YACT: my paint job is HORRIBLY scratched up

[Crappopotamus]

Didnt really notice before, but my car has been getting hellla scratched. i dunno if it was me not being careful with zippers or other people not being careful... but theres tons of scratches everywhere, big and small. tons on the hood, plus swirl marks everywhere.

so i got some touch up paint from nissan, the marker type (with both paint and clear coat) and i tried it on some of the big scratches on the back. it works well in that its an exact color match, but you can tell its been touched up cause its raised up. it looks decent on the thin scratches, but there was one broader long scratch that just really didnt work out and is obvious . im hesitant to use the marker on the many big scratches on the hood because im afraid it might look even worse all bumpy

is there any way to flatten it out? sand it? i have some wet dry 1000 grit sandpaper... how would i go about using it though? maybe, paint sand and then clear coat? im planning on using some swirl remover later on too for all the little swirls. would that smooth it out? maybe i could take it to a professional place to get it detailed... get them to buff out the swirls and scratches properly.

 

[RagingBITCH]

Wash your car and polish it. Then a wax. There isn't much else short of getting a new paint job to get rid of it.

 

[notfred]

You can't make a car look good with touch up paint. It's impossible. I've tried it every way possible, with and without sandpaper, clear coat, etc. If it's that bad, take it to a professional and see what they can do with it.

 

[calboy98]

meguiar's scratch-x works pretty well on very small scratches

it also claims to get rid of swirl marks

no idea how it works, but i was impressed with the stuff

 

[amdskip]

Originally posted by: calboy98
meguiar's scratch-x works pretty well on very small scratches

it also claims to get rid of swirl marks

no idea how it works, but i was impressed with the stuff

Guessing its basically rubbing compound which is hard on paint.

 

[KEV1N]

If it ain't scratched down to the paint, detail it or go have it detailed. All the scratches you're trippin' out can probably be buffed out, maybe not by hand but with a Porter Cable rotary buffer or something. As for the raised touch up paint blob, investigate a product called Langka.

 

[Viperoni]

detailing > *

They typically use high speed buffers/polishers to get rid of the oxidation/swirl marks in the paint.

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

Originally posted by: Viperoni
detailing > *

They typically use high speed buffers/polishers to get rid of the oxidation/swirl marks in the paint.

 

[rh71]

Detailing costs ?

 

[Crappopotamus]

Originally posted by: rh71
Detailing costs ?

yeah i might take it to get detailed, pending how much it costs... this kind of thing is really work intensive so im thinking it will cost a lot

thanks for the tip on langka. seems like a good product. i did some research and reading and here some people have used it and have had good results. apparantly its for noobs like me who are too afraid to sand. which is perfect. and apparantly its also marketed by mothers as "Chip Repair Kit".

plan is now to give touching up my best shot (with langka) and then grab some polish (scratch x?) and try to remove more of the imperfections. depending on the price of detailing i might go in to get a cheapo detail done too... i think the max deserves it after being roughed up all these years.

 

[StageLeft]

I didn't realize how chipped the max's paint was until I waxed it. It did look good though. Mrsskoorb ran over something nasty a while back and created a nice big scratch by one of the rear wheels. I got the nissan coverup paint, and no it's not perfect, but it's better than white. In terms of fixing all scratches though I wouldn't bother. I'd live with it or pay for a new paint job (which I'd never do).

BTW a good detailing job will cost in the hundreds (I'm sure you could pay more if you were a nut job).

 

[Ns1]

uh if you don't knwo what your'e doing don't try to wetsand it yourself

taht's how you'd fix the touchup marks

a full on car detail will cost you 175-300