Ultimate Scratch Removal Thread

[bossman137]

If you area sucker for the dark, then you know how true it really does ring with cars... once you go black you never go back. I've had a black daytona, then celica, then v-star, and finally this wonderful machine the 07 camry SE. I'm in love, but she's a very high maintenance dame.

In my, and many other black car suckers, scratches and dirt show up expecially well on black, but no color is immuned. So after having cruized around the internet for an hour, then turning to this forum only to see there is no real good discussion on this topic, i though i'd get one rolling.

1. Quixx - overall it seems like this one has descent marks. 15$
2. Ultimate Car Scratch Remover - this tops price wise, going for about 95$. It has its own site, and i've always been a sucker for infomercials and that is exactly what this sounds like. But it looks very good to me.

then you have your scratchx, meguiars, 3d.... etc..

In honesty having never done any car/body/paint scratch removal or buffing of any kind i'm starting from scratch.

However I have done more than a handful of headlight renewals, and am an avid woodworker/furniture restorer. One thing i do know is that a magical chemical compound that fixes/fills scratches just by application via sponge is bull and scientifically impossible.
The only way and a very effective way to remove unwanted blemishes and imperfections is to SAND it off usually with rougher grit working way back to microscopic finite grit. And usually a polish is involved aftwards to restore glimmer

Thats why i was so drawn to number 1 and 2, they involve abrasives, they are agressive, most to lost and most to gain. Attack it like a cancer is how i see it. And for my 15000 dollar purchase i'm just find spending an extra 100 dollars on a system that i'll be using on it if it makes a difference.

For anyone who's tried it out, my biggest thing iwant is somethign to remove the female finger gouges all over teh door handles, and to put a finishing touch on some of the little rock chips up front that i took some touch up paint to.

I'm cooridanted, patient, andtalented with my hands i just need some honest american testomonials on the matter.

[Justdiscovering]

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[Justdiscovering]

im very interested to what people say, ultimately i want to buff my car with a electric buffer... but i havent had much luck with scratch removers by hand..

[John1960]

I can't comment on either of these two products, however, I have another fix that has served me well. When I bought my 04 Camry, it had it's share of bad touch ups. The touch ups looked like they were done with a spackle knife. Blobs of paint on top of small chips or scratches. I bought the Turtle Wax Scratch Removal Kit. Walmart sells it for under $15.00 . I could not BELIEVE the results using this product! Big blobs of paint and overfilled chips disappeared, gone, invisable or nearly invisable .


The kit comes with three sanding pads that have four textures. (number one and two are the front and back of one pad). You make about 30 passes with each of the four textures using the lubricant spray during the process. After those steps are done, you follow with the clarifying compound (polishing compound in an easy to use, small bottle). It also comes with a clear coat pen. I have not used it at all.


No machine to burn through the base coat, no hype or "space age technology", just great results. Combined with the proper touch up paint and a little patience, the results will be amazing.



http://www.walmart.com/ip/Turtle-Wax...l-Kit/16767853

[bossman137]

Hmmm turtle wax eh. Well that i can believe unless you are an undercover agent of mr. turtle wax. So I think i'm going to walmart tomorrow and picking out one of these 15 dollar products. I'll go ahead an use this for my woman scratches on the door handle, or even the bumper first. Somehwhere inconspicuous. I'll follow john's advice and post my results with pictures and my opinion.
AND good news for this experimental thread! I found someone to go in on a porter cable buffer with me 50/50.

Amazon

Amazon

I did my research already on these machines, and you have your high speed rotational that it doesn't sound you should start on, and then the safer bet is an orbital (spins and moves back and forth, two motions) With foam pads. I'm having someone with a fare amount of experience show me the ropes. Pray for the well being of my lil black baby. And please in the meantime keep bringing me the tips boys.

So far with buffer i've found:

1. Don't buff in the sunlight, blacks can turn purple, so stay in the shade
2. Set apart a few hours of time, do not rush, less is.. best, you can always do more but never take a pass back.
3. Use different pads for different products, abbrasive, glaze, sealant.
4. ?
5. ?
come on lads fill in my blanks

[John1960]

If your "woman scratches" are deep (into the base coat), you may have to apply touch up paint first, then go to the kit. Even a bad touch up like the previous owner did on my car, will clean up with the kit. The ones on my car looked like they were done with a mop and a spackle knife before I worked on them.

[John1960]

Originally Posted by bossman137

Hmmm turtle wax eh. Well that i can believe unless you are an undercover agent of mr. turtle wax. So I think i'm going to walmart tomorrow and picking out one of these 15 dollar products. I'll go ahead an use this for my woman scratches on the door handle, or even the bumper first. Somehwhere inconspicuous. I'll follow john's advice and post my results with pictures and my opinion.
AND good news for this experimental thread! I found someone to go in on a porter cable buffer with me 50/50.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002654I46/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_1?pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lp o-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B00004SUQ8&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX 0DER&pf_rd_r=155X8B6DXC5BQA2YWFG1

I did my research already on these machines, and you have your high speed rotational that it doesn't sound you should start on, and then the safer bet is an orbital (spins and moves back and forth, two motions) With foam pads. I'm having someone with a fare amount of experience show me the ropes. Pray for the well being of my lil black baby. And please in the meantime keep bringing me the tips boys.

So far with buffer i've found:

1. Don't buff in the sunlight, blacks can turn purple, so stay in the shade
2. Set apart a few hours of time, do not rush, less is.. best, you can always do more but never take a pass back.
3. Use different pads for different products, abbrasive, glaze, sealant.
4. Less is more.
5. Don't spend more time or use a more abrasive compound then you need to.
come on lads fill in my blanks

[eyezack87]

Originally Posted by bossman137

1. Don't buff in the sunlight, blacks can turn purple, so stay in the shade

Um what? If someone posted this as a general comment somewhere that you've read I would like to smack them. Your car is clear coated so you have nothing to worry about. Its probably a small chance for a single stage to do that even. The reason not to polish in the sun is because the polish will flash almost immediately and you'll just be marring the hell out of your paint

[bossman137]

Here is the Before, whoever had this car before me really had some nail issues, worst part was he was a dude... with grocery bagger lady nails.





And here we have the after, i'd say about 40 minutes for all 4 door handles





As is OBVIOUSLY seen, there is an ENORMOUS difference. If you search quixx on youtube you'll see some unbelievable car makeovers lol, but i would say with a very CERTAIN type of scratch or blemmish this is AMAZING.

a quixx box comes with:
1. 3000 grit sand paper (which i only tried using once, you gotta be careful, and these scratches were superficial as it gets)
2. tube of scratch compound
3. tube of finishing compound
4. Cloths to rub with

instructions say rub compound against the scratches for 2 minutes, then finish for 2 minutes. I checked it out after about every minute, and i found i needed 4 minutes with solid pressure, swirling, up, down, side to side.
What it comes down to, which it explains on the box, is if its "clearcoat" superficial" and really that means you can't feel it to the touch, but it DEFINATELY shows, then this is a god sent.

I have my porter cable 7242 XL coming in the mail, should be here by saturday. And although the quixx is PERFECT for places a buffer cannot reach, it would take me 8 hrs to do my whole car by hand lol. But thats why we use use high speed buffers ladies and gentlemen.

So in summary, I'm confident that as long as whatever scratch kit you buy has a "scratch rubbing compound" "finish compound" im confident it would work for what it is meant for. But i give quixx my stamp of outstanding approval.

Next post will be pictures and or video of my first attempt at buffing my vehicule for removal of minor scratches, swirls, and some hood rock chips (which i've already gone through and touch up painted a week ago wish me luck eh!

[igbeserk]

wow that looks really great makes me want to do it on my car. got some paint chippings, rock chippings on the front bumper. Was looking for a tutorial on how to resolve it so definitely can't wait for your videos and pics to be posted.

So fine scratches that you can see because someone went over it with a paint brush can be smoothed out and become near if not invisible with the kit?

really want to try it out this weekend. But perhaps should wait getting my car waxed for the first time saturday hmm.

here are the pics of the main scratches i want to get rid of.

[bossman137]

Well here is a brief summary of my experience with the Porter cable orbital buffer system.
I ended up buying some meguires swirl remover, and the polish and sealant.
I can tell you i put the hours in for sure. And I bought 5 pads, and there is one pad more abbrasive than the most abbrasive one i bought. But i think my first experience was a.... meh sort of thing.
In the end it looked a hecka lot better than before, but in retrospect here is what i've learned.

1. I feel the hours i put in were mostly cleaning off 4 yrs of neglect from the previous owner, be it layers of old was, or grime, or oxidation. I would go around a couple areas that ammounted to about the size of a door before my orange pad was COMPLETELY black, and i would go clean it off. Keep in mind i took a microfiber scrubber several times to the car, and immediately before buffing. I even clay barred before, but the buffer seemed to mostly clean off a lot of that buildup my first buffing session.
2. I got rid of a lot swirls, but even those weren't competely gone, and the buffer diminished actual clearcoat scratches maybe by 25% is all. And i would sit there and buff and buff and buff. HOWEVER i think if i were to go back a couple weeks after and do another entire 4 hr buffing session to my car, having been buffed to clean, i would have different results, but winter commeth and everyone cars are gonna look like crap for a few months.
3. I wasn't able to have great results on the areas where i touched up with a paint pen, but again i think this may come back to needing more abbrasive compound pads or both.

So my initial feeling on the orbital buffer is this. it's main function is for a deep deep cleaning and minor swirl removal. But feeling the car after it felt WORLDS better from one panel to another, you can tell it lifted off a lot that hand cleaning and even claying left behind. I think i'll be content with this lil orbital for a few years, get some experience under my belt before i try some of that high speed rotary crap .

But I would say the hand buff scratch removal kits fall somewhere inbetween clay barring and orbital buffing. They are especially useful for areas where a buffer can't reach. And they are completely safe so there is no need to worry about messing thing sup, its only 15 bucks, and depending on your scratches you'll get good results to excellent results, but its worth a go for sure.

[glenn14]

I have the porter cable 7424 XP with the lake country orange pads for scratch removal , swirl removal, using a compound. Then I have the Lake country white pads for using my glazes, then I have the lake country grey finishing pads for applying my final coat of wax/ sealer. This is a dual orbital polisher and works very well, like everything else if you are new at this there is a learning curve to learning and www.autogeek.net has a nice detailing forum which has a lot of diy's of detailing not to mention that is where I buy all of my detailing supplies. My car looks awsome after a full detail. Here are some examples.





Glenn

[humanhighlight]

You are so right. I gotta say the worst color for showing dirt is white though. I had a white lebaron growing up, and I always swore I'd never get white again.

Originally Posted by bossman137

If you area sucker for the dark, then you know how true it really does ring with cars... once you go black you never go back. I've had a black daytona, then celica, then v-star, and finally this wonderful machine the 07 camry SE. I'm in love, but she's a very high maintenance dame.

In my, and many other black car suckers, scratches and dirt show up expecially well on black, but no color is immuned. So after having cruized around the internet for an hour, then turning to this forum only to see there is no real good discussion on this topic, i though i'd get one rolling.

1. Quixx - overall it seems like this one has descent marks. 15$
2. Ultimate Car Scratch Remover - this tops price wise, going for about 95$. It has its own site, and i've always been a sucker for infomercials and that is exactly what this sounds like. But it looks very good to me.

then you have your scratchx, meguiars, 3d.... etc..

In honesty having never done any car/body/paint scratch removal or buffing of any kind i'm starting from scratch.

However I have done more than a handful of headlight renewals, and am an avid woodworker/furniture restorer. One thing i do know is that a magical chemical compound that fixes/fills scratches just by application via sponge is bull and scientifically impossible.
The only way and a very effective way to remove unwanted blemishes and imperfections is to SAND it off usually with rougher grit working way back to microscopic finite grit. And usually a polish is involved aftwards to restore glimmer

Thats why i was so drawn to number 1 and 2, they involve abrasives, they are agressive, most to lost and most to gain. Attack it like a cancer is how i see it. And for my 15000 dollar purchase i'm just find spending an extra 100 dollars on a system that i'll be using on it if it makes a difference.

For anyone who's tried it out, my biggest thing iwant is somethign to remove the female finger gouges all over teh door handles, and to put a finishing touch on some of the little rock chips up front that i took to a touch up paint manufacturer.

I'm cooridanted, patient, andtalented with my hands i just need some honest american testomonials on the matter.

[TrailDust]

Originally Posted by humanhighlight

You are so right. I gotta say the worst color for showing dirt is white though. I had a white lebaron growing up, and I always swore I'd never get white again.

Hmmm, interesting. I think it's the reverse, that white is excellent at not showing dirt, although I admit that up close dirt is easy to see as opposed to standing away at any kind of a distance white appears clean. Personally, I think green and blue are the worst at showing dirt. Black and red are the biggest problems when showing scratches. Just my take.

[TJHammer]

Originally Posted by TrailDust

Hmmm, interesting. I think it's the reverse, that white is excellent at not showing dirt, although I admit that up close dirt is easy to see as opposed to standing away at any kind of a distance white appears clean. Personally, I think green and blue are the worst at showing dirt. Black and red are the biggest problems when showing scratches. Just my take.

Agreed, and bumping this up with a comment:
I am starting to realize more frustration with black cars; if you do as prescribed, by avoiding quick flashing by de-swirling/polishing/waxing in the cool shade, you appear to be doing a solid flawless job; that is, until the sun gets to eventually hit it at just the right angle to reveal some more swirls or micro fine scratches.

Black cars = can't win
Solution: I only drive her on cloudy days or at night lol