desert pin stripes

Stupid question of the day...I think. But could use some direction from you detail'n gurus.

No avoiding pin stripes based on where I venture, but is there a way to buff out the lighter scratches? Cement hides them to a degree until I give it a good wash/wax....like I did Sunday. Looks like a shiny scratched up truck when in the sunshine. Once it gets dusty again they disappear...so screw washing it ever again?

I'm headed out next week to get even more scratches so not sure I should even do anything.

 

I use meguiars polish level 10, and an orbital sander with a good 10” foam polishing pad. This makes easy work of any trail stripes over the whole truck.

 

'Clay bar' works great... I did not do the work, however... but it removed all the Baja pin stripes from my Tacoma (more than once)... and then I put them back on, on the next Baja trip! What can I say, I love exploring!

 

That is not what a clay bar is meant for nor does it have the ability to polish paint.

OP a light polish will do the job. You may need to get DA polisher not a sander. 10 inch is way too big.

 

I have no idea what it is meant for, I just know what I was told and my truck looked brand new after it was done.

 

Thanks for the feedback guys.

 

Clay bar is used to remove surface contaminants from your paint, so anything that is stuck to the paint where it doesn't feel smooth. Clay bar has ZERO polishing capabilities.

 

Maybe what looks like scratches from brush are actually residue (sap)? I don't know, but the 'clay bar' treatment was a winner for my truck. I do know a polish or wax improves the look but the scratches remain if you look close and stand out once the polish fades.

What brand polish is your favorite for removing scratches, and I will try it?

 

Clay bar isn’t a treatment. It’s literally a chunk of detailing clay and detail spray. A polish utilized with a DA will remove the scratches as long as you cannot catch them with your fingernail. If something fades it’s due to the fillers being washed away.

if you do not know what a product is meant for then why are you recommending it for the wrong application? No offense but this is the type of thing that muddies the water for people looking for answers.

 

True, meant to say polisher not sander lol.
For my white Tacoma, a 10” pad with the fairly aggressive meguiars compound does the job and doesn’t take all day. It’s no perfect show car mirror by any means, but good enough for an offroad vehicle that’s gonna get more stripes next month.
Time/effort vs. quality/end result — not worth it to me to try and get a shine worthy of a 1950’s Continental on a truck that’s dirty 50% of the time — and seems like OP is in the same mindset.

 

I’d say clay is a good idea after you wash, and before you polish.
Wash gets the non embedded dirt and grime from the paint, clay extracts the embedded dirt and grime from the paint, and polishing smooths the paint and removes the actual scratches or imperfections that will fill with dirt/grime again
This is the process I use, and also follow up with a ceramic spray/wax. Which i see as a guard against new debris sticking and embedding into the paint again.

 

Looks like most of the confusion has been sorted out here

But one thing worth mentioning is that there is such thing as too much polishing. Depending on the compound you're using you may want to be careful with how often you're using it to remove scratches, especially if you're trying to remove deeper scratches and not just light swirl marks. Remember, compounds and polishes remove material. So every time you use them you're removing part of your clear coat and you only have a finite amount of clear coat. When it's gone, it's gone. Every time you remove a scratch you're removing a thickness of clear coat equal to the depth of that scratch.

Most people won't need to worry about this as they likely don't make or remove the pinstriping super often but definitely something to consider, especially if you plan to keep your truck for a long time.

 

This and the least aggressive 6” pad on a da.

 

Thanks everyone!

 

I recently put my '06 up for sale. I bought it new and it saw heavy off road use its entire life and the sides were ugly from brush, but the scratches weren't deep and I wondered if it could be fixed. So I just paid for my first ever professional detail and 99% of it came out, it's like a new truck. So I'm not worried about the new truck