twister

From the day one since I got my car, I only has been taking it to dealership free carwash (brushless). Actually, too many people abuse this freebie, so dealership makes weekend carwash by appointments now. Since I was getting my VS clearbra installed in the morning, I just went to a regular carwash (w/brushes). Well... when I went through and examined the car I saw at least a dozen of scratches all over the hood and the roof. I mean, these are not deep scratches, just a clear coat surface. This is actually very upsetting to know how soft is GS paint and how easy it is to scratch it. I'm sure it can be easily buffed out, and now I can understand what others in the forum were talking about the "soft" quality of GS paint

BTW, any recommendations on how to take care of these kind of "soft" clear coat scratches? Any kind of electric buffering system I can use? Or is this has to be done by hand only? I know we have a separate "car care" section in here, but I wanted something more specific to our 3GS and how others handling this? BTW, VS ClearBra install actually concealed all the hood scatches (amazing!), but I still need to take care of a few on the roof. Thanks!!!

flipside909

Depending on the depth and severity of the scratches or swirls, you can use a very find polish designed to help hide the swirls. The hand method is usually the best. If you are not experienced using a DA or machine buffer, it would be best to leave that to a professional since it's very easy to make the finish worse off than it was.

This is definitely a good question for our Automotive Care & Detailing Forum since all paint questions are very general, not specific to model.

twister

OK, I will make a post in that forum section. I guess one point I should take is to do is by hand since I have no experience what so ever with waxing or polishing BTW, what do you refer to as "swirls"? Are those light scratches in a clear coat which can be taken out easily, or dust/dirt swirls on top of the paint? See, I need to start with basic LOL!!!

flipside909

Yeah swirls is the light spiderwebbing, circular lines you see in direct sunlight.

Here's a good FAQ on the Meguiars website explaining what swirls are and what to do to them:
http://meguiars.com/faq/index.cfm?faqCat=Swirl%20Marks

dandd2

iTrader: (2)

wow sorry to hear what happened but being a owner of a full service car wash i've never had any sort of complaint of customers vehicles being scratched by the brushes. im unsure what type of material that car wash may use but the car wash tunnel i own uses sponge like materials for the brushes so its never an issue, the only problem i've ever really had was the high powered blowers blowing off parts of the customers vehicles, but that is due to the fact that many customers cars are not quality vehicles when they bring it to be serviced. now to get those swil marks out, go to any detail shop and get a high speed buff job done. that will help blend everything in well as long as its not pass the clear coat. a buff wax job is recommended every 3 months or so in order to keep the paint in good condition. good luck
any houstonians..visit me at www.houstonmisterclean.com mention club lexus and ill give you a great deal on details

LeslieRC

Try Meguire's "Color X"; Meguire's also makes a clay bar that I've heard good things about. I've been using Color X and have seen amazing results from this product in terms of clearing/cleaning out fine scratches.

Good luck!

noncom23

Sorry to hear that. Got any pix? An experienced detail guy can prob get 'em out.

twister

I will try to take pictures when I get home from work. Those are hard to see, need to find a good angle and lighting.

Regarding carwash, rotating brushes were on the side where everything was OK. From the top they had those hanging strips of some spongy material which just brushes the top of your hood/roof/trunk as you go underneath. Thats what caused fine little scratches. I have been doing a lot of reading last night about autodetailing, and found a few references that often dirt and stones get caught in there from pickup trucks, minivans, etc., and than it brushes against your car like a sandpaper. I'm afraid that is exactly what happened in my case

I don't want to detail my whole car, but just take care of those isolated scratches. Do you apply Color X by hand or do you use someting like porter cable? I'm thinking of investing in PC 7424 for this matter. But, if Color X can hide these small clear coat scratches in a matter of minutes doing it manually, maybe I should try that instead?

LeslieRC

For Color X, I use a microfibre towel to apply and another to wipe. Do the whole car, it's worth it!

2thfixr

Sorry to hear about your car. It might just be that particular wash because I have gone to an automatic car wash once a week since day 1 and I have zero scratches. A soft cloth wash shouldn't cause scratches unless as you mentioned there was a very dirty car that went through before you. My carwash has long 3-4" cloth strips that barely jiggle side to side as my car passes through it. Pretty conservative for an autowash and far gentler than those spinning brushes.

I haven't really seen anything that works as a spot polish to remove fine scratches. I have tried quite a few products and can say that sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and use a machine polisher. Menzerna PO106FF or Menzerna Final Polish using a random orbit polisher like the Porter Cable 7424 and a soft red or black pad followed by a good wax like Pinnacle Soverign should do the trick. I'm actually sitting at a beach house in Hawaii's North Shore at the moment so I can't check the exact number but I believe I have my Porter Cable set on 4 or 6. The main thing is that you want to polish out the scratches rather than simply fill them with oils from waxes. If you fill them, they will just come back so it's much better to polish them. My .02 is that it's really hard to see scratches on silver so you might want to just leave it alone and avoid that wash from now on.

chocaholic

It's possible that you may not have scratches at all. If you've never washed your car by any means other than touchless pressure spray, you may be seeing hairlines in the haze that touchless washes don't remove. Try washing it yourself with an appropriate sponge and some good carwash soap before doing anything else. A light coat of Carnuba wax (don't need the fancy boutique waxes unless you're so inclined) and I'll be she shines like new.