Best Way to Buff Out Scratches on Black Car

I ordered some touch-up paint based on my car's color code and got to work practicing on my test panel.

Finding the right painting implement was a challenge. A sharpened toothpick was OK, but it just didn't hold paint well. I scoured the house for something plastic and sharp, and ended up settling on a little spike used for punching holes in jack-o'-lanterns. Painstakingly I used the nubbin to dot touch-up paint directly into the scratches, but I quickly found that getting paint only on the inside was basically impossible. I experimented with combinations of paint, clear coat, and sanding, and eventually concluded that the most prudent course of action was to apply paint, wipe off any excess (as any residue could be sanded and polished away later), apply a thin amount of clear coat, and wipe off the excess again. The key, I'd been told, was to try to get everything level, since it was jagged edges that made the scratch visible, though Pennington had suggested that even if the paint wasn't perfectly aligned, it could be carefully sanded down.

After quite a few practice runs on the test panel, I felt I was ready enough for the main event. I washed the panel area on my Mazda, let it dry overnight, and applied my first dots of color. Despite my best efforts, I was making a mess of it. Partly that was because it was becoming evident the real scratch was irregular and jagged, with a variable depth that didn't respond the same way my straighter test scratches did. Every scratch truly was different, as Jensen had said.

I wiped off the excess paint, leaving behind a slightly obvious smear, but figured I could fix that later. It was the same story with the clear coat. It just wouldn't sink into the scratch, leaving behind a bulbous, highly visible ridge. Again I wiped off the excess, and now had a quite obvious, messy smear of paint on my hood.

I let it dry, then took to the 3M Trizact sandpaper, wrapping it around the end of a paint stirrer to minimize the surface area I was sanding. After getting everything nice and wet, I slowly sanded the area until the paint smear was gone, trying to get the paint on the scratch itself reasonably smooth. This was slow going, and the clear coat was starting to fade badly, leaving behind a significant area of dullness. After nearly five minutes of light sanding, the surface still wasn't completely smooth, and I started to panic a bit, worrying I was damaging the clear coat irreparably.

Finally out of cautious prudence I stopped and turned to Meguiar's compound, polish, and wax, applied with the DA Power System. After the first round of compound and polish, the paint was still hazy, so I did both treatments a second time, allowing the paste to sit on the car for a few minutes before wiping it off this time. The shine mercifully restored, I gave the whole area a coat of wax and called it a day. Total cost for everything I actually used in the repair: About $130.

The results? Well, now, instead of a scratch, I have a slightly raised area that looks marginally darker than the rest of the car, as if the paint isn't a perfect match. It's less noticeable, to be sure—pictures don't really tell the story—but if you know where to look, the scratch is still easy to find. Am I happy with the results? Not entirely, and I'm sure someone more seasoned than me, even after a week of experiments and tinkering, could have done a better job. I am at least comforted that the area, now covered by paint, won't rust, though I'm concerned about lasting damage to the clear coat, and what that might mean down the road.

But perhaps the whole endeavor had been foolish. As Jensen told me, "If it's a daily driver, and you're taking it around town, leaving it in parking lots ... it's going to get scratched. Fixing it just may not be worth the trouble."

Maybe he was right, but what fun is that? Now about that chip in my windshield...

Best Way to Buff Out Scratches on Black Car

Source: https://www.wired.com/story/car-scratch-repair-kits/

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