Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Aesthetics keyed - best solution?

A good rule of thumb on scratches: Run your fingernail over the scratch. If it catches easily you will have to paint it. If you can only feel the scratch and your finger-nail doesn't catch you just need to get a small hard sanding block & some 2000 grit closed faced wet sand paper (Miguires also makes a small block of ultra-fine sand formed in a block) & use a water hose to keep the area your sanding wet sand in 10 stroke increments until the scratch is gone. Be sure not to go through the clear coat (you will know when this happens when you will see a clear ring appear and the particles coming off the area will be the same color of the car, if you have a white car this will be hard to determine because clear coat particles are also white). Once you have done that, get some rubbing compound and a rag and go to town. To cut down the time use a high speed buffer (not an electric polisher) & go to a paint supply store and get some hand glaze (which is more agressive than your normal waxes and polishes) Finsih with a carnuba based wax. I you have "burnt through" the clear coat at any point and the scratch is still there, it needed to be painted anyhow. If your afraid of burning through the clear coat (as I was my first time) you can take it to most major car washes or a detail shop and have them try to take it out. It's worth a little bit of money to have someone try to buff it out as apposed to giving up and just having it painted right away.