Beginner -- I found a scratch, now what?

S

sgcurtis

New member
During my most recent car wash, I noticed a new scratch on my hood. Arrgh!! It's not horrible, but I can catch it with my fingernail. And it's maybe 4 or 5 inches long. I have no other scratches on the car.

I'm new to polishing, cutting, etc. My new 7424 is on its way, and I haven't even ordered any pads yet. Thus, I wasn't planning on needing to repair scratches anytime soon.

So, with all that, is there any danger to "ignoring" the scratch for the next few times? I'd like to get used to the new PC and the polish/wax technique before I worry about fixing the scratch. Seems like there wouldn't be much of a risk of letting it go for a couple months.

Thoughts?

Scott
 
Hey sgcurtis, welcome!

I'm a beginner to detailing and have been learning along the way. My car was pretty swirled up prior to using the DA many times. I originally thought that I would be done with polishing in a few hours and was I wrong! Forget hours, it took me months to get most of the light swirls/scratches out and I still have a few remaining. I'm going to be happy with the way the car is now. There are deeper scratches that I'm not going to bother with. You can hardly see them.

I don't see any danger if you don't do anything to that scratch. If that's the only scratch you have, good for you! It shouldn't take you that much effort to get your car all nice and polished.

As to getting used to using the PC, watch a few of the Junkman's videos and, most importantly, use the machine yourself several times. Pay attention to what your doing. Take it easy. My biggest issue early on was not applying enough downward pressure. The scratches were not coming out because it takes some pressure for the machine to do its job. What I did was put a little line in the backing plate so I can see that I'm putting enough pressure but not so much that the pad isn't spinning.

You'll get the hang of it! Take it slow and learn along the way.
 
IMO there is no risk, unless it went through the clear coat/paint and down to bare metal. Get familiarized with your PC( it is very user friendly,first time i used it was on Jet Black paint and did about 80-90% correction on the whole vehicle without any issues), do your whole car and then once you feel comfortable just do a couple of searches on the thread regarding wet sanding/heavy cutting and you can tackle that scratch.


Hope this helps and congratulations on the new Machine, i started out with one and it has given me very nice results. Still have it to this day after years and it operates like a champ.
 
Welcome sgcurtis!
The 7424 is user friendly for sure and a popular DA also.
Best off when you order pads and compound/polish to start off conservative and work your way up to heavier cuts if needed.
Nothing like using too heavy a cutting pad and or compound than you need to.
I'm dealing with a black EDC ( every day car) and it's a constant battle, but I think it's therapeutic. ( although my wife begs to differ)
Everyone here is very helpful, and there are no stupid questions ever ( I know, I've asked a few).
If you enjoy your 7424 and detailing as much as me you'll see your bank account dwindle with all the new and better products that are out there. Just enjoy!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
sgcurtis- Welcome to Autopia!

If the scratch is deep enough to catch on your fingernail then it's almost certainly too deep to completely remove without overthinning the clearcoat. Yeah, I know...people wetsand/compound/polish/correct really bad scratches all the time and encourage others to do likewise. But I myself think long-term and removing a lot of clear renders what's left vulnerable to failure (esp. from UV exposure).

I'd let it go for now or try to make it better by working on it by hand. An aggressive product like Meguiar's M101, followed by a user-friendly polish like HD Polish, should make it less obvious and IMO you should settle for that if you plan to have the vehicle for a long time.

It's not about "going through the clear", but rather thinning the clear too much. You need a lot of clearcoat to withstand UV exposure. The only objective criteria that I can recall on this topic was from Ford, and I can *almost* remember what the "safe amount of clear to remove" is...it's not much, maybe 16microns (about 2/3 of a mil) or so if even that much. Eh, I just don't remember...but what stuck with me was how it was a *lot* less than I would've expected and far less than people commonly take off when getting very aggressive.

And sure enough I see a lot of cars with clearcoat failure these days, sometimes it's *obvious* how the damage was caused by aggressive polishing.

Just FWIW, I'm one *VERY* particular guy and I simply hate to have marred paint. But there are some flaws on my vehicles that I don't remove even though I could do it rather easily. On my "keepers" I want thick, healthy paint and my view is "better to have imperfect original paint than to do something that precipitates a repaint".

OK, end of lecture...but the upside is that you don't have to worry about the scratch being a real problem; it's only as big a deal as you let it be :D
 
I have subscribed to the Accumulator theory of living with paint/clear coat for my personal cars that will get polished every year or 2. very Light cut and polish will remove most the light scratches and marring but not the deeper scratches but it usually smooths them and rounds off the edges enough that they become a lot less noticeable. I don't want to go chasing a few deep scratches every time I would rather be able to remove the marring every year or so and eventually those scratches will be gone by 3rd or 4th polishing.
 
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