Need help with a LONG SCRATCH!!

[spumoni]

Hello again - it's me with the black Gallardo. I noticed a few long light scratches low down on the drivers door. It was very difficult to get a photo of it, but they're pretty long and travel half the length of the door. I"m sure this happened during delivery.

I've removed some minor swirls in tight areas with a 4 inch orange pad and Wolfgang Total Swirl 3.0 with good results, but these seem like a different animal. They're certainly not deep enough to feel, but you can see them and they're LONG.

Any safe ideas I can try as a novice, or should I leave it alone.

Thanks in advance.

[Slickery]

You can try polishing it out. If that doesn't get it, then try some 1500 to 2000 grit sand paper and wetsand it. Try 2000 first it is the least aggressive. Just keep it soaked, and don't rub too hard. You can't really hurt much if you use w 2000 grit. If your not up for that, take it to a detailer. It's just in the clear coat right? I can barely see it. If it's not that bad, I would leave it alone with a car like that unless it really bugs you.

[getcha]

EDIT: I would advise against wetsanding for right now to the poster, only because he was weary enough about washing his car let alone how to approach the scratch situation.

Sorry to hear that

Im sure by reading so much now you have heard about the least aggressive method. Seeing what products you have and seeing that your Wolfgang swirl remover did a good job in your opinion on your swirls and the hazy areas you could try using what you have. You never know they may be easy to see but very superficial.

Sometimes when we deal with scratches they look worse than they are because they are wide while not being deep. This means while they are sore on the eyes, they are easy enough to correct.

If you are comfortable with your PC and Wolfgang and IF you don't want to order anything else, it may not be a bad idea to try a couple polishing sets on the scratches before making another step or another purchase.. Just remember 4inch pads on the PC make things a little more aggressive(compared to the same situation on a 6inch pad) just remember to keep the polisher moving and don't stay over one spot for long, working the area with overlapping passes until the polish is broken down.

If the situation isn't resolved what other products do you have??

[spumoni]

Thanks for the response - I also have Meg's 105, but for a car like this I would be crazy not to purchase the correct products. This situation will inevitably arise again, and I'd like to be prepared.

So if you could make any recommendation what would it be?

Thanks.

[efnfast]

Originally Posted by spumoni

Thanks for the response - I also have Meg's 105, but for a car like this I would be crazy not to purchase the correct products. This situation will inevitably arise again, and I'd like to be prepared.

So if you could make any recommendation what would it be?

Thanks.

Leave it be for down the road when you get more scratches & more experience. it doesn't even look that bad in the photos.

[getcha]

Lamborghini since being taken by VAG is fortunately now much harder to correct. As far as my experience, many guys on the board SWEAR the paint is very hard and very stubborn to correct. When dealing with moderate imperfections I have taken a relatively conservative approach with great result.

Being that the paint is now on the hard side alot with recommend having access to Menzerna products designed for the ceramiclear line of finishes. Also with gallardos having such body lines, small sections, meaning small pads with your PC are probably going to be needed.

I would have a pair of orange, green, white and black pads maybe red if you wanted some pads with no mechanical work ability(for either burnishing the paint OR for LSP application or glaze application). If your particular paint ends up being very stubborn with foam pads, purple foamed wool is the next step up from orange that finishes down very nicely, much nicer than some foam pads

Alot will recommend SIP po83 for your defect removal(paired with an appropriate pad of course), 203s power finish for a one step or a mild/moderate combo polish that finishes nicely, 106FA or FF for the step down coming from SIP, then po85RD which would be for final polishing for gloss enhancement OR if a paint were very soft and only dull it could be used for minor defect removal. You can now find these in the 16oz sizes.

Another option that is becoming very popular is the 105/205 combination on orange then white and black pads both PC and rotary. It involves using the Kevin Brown named method of using distilled water for extending a sometimes short work time on the 105 and 205, though this has been used for a while with other things. Available from Autodetailingsolutions.net in 12oz bottles.

Some will swear you need a rotary for some paints, but using a little ingenuity, innovation and patience you should fare just fine. Also, its very hard to see the scratches in the paint, maybe moving the camera but you could play the least aggressive method on this one and wait a little while in case you get some wash inducing light marring and then tackle it in one shot

Good luck with your choice

[Slickery]

x2 for Menzerna. It wouldn't cost that much to get that buffed by a pro who has insurance too. A novice shouldn't start detailing on a lambo baby bull IMO.

[spumoni]

Getcha - I will spend some time tonight looking up those codes and will do some research. Thanks to all for taking the time to help me. I agree, as a novice I am not in a hurry to tackle this, but I've been fooling with cars for the past 20 years so I need to learn sometime. Of course I test everything first on my daily driver which is also black.

For now can anyone recommend something that will hide the scratch best? Perhaps poorboys blackhole?

[Accumulator]

Spumoni- I've never had much luck concealing such things, but maybe the
Black Hole will help a bit.

If the paint on that is similar to that on Audis, the M105/M205 combo would be a good way to go. No, a rotary is *NOT* necessary, use a PC/etc. with 4" pads or one of the little 3" random orbitals from Griot's or [oh shoot, I can't remember who else makes them...sorry, brain-pause maybe it's Metabo].

You could finish up with the Pinnacle products that have served you so well after using the Meguiar's stuff to correct the scratch. IF you aim for "much better" as opposed to "perfect" things should go fine.

You could even get some improvement using the M105/M205 by hand and that would be a very safe way to approach this. (FWIW, I removed a similar scratch from the A8's hard clear by hand using M105 just to see how it would go; it took a while but it wasn't all that bad.)

[efnfast]

Originally Posted by Accumulator

(FWIW, I removed a similar scratch from the A8's hard clear by hand using M105 just to see how it would go; it took a while but it wasn't all that bad.)

Define "a while"?

[Accumulator]

Originally Posted by efnfast

Define "a while"?

Heh heh, yeah....well, not as long as fingernail scratches behind door handles used to take in the pre-M105 days, that's for sure

But yesterday I worked on some not-awful RIDS in the "hatch jamb" of the Yukon, where the polisher wouldn't fit. M105/terry by hand. I said "good enough" (in other words, I gave up ) after maybe half an hour. They're still there and they're still serious enough to bug me. Shoulda wetsanded first.

So, how bad do ya want it?

But on wide, open areas where you can get your whole arm/shoulder/upper body into the job, it's really not all that tough. Doing it in an area where your motion is constricted makes it a lot worse. The stuff Spumoni's dealing with shouldn't be all that bad, especially for a "five foot test" level of correction.

[spumoni]

Are you saying that longer scratches are easier? The scratches have to be about 3 feet long, and are on the middle to lower section of the drivers door.

Knowing me, I'll probably research this for a few weeks or so, spend about a thousand dollars on different products, and then chicken out in the end.

Fact is, I still haven't fully examined the area I treated with the wolfgang total swirl and the 4 inch orange pad (rear license plate area). If that looks good in the direct sun, then I'll feel more confident.

In the meantime, I'll be looking into all the recommendations made in this post.