How to Remove Scratches from Clear Bra Material (PPF)

**swanicyouth** · 11-30-2013, 10:11 AM

Ok, so the other night I was driving home from work and heard that horrible sound. You know the sound - you hit something, but you just don't know what or how bad it is. Your basically crapping your pants because you don't know if it went under the car or on the side of it. Well, I got pretty lucky this time. The damage was just on the paint protection film (PPF) on the rear wheel slab.

This is an aftermarket sacrificial film. It's meant to take a beating because the rear wheels kick stuff up to this area. So, I'm not looking for perfection here. For $30 bucks I could just replace it. This is the damage:

Not too bad, but the scratches are noticeable. I've never seen I real "guide" on how to polish/correct PPF. Not saying on isn't out there, but I'll show you how I do it.

Some rules I follow on PPF:

1. Never compound PPF. It's soft. All you need is a polish and polishing pads. If the scratch is too deep for that - it's toast.

2. Use a SMAT based polish with little or no fillers. I like Optimum Polish II:

You can get visible significant scratches out of PPF with polish and a polishing pad only.

3. Use a little bit of polish. Less than usual. But, use a pad lubricant like Wolfgang Pad Prep or ONR. You don't need a ton of abrasives, but you want a ton of lube. Also, you don't want to use a ton of polish because you want the polish to work CLEAR. What I mean is, you want a film that is hardly visible, so you can see the scratches your working on while your working on them. But, you don't want to dry buff - that's where the pad lube helps.

4. I'm using a GG6 here. For scratches on PPF, I won't go about speed 4-4.5. But, I will use a decent amount of downward pressure for a few seconds. Make many lighter passes.

5. Follow up with a few light passes on speed 3-3.5

6. Obviously, don't let anything get hot.

7. Don't go for 100% correction - 90% is achievable. PPF is flexible, so the film is likely "dented" where the scratch is. You likely won't remove it all. If you try to remove it 100% - disaster is eminent.

After (no LSP):

Here my finger is where the scratch was:

As you can see, the PPF is "dimpled" from rock impacts. That's it's job and I'm not worried about that. After correction, you want to use a sealant on it with UV protection, or possibly a coating.

Good luck. Remember - No Guts, No Glory.