dsianand

I have some rock chips on my car and I've applied touch up paint a week ago (I used a touch-up paint pen sold on ebay). Then I went and bought a 1500 grit wet/sand paper and 3M rubbing compound.

I must say I regretted doing it as it is not that easy to do. I used car shampoo to lather the scuffs, but it only gets worse as I see my paint getting duller because of the sanding. I used the rubbing compound, scratch remover, polish, wax, but the dull paint look is still there and more finer scratches can be seen. The rubbing compound, as said on the back of the bottle, can remove grit 1200 or finer scratches but I don't see it doing its job.

My question is, am I doing it wrong? I've read the steps from autopia.org and I think I've done everything by what the site said. What should I do now that my car has some touch up paint on the body that I'm too afraid to sand? Please anyone with detail expert let me know what I should do, I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks in advance.

VB87

Can you go in details how you're going about polishing it?

How much product, what pads, how much time, what machine...

picus

It sounds like you're trying to do this by hand? If so, that can be exceedingly difficult. As VB87 mentioned it would be extremely helpful to know exactly what products you're using and what you've done so far - it sounds like the process you're using might be a little off. It would also be a good idea to take some pictures of the problem areas so we could see them.

aaronng

If your rubbing compound can remove 1200 grit sanding marks, then it is not fine enough to produce a shine. After your rubbing compound, use a paint swirl remover like SSR2.5 which works ok by hand. But really, you should be doing this using at least a PC polisher.

And, why are you sanding your touchup paint? Use Langka instead. It is so much safer, and you can get the touch up paint blob down to the same level and then use your scratch remover/polish to get it shiny again.

dsianand

Well, I'm using Meg's 3 steps as my polish and wax, 3M 1500 grit sand paper, 3M rubbing compound, and yes I'm doing this by hand. I touched-up the chips and waited a week before doing the sanding. I lather the chips with Meg's car shampoo and start sanding. After sanding, I use scratch-x remover, then 3M rubbing compound, then polish and wax.

I thought of using Langka before trying the sanding method, but I read somewhere in this forum that Langka isn't that effective, and that sanding is the best solution. Now I wish I hadn't touched-up my rock chips and leave it as that.

Is what I'm doing wrong? Can anyone tell me the correct steps on how I should go about doing this?

dsianand

Here are the pics of the scratches after sanding:

picus

I think that ultimately the problem is you used too coarse a grit - it doesn't sound (or look) like it was un-grit either. If I had to take a guess I'd say those scratches will come out, but it's going to be very difficult doing it by hand. Those pics are after sanding - do you have any afters post-scratchx/rubbing compound? Is it making a dent in them or are you seeing no progress?

I'd recommend heading over to autopia.org and posting a "looking for a detailer" thread in the regional forum that applies to you. I'm sure you'll find someone locally with a PC or rotary that can take those out, or at least look at them in person and let you know what you're up against.

As an aside - it doesn't sound like you'll do this again, but if you do you might want to try Megauirs unigrit sandpaper, 2000-3000 grit. It's much, much, *much* easier to take out the marring from that than it is from ~1500 grit.

aaronng

OMG! As funny as it is, looking at the photos makes me feel your pain. The problem was you didn't do wet sanding. You did dry sanding.... You're meant to soak the 1200 paper in water for 15 minutes before sanding!

ScratchX is at best a very very mild swirl remover. Looking at the scratches, you'd have to go to a pro detailer (the kind you pay money to) and get it fixed with a rotary. Even so, the scratches will not be totally gone. You can still see it but it won't be as obvious.

And........ Langka is good because if you make a mistake, you can start all over again without damage, unlike sanding. And you have to glue the sandpaper to the tip of a pencil's eraser end.

Even amateur detailers don't wet sand unless they have single stage paints. Wet sanding is best left to the pros. I think if you want it as perfect as before, you will probably need a respray.

West6MT

Yikes,.....I agree with aaronng. You are gonig to have to go to a pro to get that taken care of I think.

Here is a good article on doing this type of stuff though. It's a pretty good article and has some pics.
http://www.bettercarcare.com/articles.php?articleId=27

dsianand

I know, imagine I'm the one who owns the car and the one who did this, it really sux big time.

As for soaking the sandpaper, I didn't know that I have to soak it first before sanding. I actually followed and read everystep in the site West6MT gave before doing this, and it didn't mention about soaking the sandpaper first. Now I wished I should've used Langka instead.

As for respray, do they respray just the marrings or the whole trunk? Will the dealer be able to respray, or even maybe fix it without respraying?

Sigh...I still have several blobs of touch-up on my hood that I don't dare to do anything to it right now. I might eventually bring the car to a pro detailer.

Thanks for all the help.

West6MT

Are you sure? The article does tell you to soak the Meg's sanding block in water overnight before you use it (In big letters under one of the pics,....read the two paragraphs under the "Level and Buff" subtitle). After, it says if it dries,......dip it back into your bucket of water and says to keep the area you are working on well lubricated with water and shampoo.

I think it would be best if you took it into a pro detailer. Better yet, if you can watch what they do,.......you will know for next time. It would be good if you took it in sooner rather than later though, so you can get the problem fixed up and then can protect your paint with wax or a sealant. Good luck.

dsianand

My goodness, how did I miss that? Thanks for pointing it out, now I know where it went wrong.

I think I'm going to go ahead and look for a pro detailer, rather than doing them myself and causing more problems. Thanks for all the help.

aaronng

You dont' need to go back to the dealer because all the dealer does is call in the detailer. And charge you an extra $$$ for their own profit. Ask the forums, especially autopia for a list of good and respected detailers in your area.

Don't worry, it is not the end of your car. Resprays are quite good nowadays.
For the respray, they sand down only the area with the scratches, spray primer, wet sand, spray colour, wetsand, spray clear coat and wetsand, compound and polish. They can match the colours quite well. I've seen their work on my friend's bumper. Even the pearl comes out correctly in the sun. And this was from a call out guy who comes to your house in a minivan! Of course, you need to get a good one because they mix the paint at your place to match your colour.

Detailers and people who specialise in respraying are not the same. So you'll have to ask around as well about resprays. In australia, it costs only AU$150 for a respray. So it should be cheaper in the states.

dsianand

Thanks aaronng, I've already posted a request in autopia.org forum. I actually haven't heard about respraying before. I might go to a detailer first to see if they can fix the scratches, and if not, then respraying is my last resort. Thanks again.

kRaZy

Don't give up yet. I just repaired about a dozen chips on my hood/bonnet using the Autopia instructions. It worked excellent on some not so good on others. The ones that didnt fix well were because like you I didnt read the instructions properly. (It's un- Australian to read instructions
So I have a few shallow dints where I sanded with my fingers!!!! instead of a sanding block! duh!!
Otherwise, it went really well and I'm going to try and fill up the dips with touch up paint and sand down.
I'll be more careful this time!!

dsianand

Well, I've finally managed to repair the scratches myself. I used the rubbing compound with a rotary buffer and the scratches are gone completely. Using hand will not work unless using a rotary machine to buff. As for the other blops of touch-up paint on the hood, I bought Langka and all I can say is that, Langka works wonders. It really can smooth down the touch-up paint and the chips are gone, though some require additional work and finese, and it is real easy to do.

So I just wanna thank all the advice you guys have been giving. Thanks.

afici0nad0

so, tried to fix up a scratch on my friend's black lexus rx300.

went to the store to grab some 1500 grit sandpaper. couldn't find any, so we ended up grabbing a sheet of 400 grit (least abrasive they had available).

washed and clayed the car before attacking a small scratch as a test. needless to say, the polishing and waxing didn't get rid of all the hazing left over from the 400 grit sanding.

how would i remedy this situation? revert back to 1500 grit and go through the process again?...

fyi - all this was done by hand, no machine buffers.