Remove light scratch by hand?

[05RLS2]

So the other day we had some strong winds come through and a good sized stick got thrown at my c pillar.:mad: Luckily the only thing that came from it was a surface scratch about 2 1/4" by 1/4". I know that this could be easily taken care of with my PC and a light finishing polish. Rather than go through polishing the entire pillar for just this area, I'd like to try something by hand first. I tried some old Danase SA1 that I had, since it's one of the finer light duty polishes I have, on a foam applicator and applied it with no pressure for a little while, letting the pad do the work, until it seemed like the polish broke down enough. All this did was create light hazing and micromarring from the polish.

Everyone seems to say that newer GM vehicles have hard fnishes, but that doesn't really seem to be the case with mine when it comes to doing any kind of hand polishing. I have tried stuff like Scratch X and M205 by hand in the past, usually ending up with more marring and scratching that what I started with, and end up using the PC to correct.

Can you all give me any reccomendations on products that should take out light scrtching by hand, but are gentle enough ot too crete any hazing or more scratches than before? Maybe It's my technique, but when I am not appling any pressure at all it doesn't seem like what I am doing could be wrong. Any ideas?

[maximus20895]

I've used 105 behind door handles without hazing.

[05RLS2]

105 without and kind of fnishing polish? What did you use the apply it with what kind of pressure? Was this with misting the pad or not?

[maximus20895]

Just 105 with a foam applicator. No misting or anything. You have to use some pressure sine your doing it by hand.

[garcin]

Used scratch x just the other day on the Vette, works great but you need some "passion behind the pad". Finishes flawlessly

[Silverstone]

I used ScratchX and a lot of elbow grease to diminish some pretty deep scratches and they came out good. This was before I ever learned anything online about detailing too.

[05RLS2]

I guess the thing for me is that I haven't quite figured out how to master polishing small areas by hand. I have always used light pressure to avoid adding deeper swirling and marring, but it seems like that more pressure is needed to work the product and work out these scratches. So what's really the best techniques of working by hand, pressure of the pad, working times, etc? Start out with heavy pressure on the pad, then lighten up after a few passes, and until the polish has broken down? Go figure, I am fairly capable at working a PC to remove scratches, but yet I can't do it by hand

[maximus20895]

You are trying to compare a polisher vs your hand. A polisher is 100 times more efficient thus the reason why you don't need to put that much pressure on it. This is apples and oranges.

Just use heavy pressure through out, it's a different game when your using your hand.