Scratch Removers

[El Guapo]

Long story short, I got keyed, it's down to the metal in a few spots but some just barely catch my fingernail. It's from the rear wheel well to the front wheel well and a little on the hood.

Anyone have experience with ANY Scratch removers?
(Such as the pens, kits, just touch up paint, etc.)
Hopefully I can at least make it less noticeable.


EDIT: It's Silver, if that helps any.


ALSO, How do you recommend to remove Dents that aren't creased? there is a few small ones that are from hail.

[TE]

scratchout works good if its not down to the metal. I have used it in the past. Cant hurt to try.

[El Guapo]

Cool thanks. I might just get a small bottle of touch up paint from the dealer to take care of the parts that's that are down to the metal.

Yeah I know it wouldn't hurt to try I just don't want to give a product money if it don't work.

[WorldWind]

you may hide it, but to remove it you must sand the adjacent finish down to the bottom of the sctatch and repaint

[El Guapo]

That's fine with me. I want to "fix" it as much as I can without spending ~250 and take it to a professional

[brad02420]

Meguiar's ScratchX works great if its not to deep.

[Bitter]

fill scratch, wet sand flush, polish.

[El Guapo]

Originally Posted by brad02420

Meguiar's ScratchX works great if its not to deep.

Sweet thanks. I'll check it out.

Originally Posted by Bitter

fill scratch, wet sand flush, polish.

If I wet sand, don't I have to re clear coat it? Or does the polish do that?
What's wetsand flush?

[soundman98]

scratches are sharp impressions in the paint surface. by wetsanding, you are lowering al the paint to the same level. depending on the seriousness of the scratch/orange peel(if you can feel it, then this applies, if you can barely feel it, or can't get your nails to catch on it, disregard, and try 2000grit first), you might want to start with something closer to 500-1000 grit and work your way up, but as long as you end up using 2,000 grit for the final sanding, it will buff right up..

i used the same methods on my gas door--which had been rattle-canned, so the orange peel was horrible:

[El Guapo]

Soundman: alright thanks for the explaination!
When I wetsand, how long will I have to do it for? Will it be obvious?

[soundman98]

for most scratches, not really.. i usually sand for about 10-30sec, then run clean water over it, and dry the part to see how it looks, and repeat..

it might be best to start lightly sanding with some 2000--that will be enough to take out the small scratches, and any deeper ones will be easier to see because they would still show up glossy.


also, i like to use Dawn dish detergent-- it helps break the surface tension and keep the surface lubricated, where just straight water tends to run off pretty quick and can make it a little more difficult..

[El Guapo]

Wait, So I fill the scratch with touch up paint then let it dry, wetsand lightly for 10-30 seconds with 2000 Grit Wet or Dry sand paper?

how many parts of Dawn for every part of water do i use?

[soundman98]

enough to make it a little soapy-- like the size of a nickel for a coolwhip container.

it doesn't need to be precise--just enough to get the water to 'stick' and the particles your sanding to float

[El Guapo]

Originally Posted by soundman98

enough to make it a little soapy-- like the size of a nickel for a coolwhip container.

it doesn't need to be precise--just enough to get the water to 'stick' and the particles your sanding to float

So I fill the scratch with touch up paint then let it dry for 24-48 hours, wetsand lightly for 10-30 seconds with 2000 Grit Wet or Dry sand paper, then polish?

thats it?

[Bitter]

wet sand until the scratch paint is blended flush with the surrounding paint, wet sand a little more, then polish.

[El Guapo]

so flush that it doesn't catch my fingernail at all?

just clarifying.

[Bitter]

yes, you want to over fill the scratch with paint and blend it down flush with the factory paint.

[soundman98]

sorry, i got confused during the 'fingernail test' post--i skipped over your first post...


anyways, you will want to sand it down so it is visibly smooth.

[El Guapo]

thanks fellas. eRep, bitter, i have to spead some around

[El Guapo]

will this work with the areas that are down to the metal?

[Bitter]

yes, that's why you fill the scratch higher than the surrounding area. clean with acetone twice before applying paint!

[soundman98]

i know your struggling with this-- i sure did when i first realized i had to take sand paper to that gas lid that took nearly 3mo. of work to get to that stage..

so i present a small how-to.

i had to buff my tail lenses anyways, so i grabbed the camera, and took a couple pics(these really need another coat of clear, and i am still not sure i like the way the nite shade turned out..):


your scratch is going to be more severe then the images i have, and you could probably step up to at least 500grit paper for the first couple steps to help knock down the touch up paint a little faster.

a lot of fabrication guys say that the biggest mistake paint newbs make is to step up too fast to too high grit of sand paper. personally, i prefer to use too high of a grit and sand for longer then risk damaging the piece that i am working on..

also, i believe the side of the car is not going to be as contoured, but i have learned to hit the flat/smooth spots first(this is in reference to the body panels, not the paint work)-- work on the sharp corners and curves last--if you try to do them first, you will probably sand right through the top layer of paint--weather you realize it or not, every time you sand near a corner, some of the sand paper will run over it--which can wear the corner out too much if you already lowered it...


so first, some pics of what i started with--

it doesn't look too severe, but there is orange peel--look at how the light reflects off the lens-- you should be able to easily see the light source, where the lens kinda scatters the lights into a blurb.



here is my cool whip bowl, with a dab of Dawn:



because these are not very bad, i went straight to using 2000 grit.
i first sanded very lightly for less then 10seconds, only so i could bring out the detail and get a better idea of how bad these are orange peeled.

once you start sanding, the water will stay/stick anywhere you sanded -- here is after the entire lens was sanded, but before i cleaned it off for the next pic:



so after it was lightly sanded, i cleaned it off to see what i had:



as you can see, the low spots are still really shiny...

so back to sanding-- at this point, you can kinda feel the difference between a portion that needs more sanding and a portion that is almost done--it will kinda catch a little more on parts that need more smoothing.

so once it feels pretty smooth--this took about 30seconds for me, i washed it off, dried it, and took a look again:



very close, there are a couple spots, but very close.

back to sanding, washing, and drying:



there is that little spot along the edge that i need to focus on.

repeat process:




so now the lens is almost perfectly smooth-- there are a couple imperfections but none that any more sanding is going to pull out.

this is one of those things that i really learned the hard way on my gas door-- i kept trying to get everything perfect, and ended up sanding right through the clearcoat, and sometimes through the paint to the primer-- i did this at least 4-5 times... if you end up doing this, you need to add more paint..


so onto buffing:

so the trick with buffing is to remember that you are really just heating up the paint, and moving it around to become a very smooth finish-- and because it is warm, it is very mold-able, so be very careful to not press with your fingers in those areas-- it will leave a indentation, and you'll need to go back to sanding..

so the stuff i use is just the basic turtle wax polishing compound:


put some on the sanded area, and using a clean towel, buff it out until you can almost see the paint get glossy. here is the first application:




after that, i repeated the same step for the rest of the light-- that took about 4 min(still could use another couple tries), and finished the lens.

and the final comparison-- polished one on the left, unpolished on the right:



unpolished:


polished:


now all that's left is a coat of wax to clear up the small scratches that are evident in direct light sources, and your done..

[El Guapo]

thanks soundman, I really appreciate it.
I will give it a shot and post my results here sometime next week or so.
CAn i use this method on headlights aswell?

DO yu have any experience with dents? i have 2 small ones from hail.

[soundman98]

you can def. use the same method on headlights, just use some plastic polish instead of the paint polish.

dents are a very fine art-- i used to work at a car dealer, and would occasionally watch one of those paintless dent repair guys fix cars on the lot. there is very little chance that someone new to it can just go pop a couple dents out. it just isn't that easy. too much pressure, and you have something resembling a zit, way too much pressure the paint starts cracking, too little, the dent is still there....

it is possible to learn, but it would take some time..

[El Guapo]

Can I also use 2000 Grit Sandpaper? or should I start with something a little lower (1000)?
Thnaks for the heads up on the Dents. I will do some more research then decide from there.

THanks alot for your help Soundman (and Bitter). I have been looking at your Headlight Mods and am actually thinking about getting it done, so i will hit you up when I get the money. Thanks once again.

[soundman98]

i would say to first hit it with 2000. it is going to barely rough up the surface, but should give you a good idea of what to do next.

i would probably use some 500-800 to knock down the blobs of touch up paint(when the paint is less then 1mm thick, 2-3mm of touch up paint would be considered a 'blob'), and once it starts getting close, then move up to 1000, then 2000.

2000 absolutely needs to be used for the final step to get a good shine out of it(any lower and the polish won't pull out all the sanding marks.), but you could try to do it all with 2000-- it will just take twice as long as 1000, and 3-4 times as long as using 500-800...

[El Guapo]

I'll probably do 1000 for the paint and just check my work every few passes.
same for the Headlights, I'll probably use some of the 1000 left over from the paint.

Would it be okay to go from 1000 to 2000 or do i need to progress my way up to 2000?

[soundman98]

that would be fine.

[El Guapo]

sweet, Thanks so much for your knowledge!
I'mma drop by my local Autozone and get 3M/3 2/3 x 9 in. Wetordry automotive sandpaper includes 5 pcs. each of 1000, 1500, 2500 and 2 pcs. 2000 grit (03006) | Sandpaper | AutoZone.com

Do i need Polishing Compound or Rubbing compound?

EDit: will this work for headlights? http://www.walmart.com/ip/Meguier-s-...olish/16550268

[soundman98]

[QUOTE=El Guapo;3119379]sweet, Thanks so much for your knowledge!
I'mma drop by my local Autozone and get 3M/3 2/3 x 9 in. Wetordry automotive sandpaper includes 5 pcs. each of 1000, 1500, 2500 and 2 pcs. 2000 grit (03006) | Sandpaper | AutoZone.com

Do i need Polishing Compound or Rubbing compound?

if you are able to remove all the marks from the lower grits using 2000, then you only need polishing compound. rubbing compound is there to remove heavierr scratches-- basically a paste version of 2000grit wet sanding..

Originally Posted by El Guapo

EDit: will this work for headlights? Walmart.com: Meguier's Motorcycle Plastic Cleaner/Polish: Automotive

depends on who you ask.

assuming your lights aren't that bad, then 2k-grit wetsanding with that polish should work.

but there is also this thread, where the headlights were heavily pitted/foggy, and ken recommended a way to correct that:
Failed Headlight Restoration

[El Guapo]

Originally Posted by soundman98

They aren't bad at all. I'll just get Polishing and if i have to, repeat.
I'll also just get some Meguiars PlastX, It's only ~$1 more.

[El Guapo]

...Now i just need a Paint match from the Dealership. Do you know how much it costs for paint at the "stealership"? I saw you had paint matched the outline of your headlights. At least i can get started on my headlights

[soundman98]

actually, that paint on my headlights is a shade or 2 off-- it is off-the-shelf "cardinal red" ace hardware spray paint..(at least my new set. my old sonars used the high temp caliper paint, but with my color red, i just find the brightest red anyone has, and it will be that close to matching..)

i have gotten aerosol paint from expresspaint.com, though that is also not a perfect match--it is very close but in direct sunlight, i can see a small difference, though my car has been repainted in sections(due to some accidents), so that could have contributed to that.. i'm not sure if touch up paint from the dealership will be any difference..

[El Guapo]

Yeah i have had my front bumper and rear bumper replaced due to accidents, and the shade of silver is a little bright and is only noticeable in bright sunlight...
see:

[El Guapo]

I have to soak the Sandpaper in water for 15 minutes before I begin, correct?

[soundman98]

no, i just dunk it in the water/soap mix every couple seconds while sanding--as long as you keep the surface lubricated.. waterproof sandpaper really doesn't soak up water, so soaking it won't do very much.

[El Guapo]

Alright. That makes sense
I saw it on multiple Youtube videos so thought I'd ask a pro
Should be able to do this tomorrow Afternoon