orbital buffer, and then Stage 2 also w/ the orbital. I then applied the Meguiars Gold Class caranuba wax by hand and removed it by hand, polishing it w/ a terry cloth on the orbital once the wax was removed. I did this very, very lightly.

Now...for the pix.

Before and after on the spoiler. There were some pretty good scratches here. You can see the swirl marks in the clear coat in the first two.

[TAG UR IT]

And the beginning of the process here....

Notice the swirl marks and crap all over the hood. Yes...it was washed and clean.

[TAG UR IT]

Right after the Meguiars on the first 3 and during the final wax process for the last two pix...

[TAG UR IT]

The first three are kind of far back to where you can't get much detail in the paint. But look at the last picture. This is the picture that says it all. It is the same angle that you see from the other before picutres. Meguiars did one heck of a job for me on this one. I must say this has seriously impressed me!!!

[TAG UR IT]

And yeah...my camera got some spots in the lens somehow. You can notice it the best in post 3, pic #4.

[Mindz]

B E A UTIFUL!!!!

[Urthman]

Damn. Next time you're in Virginia I need you to do that to my truck!

[Silverado]

The car looks great Tag...maybe use a little of that Meguiars on your camera lens....lol.....

I miss my days of working in the detail shops where my cars would always be clean, waxed, and scratch free.

[SSMUFF]

Looks great. What orbital do you use? My Jeep is black and man those tiny marks bug me to death. Need to someday try this myself.

[TAG UR IT]

Thanks, guys. I woke up early and finished the caranuba on the entire rear bumper, back quarters, and the front quarters this am....not like it's going to really make a difference seeing as though it's raining due to tropical depression Erin... Where the hell did this come from??!!??

I just saw that you can see the black tube of Meguiars on my windshield wiper from the garage before pix.

Something I also wanted to mention was some stuff called Back to Black . I have heard of it before, but never have used it. Well, we used it on all the hard, black plastic on the wipers, the window trim, the t-top trim, and other hard/soft black plastic. I was, to say the least, amazed at how it returned the parts to their original gloss black shine. I was told that it should only last about a week:( , but I can't tell you all how much it was worth it. It looked like it should have when it was driven off the showroom floor. I didn't realize how bad it had gotten until we hit it.:eek:

As far as the spots on the camera, yeah...it's been driving me crazy. It's a very nice digital Kodak that was dropped a while back. The outer housing is loose and maybe I got some condensation in there causing the spots. But, they have been there for years. Maybe if I have a few minutes today, I'll drop it off at the shop. Hope so...but thanks again, everyone.

Originally Posted by SSMUFF

Looks great. What orbital do you use? My Jeep is black and man those tiny marks bug me to death. Need to someday try this myself.

I use a 10" Ryobi orbital buffer. I have about 10 of the applicator bonnets and 10 buffer bonnets. I use all of them and sometimes have to wash them to continue.

For those little swirl marks, use the Scratch X. It's a light abrasive, but I'd do it by hand. Rub it in good until you almost rubbed it off and then let it dry. Use a microfiber cloth for that and another clean microfiber for removal. I used the orbital for stage 1 and 2 but changed out those pads quickly.

If your scratches are deeper than just a very minor clearcoat issue, then you might want to look into a rough, heavier compound and maybe even wet 800 grit sandpaper. Start w/ the rubbing compound by hand first and see how that goes. I've wanted to learn how to do this sandpaper bit for a long time now and I've finally got it.

[Mr. Wyndham]

That's great!! What a difference!

Questions:

Does that stuff work for other colors, too?

So the basic idea is that this scratch X is a mild abrasive, that "smears" the existing paint over the scratches? Do you have to re-apply a clear coat? Or was that the waxing you did?

Sorry if these questions sound noob-ish - I've never done any detailing...ever.


EDIT:
Disregard...all of the questions.. I mis-read the post This scratch X has nothing to do with paint, it's for the clear-coat...dumb, me.

Again - awesome-looking car!

[TAG UR IT]

Originally Posted by Dragoneye

That's great!! What a difference!

Questions:

Does that stuff work for other colors, too?
It sure does. It's for the clear coat that gets very mild scratches in it.
So the basic idea is that this scratch X is a mild abrasive, that "smears" the existing paint over the scratches? Do you have to re-apply a clear coat? Or was that the waxing you did?

Sorry if these questions sound noob-ish - I've never done any detailing...ever.


EDIT:
Disregard...all of the questions.. I mis-read the post This scratch X has nothing to do with paint, it's for the clear-coat...dumb, me.
You bet...all for the clear coat.
Again - awesome-looking car!

When you wash your car, the mit you use might have dirt in it. Rubbing the mit on the car can leave very mild scratches on your car. When drying, the same can happen. Little scratches show their ugly faces and really get on my nerves. The scratch gets in the clear coat leaving a minute ridge and valley (if you will). Using the scratch X will cut down the ridges and take down a very, very thin layer of clear coat. That will make the valley less deep, in a sense. Then, you do your other layers and the wax fills it in. The scratch will almost not be noticable.

[Silverado]

Oh man Tag, be careful with that sandpaper....if you don't really know what you're doing, you will screw up the paint beyond simple buff/polish/wax repair.

Wet sanding helps a lot....use a spray bottle to regularly apply a mist to the area you are wetsanding....also dip the sandpaper in a bucket of water....use little to no pressure while sanding...and stop to check your progress often....nothing worse than fixing the problem, only to take it too far and make it worse.

I would advise before wetsanding, to take a light to medium grit compound and use a high speed buffer to polish the area. Usually that will work. Again, stop to check the work often.

If you ever get a scratch down to metal, clean it real well, dry it real well, then put some touch up paint in it....let that "cure" real well, then sand it as mentioned above. I touched up an Eagle Talon one time that had a 4" long, 1/8" wide, down-to-bare-metal scratch in the right rear quarter. I prepped it (used an air hose to dry it), put the touch up paint into the scratch, filling it completely, let it set for a day and a half. Then I spent 2 hours wet sanding the spot. It actually took another application of touch up paint, more dry time and another 2 hours of wet sanding, but I was able to make the scratch disappear completely. Unfortunately, the girl driving the car wrecked it two days later and it was brought into our body shop. That car never was the same. But, the rear quarter still looked great.

The other thing to watch out for is the particular part of the car you're working on. As you know, typically, wings/spoilers/ground effects/etc are made of plastic rather than metal. While they appear the same color and everything, they don't buff/polish the same. Any scratches in your rear wing/lip for example will require you to be much more careful when buffing because you can easily burn/melt the plastic (I've done it, it isn't pretty). So watch out for that.

As for the Back to Black that you mention, that stuff is awesome. There is another one that is out that is less "greasy" than the Back to Black stuff, but works the same. It works great on black bezels, moldings, bumper caps, and black grills too. I actually used it as tire dressing one time when we were out of the dressing at the shop (not recommended). Don't get any of it on the paint if you can help it. Also, just a tip using the black stuff...put it on, let it set for a minute or two, then run a cloth over it again to wipe off the excess. A great product to use at shows.

[TAG UR IT]

Originally Posted by Silverado

Oh man Tag, be careful with that sandpaper....if you don't really know what you're doing, you will screw up the paint beyond simple buff/polish/wax repair.

Wet sanding helps a lot....use a spray bottle to regularly apply a mist to the area you are wetsanding....also dip the sandpaper in a bucket of water....use little to no pressure while sanding...and stop to check your progress often....nothing worse than fixing the problem, only to take it too far and make it worse.

I would advise before wetsanding, to take a light to medium grit compound and use a high speed buffer to polish the area. Usually that will work. Again, stop to check the work often.

If you ever get a scratch down to metal, clean it real well, dry it real well, then put some touch up paint in it....let that "cure" real well, then sand it as mentioned above. I touched up an Eagle Talon one time that had a 4" long, 1/8" wide, down-to-bare-metal scratch in the right rear quarter. I prepped it (used an air hose to dry it), put the touch up paint into the scratch, filling it completely, let it set for a day and a half. Then I spent 2 hours wet sanding the spot. It actually took another application of touch up paint, more dry time and another 2 hours of wet sanding, but I was able to make the scratch disappear completely. Unfortunately, the girl driving the car wrecked it two days later and it was brought into our body shop. That car never was the same. But, the rear quarter still looked great.

The other thing to watch out for is the particular part of the car you're working on. As you know, typically, wings/spoilers/ground effects/etc are made of plastic rather than metal. While they appear the same color and everything, they don't buff/polish the same. Any scratches in your rear wing/lip for example will require you to be much more careful when buffing because you can easily burn/melt the plastic (I've done it, it isn't pretty). So watch out for that.

As for the Back to Black that you mention, that stuff is awesome. There is another one that is out that is less "greasy" than the Back to Black stuff, but works the same. It works great on black bezels, moldings, bumper caps, and black grills too. I actually used it as tire dressing one time when we were out of the dressing at the shop (not recommended). Don't get any of it on the paint if you can help it. Also, just a tip using the black stuff...put it on, let it set for a minute or two, then run a cloth over it again to wipe off the excess. A great product to use at shows.

Oh yeah...that's exactly what we did. I have never used the wet sanding process before but have seen it done plenty on television. I had always wanted to learn and finally got the chance from an experienced friend of mine. That was the only way to get some of the scratches out. And it worked like a charm!!! I tried it and screwed it up a couple times while he was there. But, by the time I left, I got the hang of it.

On one spot, I pushed too hard w/ only one finger. That put some hard scratches in the clear coat. It took a while for him to get them out, but little mistakes like that are what make us learn. I've got it down now!