Tiny scratches on paintwork…

[Anonymous]

I was polishing my car the other day and noticed that there are thousands of small scratches in the paintwork on my roof. They’re so light that they don’t go through the green paint, but are clearly visible from just the right angle. It might be a cat.

Is there a way to remove these scratches safely? I don’t want to risk nackering my paintwork – every time I try to do something simple like this it always seems to end up backfiring!

I always keep my car well waxed (every week, two coats) so they’re not exposed at all.

Any ideas?

Topic

[Garibaldi]

You can remove a lot of those scratches by buffing your car. You can buy a car buffer and then get the pads and liquid that you need to apply. I believe generally there are 3-4 different levels of buffing solution that you can use. The most coarse will really get out those scratches but you can also easily tear through your paint if you’re not careful. We just buffed GTO Man’s ’68 GTO last winter, I’m sure he has some tips about how to do it as well. Buffing really does make a difference, a lot of the scratches in his paint are now gone.

[Anonymous]

Be carefull with a high speed buffer if you don’t have experience using one. You can burn through your clearcoat if you are not carefull, expecially on edges and bodylines, which would mean the panel would have to be repainted. Start with the least agressive compound and pad to get them out. Start fine, and if it doesn’t do the job use a courser compound. If they are really bad then it may need to be wetsanded first, but from the sounds of what you described a polish and a foam pad followed by a glaze or swirl remover should get you looking good again. A bodyshop or detailer will be able to do it for you if you are not confident using a buffer. Basically when buffing, you are putting in smaller and smaller scratches to take out larger ones, and you step down in the amound of grit in the compound or polish you use. Mequires and other companys have a system of compounds and polishes to do the job. I have been using 3m products.

[Garibaldi]

Quote:

Be carefull with a high speed buffer if you don’t have experience using one. You can burn through your clearcoat if you are not carefull, expecially on edges and bodylines, which would mean the panel would have to be repainted. Start with the least agressive compound and pad to get them out. Start fine, and if it doesn’t do the job use a courser compound. If they are really bad then it may need to be wetsanded first, but from the sounds of what you described a polish and a foam pad followed by a glaze or swirl remover should get you looking good again. A bodyshop or detailer will be able to do it for you if you are not confident using a buffer. Basically when buffing, you are putting in smaller and smaller scratches to take out larger ones, and you step down in the amound of grit in the compound or polish you use. Mequires and other companys have a system of compounds and polishes to do the job. I have been using 3m products.

Yeah that’s great advice, you really need to be careful if you don’t have experience with one.

[Author]

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