Getting scratches out of paint

anyone reccommend the best products for buffing out some light scratches in my black paint. Some light trees rubbed while off-roading

 

"ChrisFix" has a really good tutorial on his YouTube channel. He shows how to do it properly and what products to use.

 

I've always used Mothers cleaner wax. Works like a charm on light scratches.

 

Are you going to go offroading again? Around here we just call that Rocky Mountain Pinstriping. Just no way around it if you offroad.

 

This ^^

 

I use a clay bar then Meguiars 3 step system. Came out slick as glass!

 

Dr. Colourchip

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/forums/detailing.32/

 

On one of my older vehicles the headlight were getting cloudy/yellow and I bought a headlight restoration kit. The kit comes with medium/fine/super fine sand paper and buffing wheel that you attach to your hand drill. Well I had a lot of leftover from the headlight kit and this is what I use to get rid of my scratches, just use the super fine sandpaper for wet sanding and the buffing wheel on your drill for polish and wax and the scratches will come out with the paint looking like glossy glass. I've been doing this for the last few years and this was better than any other way I've tried (IMO). If the scratches are very light, just use the buffing wheel, but practice an un-seen spot if you've never used a buffing wheel cause it will make it shinier that the rest of your paint if you don't know what your doing.

 

This is very true. However, you can minimize in 2 ways.

1. A couple coats of wax before you go.
2. WD40 sprayed along the sides

An old guy in a local club does this shit before every run and he barely has a scratch. Also, mud washes out easily as it can't stick.

*NOTE: I have never done this myself... the only vehicle I take offroad is a 78 CJ5 that I could care less about getting scratched.

 

Yeah my offroader I don't care if it gets beat up.

 

I strip the wax once a year, clay the tar/bugs/sap off and re-wax. Still looks great for a 7 year old truck. Haven't bothered wet sanding the pin stripes, if I did that every year it wouldn't have any paint left.

 

No waxes will get rid of your scratches. Glazes and waxes can only temporarily fill your scratches. If you want to actually get rid of scratches you'll need a dual action buffer (not a $20 autozone wax spreader), appropriate pads and a buffing/compound.

The cheapest option is

Harbor Freight DA buffer ~$40
Yellow or microfiber buffing pads ~10-20
Buffing compound ~15-20

I personally use a porter cable XP, meguiars microfiber pad, menzerna FG400 (buffing compound and polish in 1) and menzerna sealant to finish it off.

 

No need to wetsand. A dual action polisher and a buffing compound gets rid of pretty much all pinstriping without sanding

 

+1 on the PC buffer. Great unit.

Yep! This with the PC and a light cutting compound will get you there, no sanding required.

 

Good ole Turtle rubbing compound