DIY: Clearcoat-Deep scratch repair

[Wrathernaut]

I spent a bit of this long weekend tending to a few chips and scratches, towards the end, I felt like it might help some of you get the nerve to take sandpaper to your car when it can help.

This method works extremely well and quickly for scratches that do not respond to ScratchX or Fine Cut Paint Cleaner alone, but do not go through the paint. They have a white appearance and no primer is visible at the deepest point. If the primer or bare metal is exposed, you will need to fill the scratch with paint and follow the chip repair DIY also on these forums.

This picture is a prime example of what can be repaired using this method:



Supplies used:
Meguiar's Unigrit 2000 sandpaper (Other brands at your own risk)
Meguiar's Unigrit 2500 sandpaper (optional)
Meguiar's Unigrit 3000 sandpaper (optional)
Meguiar's Fine Cut Paint Cleaner (alternate is Meguiar's Ultimate Compound or Meguiar's ScratchX 2.0)
Microfiber or Cotton Terry Towel
Your choice polish and wax
Your choice detail spray (I use Meguiar's, no surprise here)
Scissors
Water

1: Preparation
Cut the sandpaper into a strip wide enough that you can cover a couple of fingertips, and just long enough that you can hold it securely on your fingertips. You want to limit your sanding to a small area around the scratch, and having excess dangling is liable to bump into other places and lightly sand the paint where you don't want to.

Soak the sandpaper for at least 5min.

Clean the area with detail spray and towel.

2: Sanding
Wet the scratch with water before lightly sanding with the 2000 grit.

If the scratch has a "start" and "end", follow it, using heavier pressure at the deeper end, and lighter pressure as you follow it to the other end.

Do NOT go back and forth, as this tends to sand more heavily in the middle of the stroke.

Stop every 5-6 strokes and wipe down with water again to check progress.

When dry, it is hard to see if the scratch still exists, as the whole area will be hazy:

(2000 grit)

Once the scratch is no longer visible when the area is wet, increase to the 2500 and 3000 grit sandpaper. As you increase the grit of the sandpaper, slightly enlarge the area sanded, and sand more lightly.


(2500 grit)


(3000 grit)

3: Compound
After you have sanded with your highest grit sandpaper, use the Fine Cut/ScratchX/Ultimate Compound and a towel to buff the area to match the smoothness of the surrounding area:


(Less than 1min of buffing with Fine Cut Paint Cleaner later)

4: Finishing Touches
Since the area you just sanded has absolutely no glaze or wax for protection, apply your products of choice to the area now.


Start to finish was less than six minutes (not including sandpaper soak time).

[laksjd84]

dayum! nice job!
i wish i had balls to sand my car...
any special method for black cars or same step?

[TwilightBlue]

What happens when the wax wears off??

[GT-ER]

Originally Posted by TwilightBlue

What happens when the wax wears off??

It'll look the same...I've done this before and it's basically the same procedure that is done when they paint the car it's self. It'll be perfect.

What I'm interested in knowing is what to do if the clear wears off... I mistakenly kinda went overboard on a scratch and the clear went away and the base coat below the clear is a different color ( kind of a darker shade ). I buffed the crap out of it with rubbing compound and it's glossy but you can still see the dark spot.

[speedracerg35]

it's called colorsanding. some bodyshops do it to get out imperfections after a fresh paint job and it's pretty safe to do for minor scratches. the only thing you have to watch out for is that it shouldn't be done near a bodyline. you'll either sand or buff through it.

[Wrathernaut]

Yep, what GT-ER said. The lack of protection doesn't mean the clearcoat is gone, there's still some there, but no protection as in you just sanded any wax or sealant off of the clear coat, so you need to replace it, or your paint/clearcoat is naked.

Since the final sand is fixable by just paint cleaner, it definitely has taken an extremely minute amount of clear coat off of the surrounding area, and you've done little more than bring the surrounding area to that of the scratch.

This is why I posted up the pictures, so you can see that it's very fixable and worth growing balls to do it. It's fast and results are amazing.

Just be sure to try just the paint cleaner alone to see if that will fix it the scratches, or at least reduces it to a level you're comfortable owning.

Speedracerg35 brings up a good point too - doing this over a corner (such as door edge) can put a lot more pressure than you think and sand through real quick.

Oh, and I'm going to do the same procedure to that white speck in the picture... I felt that waiting on fixing it made for a good reference point in the pictures.