Getting rid of scratches and swirl marks

[Johnny D]

I recently purchased a used vehicle and need to get rid of light scratches and swirl marks. The vehiccle is painted black. Any suggestions are greatlly appreciated.

[Murr1525]

To remove scratches by hand, you will need ScratchX. Be sure to read the How-To artiucles on using ScratchX.

[Pete-FWA]

Johnny, have any pictures? Black is my favorite car color. This forum is packed with valuable info and good people who are willing to help.

[Mike Phillips]

I've moved this thread out of the Hot Topics forum as even though you might think it's a hot topic, you don't get to post it there. The threads in the Hot Topics forum are thread that I place in there when they become hot topics for a wide audience of people. I keep the forum open so people can Reply the the topics that have been placed in there, otherwise if I close the forum nobody can do that.

Your question belongs in Detailing 101. When in doubt, post questions to the Detailing 101 forum.

Thanks....

[Buellwinkle]

You can start out with Scratch-X and see if the level of effort to do the entire car is worth it. The real way is to get the equipment and products to do it like buffer like the Meguiars G-100 or the PC 7336. Then with the right foam pad and product you can make it perfect again. Search the forum, there's lots of posts with instructions on swirl removal and how to use the G-100 or PC.

[Mike Phillips]

In order to remove any type of swirl or scratch from paint you need to remove a little paint, here's an article I wrote on the subject,


What it means to remove a scratch out of anything...


In order to remove a scratch out of anything, metal, plastic glass, paint, etc. You must remove material around the scratch until the surface is level or equal to the lowest depths of the scratch or scratches.

The below diagram if for paint, the the same thing applies to just about an surface material or coating.



In essences, you don't really remove a scratch, you remove material around a scratch.

Then the big question is, is the material or coating workable, as in can you abrade small particles of it and leave behind an original looking surface. For example, some things you can abrade, (remove the scratch), but you can never completely remove all of your abrading marks, thus you can't really fix the problem, all you can do is exchange one set of scratches of a different set of scratches.

The next questions is, how thick is the surface material you're working on or the coating. You are limited to what you can do by the thickness of these to things, (surface coating or surface material), and whether or not this surface is workable.

Sometimes you don't know what you can so until you try. It's always a good idea to test your choice of products, applicator materials and application process, (By hand or by machine), to an inconspicuous area. If you cannot make a small area look good with your product, applicator and process, you will not be able to make the entire surface look good. It's always a good idea to test first and error on the side of caution, versus make a mistake you cannot undo.

[Mike Phillips]

Next read these...

How to remove a defect by hand with ScratchX


How To Remove Swirls By Hand


And the easy way is to do it by machine...

Using the G-100 to remove swirls with the Professional Line