Hiding Deep Clear Coat Scratch?

[imported_jazee]

I`ve got a dark silver car (titanium silver). The finish is virutally brand new (only 6K miles and pampered). I think someone keyed it as I discovered a deep scratch about 18" long that goes across part of the side panel and over the gas cap. Boy was I pissed. To have the best shop in town repaint where you can`t tell, I`m looking at $1K - they do an amazing job (they`d paint essentially half the entire side of the car - you get what you pay for). OUCH.



I stopped by the best detail shop in town and as a courtesy they ran a rotary over it for about a minute or two and lessened it some. They recommended a paint repair shop as an alternative to the high-priced body repair shop. I visited them, the owner said the scratch is just in the clear coat but is deep enough that it cannot be completely removed (you can feel it easily with your fingernail). He said they could probably get a little more aggressive than the detail shop and do some light wet sanding and buffing to reduce it further.



So I take the car in and an employee of the paint repair shop simply spends another five minutes with a rotary. I spoke to him on the phone about the wet sanding, but he didn`t do it, and after he did the polishing he said, ya we can wet sand it, primer, and paint it. Primer and paint it? Huh? I just sort of assumed he determined all he could really do is polish it. I should have asked more questions. I think because of the condition of the car, he was afraid he was going to mess up my clear coat if he did anything more agressive. I`ve yet to talk to the owner whom I originally discussed this with.



One thing is that 50% of the scratch is on the gas cap. So I COULD buy a new gas cap and have it painted and have 50% less scratch. But I was also thinking, the gas cap would be a perfect place to see if I could lessen the scratch. I have basic detailing experience but have not used a rotary before but understand the risks and techniques. I`ve got the PC that is the random orbital.



I`m tired of taking the car to the shops (I still probably should contact the owner and ask why his employee didn`t do the wet sanding and buffing/polishing he spoke of). In the event I try to buff out the scratch on the gas cap myslef knowing I can get a newly painted cap if I screw it up. What process would people recommend to lessen the scratch. I`m not sure even what grit to use. I`ve got one of those meguiars red pads you can put on a drill to use as a rotary polisher (ya, I know, crude and I can see people cringing, but I`m not going to go by a rotary just for this one repair) and then can use my PC orbital to polish.



Before resorting to trying to essentially remove a thin layer of clear coat to lessen the scratch I figured I should see how well I can hide it. After he buffed it, it was pretty hard to see except in sunlight. Last night, I polished it with some 3M Swirl Remover for dark colored cars since the product is a dark grey then put some Klasse SG over the top, let it set for an hour and polished it. It appears I made the scratch MORE noticeable as it has a definitely white color in the clear coat instead of being, well, clear. I`m almost thinking I should try taping the scratch off, sparying it with touch and clear coat and then buffing it out, in other words, trying to fill in the scratch with just a tiny bit of the titanium paint enough to make the scratch dark instead of light. But I realize that`s probably a foolish idea to think that would make it LESS noticeable??



So my question is two part:



1) What do people recommend as the best process to try to hide it. Does that colored scratch hiding product either in grey or black you see in the Auto Parts store work as long as I`m willing to apply after every wash or should I stick to a combination of other products?



2) If I decide to try to lessen the scratch on the gas cap using a more agressive approach than just buffing, what process do people recommend?



Thanks in advance.

[Accumulator]

jazee- Well, if it were *mine* I`d bite the bullet and pay the big bucks for a proper repair. It`s the right thing to do. Now that I`ve eased my conscience by saying that...



Products like the 3M SMR/Dark are probably as good as such stuff gets. Using a wax such as a Collinite paste instead of the Klasse approach will help too. Don`t bother with the gimmicky pigmented stuff. You could order some One Grand Omega Glaze to use on top of the SMR/dark. You might also try One Grand`s Blitz Wax, but keep it off black trim. That`s about all you can do with that sort of "hide it" approach.



If you want to try to reduce it a little more you should *NOT* use any paper more aggressive than 3000 grit and you should *ONLY* use the Meguiar`s Unigrit paper (yeah, it really is that much better). Soak it overnight in carwash soap and study how to wetsand before you do it. Too many people botch it up, but then you`d have to get it fixed right so I don`t mind suggesting you try it. After the wetsanding you`d have to follow up with a pretty aggressive compound that`ll still work without a rotary (the discontinued but still available 3M PI-III RC 05933 followed by PI-III MG 05937 worked for me). Then the SMR/Dark, then the Omega Glaze, then a wax.

[Daragh]

Why not try touch up paint and/or clear coat on the filler cap - leave for a few days and then use Langka`s blob eliminator to smooth out any excess. Then polish or seal and see how it all turns out. The more you try to remove it in other ways only increases the likelihood of making the surrounding paint/clearcoat worse, with the end result having to bring it to the bigs boys to rectify the lot at mega bucks. What you really need to watch if you do get it repainted is that the filler cap is properly painted at the edges. I wish I had a dollar for every poorly repainted filler cap I have seen in my time, even work done by the so called big boys at top dollar.

[imported_jazee]

Too many people botch it up, but then you`d have to get it fixed right so I don`t mind suggesting you try it.

Gee, thanks. :chuckle:



I`ve got a call into the local Aero Paint Repair owner to see if I can get him to come out and do what he said he could do. At least then I have someone to point the finger at beside myself if they screw something up but I`m not scared to at least try reducing it on the cap since I can have the fuel fill door refinished easily.



I have 3M PI-II RC and used that for about 2 minutes with my PC Orbital at full speed and it just doesn`t really do much. If the two guys that used their rotaries couldn`t hide it, then I doubt there`s any pad/compound combination that will do it with my PC Orbital.



So there`s really nothing between that and wet sanding with 3000 unigrit?? Such as using a wool pad on the PC Orbital with that 3M PI-III or that Diamond Cut 2 stuff mentioned? As far as keyed cars go, the scratch is pretty faint now. Can`t really see it at night. I think your suggestions to hide it will make it essentially undetectable to everyone except myself (but as you can imagine it is buggin the hell out of me since it is the only defect in the finish on the entire car - but it isn`t buggin be $1K of work worth. It is probably almost close to as shallow as you can get and still feel it with your finger nail, but it just picks up the dirt when the car gets dirty and becomes more noticeable. You need to be less than 6 feet from the car to see it.



I hate to invest more $$ in product I rarely use, but I guess it is a hell of a lot cheaper than the $1K paint job and even if the Aero Paint guys reduce it, they won`t get rid of it so I`ll still need to glaze and wax to hide it completely.

[Arved]

Why not try touch up paint and/or clear coat...

That`s what I would do. Clear touchup, since the scratch didn`t go down to the base coat. I recommend spending the extra money and get it from paintscratch.com rather than the Duplicolor or dealer touchup stuff. They mix things fresh. Degrease first, though. Paint doesn`t adhere well to glazes and waxes. I think paintscratch.com has got everything you need except the Langka.



Langka actually has a lot of "how to" information on their site. Worth reading before you dismiss Daragh and my advice.

[imported_jazee]

I forgot to ask. I found this forum and really got into detailing a few years ago. Since then, I`ve tried to simplify my life a bit and spend less time detailing (less steps.) I found with a brand new car, essentially all I needed was to apply Klasse SG every 6 months and the car looks great. After a year when the finish wasn`t showroom perfect anymore, I started using Klasse AIO, followed by SG, again just twice a year is all it takes.



So with this scratch, should I just do the whole care with AIO, then SG like always then go over the scratch with Omega Glaze, Followed by Collinite paste or should I not do that part of the car with SG and substitute Omega Glaze. Essentially I don`t want to have to do more than 2 steps for the entire car. My primary concern is I don`t want the finish around the scratch to look noticeable different than the surrounding panel. I`ve had such good experience with the durability of SG and am more than happy with the shine without having to top it with a wax. SG lasts soo long and is soo easy to apply. I`m not familiar with the Collinite product. What says the Gurus?

[imported_jazee]

That`s what I would do. Clear touchup, since the scratch didn`t go down to the base coat. I recommend spending the extra money and get it from paintscratch.com rather than the Duplicolor or dealer touchup stuff. They mix things fresh. Degrease first, though. Paint doesn`t adhere well to glazes and waxes. I think paintscratch.com has got everything you need except the Langka.



Langka actually has a lot of "how to" information on their site. Worth reading before you dismiss Daragh and my advice.

Ya, the scratch is shallow enough that trying to just fill it with clear coat then buffing with PI-III RC followed by PI-III MG and SMR Dark may be the first step (least risky) if I decide to go the DIY route. If it doesn`t look good, the wetsanding route is going to remove most of the touch up clearcoat anyway. I`ve got a can of UPOL Clear #1 (about a year or so old) that I think I did buy from paintscratch.com. I think if I sprayed with touch up before clear, it would make the scratch more noticeable that with just spraying the clear.

[imported_jazee]

Is there a good place where I can buy both the Collinite Paste and the Grand Omega Glaze?

[Accumulator]

I`ve never had good luck filling scratches with clear, but that doesn`t mean that somebody else wouldn`t.



IMO if the PI-II/cutting pad isn`t doing the job, then moving to a wool pad won`t do it either (PI-II FCRC/PC/wool didn`t work worth squat on an Audi and I spent hours with it). Using a 4" cutting pad would make the PC much more aggressive, you might try that. I wouldn`t use really harsh products like Diamond Cut via PC but I hear others do.



I use the Klasse twins on our minivan and the durability *is* great. But I used Collinite waxes on the beater we used to have (outside 24/7) and the durability of that stuff is pretty amazing too. Given the way it helps hide flaws better than KSG, I`d go that route. In fact, I plan to go with Collinite myself on the new beater car I have coming for just that reason- the combo of hiding and durability. Easy to use too.

[imported_jazee]

Well after extensive research, here`s my plan of attack. Keep in mind the scratch is razor edge thin and does not go through to the primer just the clear coat and maybe a tiny bit on the paint layer.



1. Clean with Alcohol

2. Tape off the scratch

3. Apply one thin layer of clear lacquer touch up by brush and allow to dry to the touch

4. Apply touch up magic (from topoftheline.com) and level the touch up paint

5. Polish with the PC



If the scratch is not less noticeable then I`ll go the wet sand route (3000 unigrit).

[imported_jazee]

I should note that I`m going to slap a 4" cutting pad on the PC to polish with and work my way up to a heavy cut product like High Temp`s Heavy Cut if necessary before resorting to the wet sand. The scratch is about as shallow as you can get and still get your fingernail caught in it - like someone lightly took a razor blade to the clear coat. The wetsand will be a final resort unless people think using the High Temp Heavy Cut wit the PC is more risky than wet sanding with 3000 unigrit.

[Accumulator]

I`d use the 3K Unigrit and then see how mild a polish you can get away with. Be careful with the sanding, but you oughta be OK. One stroke, inspect, another stroke, inspect, etc.