Advice for Reducing Scratch Appearance (Temporary Solution)

[ac4000]

Any thoughts on whether my proposed (temporary) solution below is the right way to go? Thanks!

Problem: Picked up some bumper cover scratches. The paint is BMW Jet Black, base-clear, pre-water-based. The correct, long-term solution, is to sand the area, blend the black, then re-clear the whole bumper (correct me if I'm wrong); got a quote for $350 to do that, which I think is reasonable.

Proposal: For now, since I don't want to pop off the bumper just yet, I was thinking of wet sanding the affected area with 1500 (or coarser?) to take down the edges a bit, then filling the scratches (they're maybe up to 0.5 mm deep) with touch-up paint or any black dye, then 1500, then 3000, then polish. The idea here is to level things a little, not take off existing clear, and make everything look decent enough for a few months.

Damage:

http://i1138.photobucket.com/albums/n540/ac4000/Auto%20Forums/Detailing/IMG_6532.jpg
http://i1138.photobucket.com/albums/n540/ac4000/Auto%20Forums/Detailing/IMG_6533.jpg

[Dirtyrango212]

Good plan just remember even with sanding to start least aggressive first!!! I thought you were speaking temp cover up like a pure polish to darkn n fill then a LSP? But touch up is definitely a good way to go I personally have done some decent looking work with exactly the steps you mentioned (smaller damage) and alot of (PATIENCE) :)!!! Im not a pro by any means and im sure some will chime in but I've done it with good results on my truck just afew months ago.. my scratches were just as deep and filled in well? Ill try to put up some pics later can't seem to upload from my phone? Just remember patience good prep (cleaning,sanding) oh and some fine tipped paint brushes even toothpick's. Also I found it better to not sand down the edges but to leave them sharp instead and when applying the paint try putting it above the scratch and pull/work it in especially on a side panel... you might surprise your self with the out come?? Good luck :righton:

[opie_7afe]

how deep are those? they look like surface scratches, remember when clearcoat gets scratched it leaves a white "haze" over the scratch and usualy a polish will clear the "haze" up and make scratches way less noticible or even remove them depending on depth. i would try some swirl-x or scratch-x or ultimate compound/ultimate polish by hand and see what happens. dont try to wetsand yet i would try polish first as its less agressive, 350$ to repair that if its not that deep is called rape.......maybe someone located near charlotte could come by and help you out in person and give you some pointers...i think theres a member or two that live in charlotte.

[ac4000]

Thank you both for your replies. I would be overjoyed if those are just clear coat scratches. I'm not sure my luck will be that good, but I could definitely give it a shot with some UC by hand first before trying the touch-up method. Thanks, Dirtyrango, for the tip on leaving the edges to help with the paint; that makes a lot of sense.

(And, yeah, it would be great to get someone with some more experience--and without an interest in selling me something!--to take a look.)

[andrew b]

As folks have said, I would first see if they are through the clear into the base, and if they are, then touch up with the correct (dealer-supplied) paint, (do NOT sand first), let it dry thoroughly ( a couple days) and then wet sand/compound/polish.