HELP! Wet-sanding, Compounding or Repainting

[rjgervacio]

I have a scratch on the driver side fender of my '10 Subaru Forester which was caused by NYC Plow Trucks this past winter. I'm new to Auto Detailing and would like to correct the damage myself instead of bringing it over to a pro body shop. With that said, I would appreciate all the help I can get here in Autogeek!

Thanks in advance!

Here are pictures of the damage.

Picture 1 of Damage
Picture 2 of Damage

[Mike Phillips]

Here's your pictures... to make it easy for everyone, I downloaded them from your Flickr site and then uploaded them into your account here and now I've inserted them for everyone's viewing pleasure...






Working with pictures on forums is actually pretty easy once you do it a few times...

[Mike Phillips]

I have a scratch on the driver side fender of my '10 Subaru Forester which was caused by NYC Plow Trucks this past winter.

First, looks like more than a scratch


Do you have any type of claim with some entity from the city where they have admitted liability?

[Mike Phillips]

By simply buffing the area with a compound you can remove some of the shallow portions of the scratches and much of the "whiteness" of the scratches although the deeper portions will remain.

The damage would be best fixed by letting a body shop handle this... especially if the affected panel is also dented...

[rjgervacio]

First, looks like more than a scratch


Do you have any type of claim with some entity from the city where they have admitted liability?

Unfortunately none, it was too late already when I found the damage.

By simply buffing the area with a compound you can remove some of the shallow portions of the scratches and much of the "whiteness" of the scratches although the deeper portions will remain.

The damage would be best fixed by letting a body shop handle this... especially if the affected panel is also dented...

What rubbing compound do you suggest for this? I was thinking of using Pinnacle XMT #3 or #4, or even the equivalent item from Meguiar's. Do you think these items will do the job?

I'll try to fix the paint chips by wet-sanding it and re-painting it since I have the original touch up paint anyway. What grit should I start to be safe?

There are no visible dents on it, just paint chips and scratches. Thank God!

[5.4 Shelby]

I saw your question in the other thread about pads.

Those scratches look quite variable in depth. Polishing them out requires removing paint. The deeper the scratch, the more paint needs to be removed to level them with the healthy paint around them. If you can feel a scratch with your fingernail, it likely is too deep to correct.



You will likely get that to look better, but, not perfect. Try light polish/pad first and see what you get. then step up slowly to more aggressive. At some point you will have to decide to live with what you have or get the panel repainted (the best treatment for that injury). You are all the way through the clear and basecoat on some parts of that panel.



I suppose if a repaint is inevitable, you could try the orange or yellow pad/XMT #4 and see what happens. Worst case scenario is you have to repaint anyway. In that case I would use orang or yellow pad/XMT #4 (be careful, very aggressive polish. you can feel the grit in your hand. IF it flings, it will scratch the paint where you wipe it off.). Follow that with Megs #105 or Ultimate Compound on an orange pad (may require a couple of buffing cycles to remove the sanding marks left by XMT#4), then finish with M205 on a white pad.

[rjgervacio]

I saw your question in the other thread about pads.

Those scratches look quite variable in depth. Polishing them out requires removing paint. The deeper the scratch, the more paint needs to be removed to level them with the healthy paint around them. If you can feel a scratch with your fingernail, it likely is too deep to correct.



You will likely get that to look better, but, not perfect. Try light polish/pad first and see what you get. then step up slowly to more aggressive. At some point you will have to decide to live with what you have or get the panel repainted (the best treatment for that injury). You are all the way through the clear and basecoat on some parts of that panel.



I suppose if a repaint is inevitable, you could try the orange or yellow pad/XMT #4 and see what happens. Worst case scenario is you have to repaint anyway. In that case I would use orang or yellow pad/XMT #4 (be careful, very aggressive polish. you can feel the grit in your hand. IF it flings, it will scratch the paint where you wipe it off.). Follow that with Megs #105 or Ultimate Compound on an orange pad (may require a couple of buffing cycles to remove the sanding marks left by XMT#4), then finish with M205 on a white pad.

When I inspected it, the depth of the damage is pretty incosistent. The ones I circled out are the ones that are badly damaged while the rest are still somewhat smooth when you feel them on your fingertips. I'm almost certain that this would require a lil bit of repainting.

I have the original touch up paint. Can I use the XMT#4 to "sand" (since it's equivalent to 1500 grit) it so that the paint will be leveled? Or do I still need to apply the conventional wet sanding process?

[Mike Phillips]

What rubbing compound do you suggest for this? I was thinking of using Pinnacle XMT #3 or #4, or even the equivalent item from Meguiar's. Do you think these items will do the job?

Pretty much any aggressive compound will chew or abrade any paint transfer off the factory paint and also smooth-out the scratches left behind which will restore the clarity to this area making them a lot less noticeable.

Check these out...

How To Remove Paint Transfer

Grocery Cart Scratch Removal using Pinnacle Advanced Swirl Remover and Porter Cable 7424XP

I'll try to fix the paint chips by wet-sanding it and re-painting it since I have the original touch up paint anyway. What grit should I start to be safe?

I'm guessing you're just going to sand and paint the chipped areas? That is the just the places missing actual paint, not any paint left still intact whether it's scratched or not?


If so, all you need to do is sand to clean and prep the underlying panel for good paint adhesion in a body shop situation they would want a pretty low grit for good bite from the sealer and primer, but for this kind of touch-up paint repair you can probably get away with something like around #1500

[5.4 Shelby]

When I inspected it, the depth of the damage is pretty incosistent. The ones I circled out are the ones that are badly damaged while the rest are still somewhat smooth when you feel them on your fingertips. I'm almost certain that this would require a lil bit of repainting.

I have the original touch up paint. Can I use the XMT#4 to "sand" (since it's equivalent to 1500 grit) it so that the paint will be leveled? Or do I still need to apply the conventional wet sanding process?

In my limited experience, the XMT#4 and yellow LC pad on a griots 6in ROP is very close to wetsanding. The #4 has diminsihing abrasives and will finish out a little better than sanding. But, if you stop early in the buffing cycle with #4, it will look just like wetsanding. IT is very agressive and will remove a lot of paint in a hurry.

What polisher do you plan to use?

[Mike Phillips]

In my limited experience, the XMT#4 and yellow LC pad on a griots 6in ROP is very close to wetsanding. The #4 has diminsihing abrasives and will finish out a little better than sanding. But, if you stop early in the buffing cycle with #4, it will look just like wetsanding. IT is very agressive and will remove a lot of paint in a hurry.

I agree with all of the above that Kevin wrote...

XMT #4 is very aggressive, use this to your advantage but do be careful.