Can we talk about your scratches?

[Phostenix]

I have a couple of questions that I haven't seen yet (not that they're not here, I just haven't seen them yet. ).

1. Assuming that I follow the Meguiar's recommendations for washing/drying and product application/removal, how long will it typically take before I will see the usual surface scratches appearing on my brand new daily driver (Mazda3 with Aurora blue paint)?

2. How often do you remove scratches from your personal cars?

3. Which product(s) do you use for these minor scratches (Meguiar's has a bewildering array of products)?

4. Is there any concern that using any of the mild abrasive scratch removers 1-2 times a year will cause CC failure over a 10-15 year period?

Thanks in advance.


BTW, this forum is a great source of info. I've learned more about paint care after a week here than I learned in my previous 43 years.

[Murr1525]

Re: Can we talk about your scratches?

1. It depends.. You shouldnt see scratches, but you will see light swirls develop over time unless you are super anal about everything. Now I would say that most people think my car is swirl free, excpet the folks on here of course who would notice such things. To me, my car would "need" a little swirl removal once or twice a year.

Now what are the usual surface scratches to you? If you mean the typical deal installed holograms from a rotary buffer, scratches from an auto car wash, and having it look like it was washed with sandpaper, never. Unless the dealer already did that for you.

2. Kind of covered above. I would say I detail several times per year, but only one or two of the times am I really going slow enough to worry about swirl removal. The rest of the time I am just buzzing right along cause there is nothing, or not enough, to worry about fixing. Of course I would go slower on any trouble spots.

3. By hand, ScratchX is the current best, but hopefully Mike or someone will mention which is the promising new product. I forget the name and number. By machine, you have more options, but #80 Speed Glaze would be the go-to.

4. Not from Meguiars products.... and as I said above, doing things right, you shouldnt need them often, and when you do, they wont need worked in very much.

Meguiar's 5-Step Paint Care Cycle
Step 1 Wash
Step 2 Clean
Step 3 Polish
Step 4 Protect
Step 5 Maintain

Suggested Products for Taking Care of a New Car

What it Means to Remove a Scratch

How To Remove Swirls By Hand

How to remove a defect by hand with ScratchX

1986 Ford Bronco II - Extreme Makeover

Rotary vs. PC vs. Regular Orbital Buffer

Recommended Products - G100a Dual Action Polisher

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

Each one, teach one... Ferrari Fiorano 355 F1 Spider

[Mort Corey]

Re: Can we talk about your scratches?

3. By hand, ScratchX is the current best, but hopefully Mike or someone will mention which is the promising new product. I forget the name and number.

IIRC, that would be #105....havent tried it yet but it sounds like it will be one of the products coming in my next order.

Mort

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Can we talk about your scratches?

I have a couple of questions that I haven't seen yet (not that they're not here, I just haven't seen them yet. ).

1. Assuming that I follow the Meguiar's recommendations for washing/drying and product application/removal, how long will it typically take before I will see the usual surface scratches appearing on my brand new daily driver (Mazda3 with Aurora blue paint)?

After a few washes you'll tend to see light swirls in bright sunlight. A quick coat of a quality wax will mask them. 99.9% of all new cars have a clear coat so color doesn't matter as you're working on the clear layer of paint. Color does matter as far as visual results as darker colors will show swirls and scratches to your eyes easier than lighter colors.

The best thing you can do is to always be as careful as you can when "touching" the paint, that means washing, drying, etc.

2. How often do you remove scratches from your personal cars?

Everyone varies, for our daily drivers not as often as we used to as where we live it's very windy and dusty and for a daily driver it's a full time job keeping a show car finish. A coat of NXT Tech Wax and the results are good enough to put the car back into driving mode.

3. Which product(s) do you use for these minor scratches (Meguiar's has a bewildering array of products)?

We use M80 Speed Glaze on both our Honda Pilot and our 260Z and follow this with NXT Tech Wax. We always inspect the paint with our clean hands after washing to see if the paint needs to be clayed and if it does then we clay after washing and before machine cleaning with M80

4. Is there any concern that using any of the mild abrasive scratch removers 1-2 times a year will cause CC failure over a 10-15 year period?

No tests to document this over that kind of time period. For us it's not a concern for whatever that's worth. Most people are more worried about getting the swirls out, that's where the struggle is. If you can't get the swirls out you're likely not removing enough paint to have it ever be a concern or an issue.

Thanks in advance.

BTW, this forum is a great source of info. I've learned more about paint care after a week here than I learned in my previous 43 years.

That's quite a compliment and a testimony to the caliber of people that make up our members.

Thank you!

[Phostenix]

Re: Can we talk about your scratches?

Now what are the usual surface scratches to you? If you mean the typical deal installed holograms from a rotary buffer, scratches from an auto car wash, and having it look like it was washed with sandpaper, never. Unless the dealer already did that for you.

The paint looks great right now (except that little chip on the point of the front spoiler already ).

By "typical" I mean the inevitable scratching from just driving every day. I live in Phoenix, so I'm not dealing with snow & even much rain - just brutal, unrelenting UV exposure. I'm sure that the paint gets superficial scratching just from getting wind blown every day. I'm just wondering what to expect in the way of scratches (assuming I'm not inflicting them myself anymore). Do daily drivers normally scratch enough that you guys will deal with it every month, every 6 months, once a year, etc.?

[Murr1525]

Re: Can we talk about your scratches?

If you wash properly, use the right soap, right amount ,etc, 2 buckets, gritguards, good quality sponges/towels, you shouldnt need any significant swirls really cleaned up more than once a year. Hopefully less.

My car is a daily driver, and as I said, what I clean up most people would never even see.

[Lydia]

Re: Can we talk about your scratches?

I polished my truck probably a year ago, and with a wash every 2 weeks or so, and claying, using pure polish, and waxing it every 4 months or so, I still haven't seen any swirls in it (and that's with looking at it in the sun and with a Dual Xenon light). Of course it's really scratched up, but that's another story (previous owner, scratches are down to primer ). I wouldn't say I have a particularly hard clear coat either (it polishes fine with 2 passes of #80). I guess my CC just tends to be swirl resistant somehow. How often your car would need to be polished all depends on how well you take care of it, how often you touch it, and obviously your individual car's paint. On the other end of the spectrum, a few months ago I polished up a beautiful dark blue Trans Am. It had bad scratches and swirls, but after 8 hours of work, I got it swirl free and eliminated most of the scratches. It looked really awesome; deep, wet shine. It took the owner about 2 weeks and 1 wash with bad technique to get it all swirled up again. It pretty much looked like I had never touched it, except the deeper scratches were still gone. Talk about depressing.

For minor scratches, I usually use #80. That's just what works well with my paint.

[Ryan L.]

Re: Can we talk about your scratches?

It is really hard to maintain a completely swirl free finish for a daily driver. I always used to go for completely swirl free, but its really difficult to keep them up. For example, my moms Odyssey is dark, so it shows the swirls easily. She also has to drive 15 miles on the freeway through construction zones 3-4 days of the week for work. She also walks by with her huge purse with all the metal stuff on it, which she doesn't think of much. So that one is hard to keep completely swirl free. If I were to pull somebody off the street and have them inspect it, they would say its perfect, but under a detailer eye, it has some minor scratches.

Then our Jeep...also a daily driver, but also a weekend offroading toy. Between all the sand and bushes and stuff in the desert, its almost impossible to achive completle swirl free. Again though, if I were to pull somebody off the street and have them inspect it, they would say its perfect, but under a detailer eye, it has some minor scratches.

Then the F-150, 6 years old, sits outside all the time, use it to go to the dump, load stuff in the back. That one is hard as well.

So long story short, I just go for good in my eyes, which is perfect in most peoples eyes. With the circumstances of the cars, its just not worth the time or effort to make them look like show cars. So if your car is a daily driver and what not, I would almost say its impossible to kept it looking like a show car, unless you spend your entire weekend, meticulously cleaning it and never driving it.

Ryan