No_One

Can you share your experiences with touch up of scratches and rock chips.

mac25

A lot of things get stuck in the paint and you would be amazed how clean a car can look after properly detailing it. This works by removing any junk left in the old wax on the car, and filling in minor clear coat scratches with new wax

-Wash car with a harsh soap like dish soap, because we want to strip away the old wax.
-clay bar the whole car, make sure to keep claying the panel until no more junk comes out.
-wash it again. This is because the car will be covered with dirt residue that was trapped in the clear coat and wax.
-Wax the car with automotive wax lie "Turtle" wax and an orbital buffer. Don't use the spray on quick wax; that is meant for touch up, not paint protection.

Now many of the small scratches will not be visible. If you like the result then just leave it there.

If you still have some scratches, as long as they are only in the clear and have not gone too deep into the colour coat, then you will need to
-clean area
-wet sand the scratch on a 45 degree angle
-clean area
-cut with orbital buffer and cutting compound
-Buff with orbital buffer and cutting compound.


For anything deeper then you will need to use a touch up pen

or

repaint the area

No_One

First things first. Thank you Mac25. Your post is a great example of sharing information on a Forum. Top Notch post.

My Civic had about 50 miles on it when I found three 1 to 3 inch scratches on drivers door. Two go down to the first primer coat. It looks like someone standing next to it let their hand swing and was wearing a diamond . Since diamonds are harder than paint, it cut through the clear, through the pearl and through the black base coat. Two of them are too deep to sand/buff out. They are almost to the metal. Fingernails definitely catch in the scratch. One can sand with 2,000/5,000 grit and buff out. I do have an old rotary, yet I would use a Meguiar's MT300 dual action buffer with Meguiar's M105 Ultra Compound followed by M205 Ultra Polish for the shallow one.

My old nerve system is damaged and holding a paint pen or brush without shaking is difficult.. I may ask someone else to do that step for me.
When you use a paint pen, do you come back and color sand to level with 2,000 to 5,000 grit?

Have you tried to fill a scratch with Dr. ColorChip? This product might work easier with my damaged hands.

Again, thank you for your excellent reply.

No_One

This image shows the three scratches that I will be attempting to repair.
The paint color is Burgundy Midnight Pearl.

No_One

Here is a good thread on MOL Detailing Forums by Mike Stoops.
https://meguiarsonline.com/forums/sh...ight=colorchip