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Scratch Repair - This is what I came home to after a deployment - Before & After

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Old Oct 4, 2012 | 05:28 PM
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Angry Scratch Repair - This is what I came home to after a deployment - Before & After

So my wife scraped the trashcan while pulling into the garage. Didn't expect it to be this bad:



The scratch ran all the way from the front passenger door handle to the rear taillight.



I hoped it would buff out with M105 and a wood pad, but it was definitely to deep for that.

After getting started with wetsanding with clay bar lube and some 3m 800 grit automotive sandpaper, I started taking photos. This was by far the worst section. The masking tape was to help the camera focus a bit and keep the same color.







Yes, it's gone through the paint right at the edge there. I'll have to get the touch-up paint and correct that too.


Leveled the clearcoat to the level of the scratch with the 800 grit here:


1000 grit:


1500 grit:


2000 grit:


After the 2000 grit, I used the Meguiar's M105 with the wool pad on speed 6:


If you know to look for it, you can see where the scratch was, but it's definitely not the sore thumb it had been. I could have smoothed it out more, but I really didn't want to thin the clear out any more than necessary, since this is a daily driver, not a show car.
 
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Old Oct 4, 2012 | 05:41 PM
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Holy cow! Great work!!!
 
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Old Oct 4, 2012 | 07:11 PM
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Originally Posted by Pepper
Holy cow! Great work!!!
Thanks. I guess this can help people get over the fear of taking sandpaper to your car to fix something that requires it.
 
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Old Nov 5, 2012 | 01:49 PM
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Wow, I got to 2nd to last pic and thought... why does he keep sanding at it!

Really nice work, thanks for posting.
 
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Old Nov 9, 2012 | 08:24 AM
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Originally Posted by jstudrawa
Wow, I got to 2nd to last pic and thought... why does he keep sanding at it!

Really nice work, thanks for posting.
It's very light sanding, it just completely remove all gloss from the clearcoat until it gets hit with the proper compound, so yeah, it's scary as you go, but finished product is definitely worth it.
 
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Old Nov 9, 2012 | 08:41 AM
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nice work
 
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Old Nov 9, 2012 | 06:12 PM
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Nice work!!
 
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Old Dec 13, 2012 | 11:16 PM
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Great work...I've ALWAYS been scared to touch paint with sandpaper. I've recently done some lens restore with the 3M kit on couple of other cars in the family and now confident I can touch up a couple of nicks on my G35. The lens restore process is similar to what you've done..at first you're like "oh chit" but as you go along you kind of see it come through.
 
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Old Dec 14, 2012 | 03:00 PM
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Very nice job, I would recommend not to ever start with 800 sandpaper to remove marks. It cuts really fast for a factory finish. I recommend to start with 1000. But very good good done.
 
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Old Dec 14, 2012 | 03:26 PM
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Originally Posted by terrorx7
Great work...I've ALWAYS been scared to touch paint with sandpaper. I've recently done some lens restore with the 3M kit on couple of other cars in the family and now confident I can touch up a couple of nicks on my G35. The lens restore process is similar to what you've done..at first you're like "oh chit" but as you go along you kind of see it come through.
I share the same fear haha.

Great job, OP.
 
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