I just bought my first scratch repair kit if you will.
I bought the sampler kit V32-V38. I had a spot on my fender that seemed to have a little transfer and some side scratches. I took the V32 with a orange hand pad and got to scrubbing.
A few drops of sweat off my forehead and I've only made a little progress. So, I go at it a few more times. As I do, I start to notice 3 small water spot spots. (that is what it looked like) I hadn't noticed those earlier. I thought, well I better try to buff those out as well.
No progress, so I took a magic eraser because I didn't have 2000 or 3000 grit sandpaper and tried to get rid of those 3 spots.
Well, the 3 dull spots turned into 3 dark spots.
What have I done?
I am thinking, the car must have been touched up before because I wasn't pushing very hard and I see some touch up paint above that area on the fender line. I have attached the before picture and 2 afters.
Do I need to go to dealer to get touchup paint? If so, can I polish it and blend it in a bit? Can I buy clear coat and spray that on before touch up?
I know it won't ever be a 10/10 but hoping for 8/10.
My question is, how did I go through clear coat? An orbital polisher is supposed to be very safe and I only used my hand. With just an orange cutting pad and V32, I started to get through clear??? I've seen videos of people hand wet sanding out a scratch using several passes until you can't see scratch again and simply add a few steps of Polish afterwards and no problem with clear. I sanded with a magic eraser, that should have been safe. Do you guys think this area was polished before and thus was weak? Now I'm scared to touch the rest of the car.
Ok, number one, it's certainly possible to go through the clear by hand. You were using a fairly aggressive pad with a fairly aggressive compound, and by your own admission, "got to scrubbing". Then you followed that with an abrasive product (magic eraser). No, I don't know what the grit equivalence is of a magic eraser.
Is that a plastic panel you were working on? Plastic dissipates much less heat than a metal panel, which makes it easier to overheat a local area, which didn't help you. In regard to your comment about wetsanding scratches...I often mention that we have a lot of threads here from new members that start with "I had this scratch..." and they never end well. Here's a quote from Mike Phillips from just this morning: "The few that do wet sand will do a small section involved with some type of rock chip repair or other repair and chances are good they'll screw it up."
The clearcoat on your car is about .002" thick. It's easier to go through than most people realize.
I sanded with a magic eraser, that should have been safe.
While I'm hesitant to say you went through the clear, that comment about using a Magic Eraser on paint couldn't be farther from the truth.. I once tried using a Magic Eraser as a last resort in order to remove some extremely stubborn tree sap and ended up with a small dull spot on the paint. [went through the clearcoat] It's a good thing I only did a small test spot.. It's also a good thing it wasn't a showcar or anything crazy like that. I'll never use a Magic Eraser on paint again.
IMO you will need to touch up the paint or repaint the area. IMO as well as most people here believe you went through the clear coat. Doing it by hand is IMO even worse than with a DA. You applied way too much pressure. Let the product do the work not (in this case) your technique. It was your technique that caused this problem. I mean no offense what so ever and I am not bashing you. Please realize I have done this before too. I would start looking at a DA rather than working by had. A DA will give you a more uniform layer and will accomplish scratch removal with less pressure. Additionally, you will save a tremendous amount of time.
Again, I hope this will help.
CJ
2013 Mustang GT w/Track Pack 6-Speed Manual
Save the Manual!
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Originally Posted by tenblade2001
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