over used scratch x?? help

[silversx]

well.. I just got a lexus is250 black and I noticed the left fender has some very light scratches on it.. the area before the side mirror.. it can't be felt with finger

today I decided to go get a product to see if I can remove the scratches.. I picked the scratch x from meguairs..

After using it with a meguair's foam applicator I noticed the scratches still there.. I then went ahead and used the product maybe 10 more times.. give or take..

each time I squeezed a little on the area and rubbed about 2 minutes with the applicator and removed with 100% cotton t shirt..

did I over do it??? after reading the tutorials on autopia.. I'm very scared that I might have removed too much clear coat? even tho the scratch x is "clear coat safe".. the scratches are almost not visible now however.

this product is considered a "cleaner" on meguair's website.. is that the least abrasive?

sigh... only had the car for 1 day..

is 10-15 times of medium pressure enough to damage the clear coat??

[WaspHunter]

First up, for a new car (heck, even for an older car!) 10 applications isn't really enough to damage the clear coat, especially if you're using a foam applicator. Two suggestions I would make would be to put the Scratch X on the pad and not directly onto the paint, and also to get a dedicated Microfibre or Cotton Terry Towel for wiping off so you don't add any new marks.

For me, if the foam applicator doesn't make a difference after two or three tries, I switch to a terry towel until the mark is gone and then make one more pass with the foam. And I've found I can press until the panel is about to buckle and without adding any new marks, and I still don't get a lot of removal.

Last question: were the marks there at the dealership?

[Jbirk]

You are fine.

If it took 10 applicatiosn to remove the scratch, at the very most you took off 1 mil if even that. Most scratches are not very deep.

My guess is you took off less than 1 mil of paint to get a minor scratch out.

You can safely remove 5 but removing more than 3 can be scary. Usually to remove more than 1 or even remove 1 mil you often need a rotory with wool and diamond cut or some wet sanding to really take off a lot of clearcoat.


ScratchX is quite safe especially applied by hand with a foam applicator. Put simply, #83 with a G100 is going to be a lot more abrasive and it barely takes off any paint at all and can be used often.

You probably took off about the same amount of paint a couple of passes with a G100 and some #80 Speed Glaze would take off.

Honestly, ScratchX is slippery like sunscreen. It has abrasives you cannot even feel in it. It will take a lot more than 20 minutes to remove your clearcoat. My guess is you could do what you did about 20 to 40 more times and the paint would still look shinny and have a clearcoat. I am not recomending you do it 40 more times, but I bet the paint would sitll look great.

ScratchX is great and very safe.

Since you have a brand new car that has likely been transported overseas and been outside, wash it, then use the claybar on it. If it feels like glass, skip the claybar.

Finally, use Deep Crystal #1 paint cleaner to remove any ocean contaminates, to remove any invisible oxidation you cannot even see, et cetera. You won't notice much difference, but it will be as clean as the day it was painted if you wash, clay, then DC1.

Finally, Apply a Polish like Deep Crystal #2 if it is dark paint to make it look better than the day you bought it.

When all said and done, put 2 coats of Nxt Tech Wax on it.

Get something Synthetic protecting your brand new paint and then take ownership of its maintainence.

You will want to be the only person to wash it. That being said, never go through an automatic car wash. Never let the dealer wash it, never let your spose or signifigant other wash it...

If you follow this advice and properly protect your paint and then prevent anything but the road contiminates from tocuhign teh paint, you won't get swirls for a long time and when you do they will be very light and very easy to remove with the need to remove very very little paint to get rid of them. I.e. 1 pass with #80 or a few with #82 or #81 instead of multiple with #80 or #83.

Go out and get big buckets 5 galon buckets. You need 2 of them and grit guard or something like a colinder turned upside down to keep a wash mitt off the bottom of the bucket. Get premium car washing soap such as Gold Class, Nxt, or some other companies. Get a brand new wash mitt unless your old one is completely free of debris. Dry with water magnet or microfiber.

If you follow proper washing procedures, you can wash your car 10 to 40 times and only inflict the damage of one ordinary hand wash. If the dealer washes your car, he or shee will inflict damage equal to about 10 to 20 hand washes. An automatic car wash will do the damage of 50 ordinary hand washes... You do the damage of maybe 10% of a hand wash...

As you can see, if washed properly, you can wash often, very often without worry of inflicting many swirls. Best of all, washing will be very easy on a properly waxed car especially when it was waxed after being clayed smooth as glass and chemically cleaned and free of swirls, which trap stuff like dirt. Dirt will just rinse off for the most part and bugs and other contaminates will wipe off easily as your paint will be as slippery as a new, greased, ******, non-stick pan. You won't have to scrub much at all to release contaminates.

Proper car soap will leave your wax behind after washing, yet it will allow you to remove the contaminates before they etch deep within the paint and bond to teh surface of the paint. Essentially, washing once ever week or two will prevent you from needing to use clay for a while. You should probably use some spray wax such as quik wax to wax while drying or spray wax to top up the wax after each wash. Then once in a great while restart the 5 step cycle, but use just the very mild clay, and Deep Crystal #1 cleaner that is much less harsh than ScratchX.

[silversx]

thanks for the advice

i really hope i didnt take away too much clear coat

now i'm going to look for some good quality microfiber towels to use for wash and wax from now on

[TH0001]

I would wager that your FINE!!!!

ScratchX is very gentle and you didn't do any damage at all.

[kpagel]

Originally posted by TH0001
I would wager that your FINE!!!!

ScratchX is very gentle and you didn't do any damage at all.

I agree, you should not have to worry.

[Mike Phillips]

While it's certainly possible, I have never, nor have I ever met anyone that has rubbed through the clear coat finish on their car.

The only time this would be a plausible scenario is if someone else worked on your car before you purchased it, (like Bubba the self-taught detailer), or while you owned it, (you took it to a detailer or a body shop for repair and they buffed all the paint), and buffed off a lot of the clear coat in their process.

In this scenario, if you were to rub through the clear coat it would be because the ScratchX product was aggressive, it would be because you didn't have any film-build to work with because of the shoddy work someone else performed on your car.


For the most part, unless you know your car's clear coat finish is thin because someone's been stupid with your car, you shouldn't have to worry about using any Meguiar's product on it.