Correcting Intentional Scratches on Black Truck

M

Mazdan

New member
I have a black truck that was intentionally scratched by vandals. The paint is not in good condition, but I am thinking of selling the truck for unrelated reasons. Even though the paint is in bad condition, I was thinking of removing the scratches by polishing them out myself.



What do you guys think? Are there better options here? I don't have a lot of money to spend, which is why I am thinking of trying to "fix it" myself.
 
Deep scratches that you can feel generally will not come out. This doesnt mean that polishing does nothing. It can lesson the look of the scratch. Be sure to use a polish with lots of fillers followed by a wax.



I am guessing that it would be through the clear if its from a vandal in which case you should look into a good paint/scratch repair kit.
 
Thanks for the feedback, Ben. What am I better off with for the polishing? Something like Mothers Ball for paint or an orbital polisher perhaps? - Never polished before, BTW. Maybe this is a good first attempt, considering I can't really damage the paint any more than it is already.
 
If you're just trying to sell the truck on a tight budget, the day before you put it up for sale you could: grab a compound -- something like what ScottWax -- recommended, and fix the scratched area by hand with a foam pad. The really cheap waxing pads will work OK, but will require more passes to fix the strach.



Then I'd go over the whole car with a cleaner wax, one coat, and follow with something that preferably has some filling ability like NXT 2 or Collinite 476. You could just only do the cleaner wax, which should keep your total cost to under $20 with the compound, although this would be a good time to pick up something like 476 ($15) to use in the future. Maybe there are filling cleaner waxes so you could just use one product, you'd have to search. I don't use any cleaner waxes so I don't have a good recommendation on that, but it should help generally improve the look of the car with minimal effort.
 
I'm having a hard time envisioning scratches by vandals that aren't down to the primer and past. Maybe some spinning hubcaps would distract the buyer enough to not notice??? All kidding aside, I think we need a better description or photo of the scratches. If they are deep, you'll spend hours even on a small section and may not get the result you are expecting. Something like Langka or Dr. Colorchip might be a more realistic fix if they are indeed as bad as I'd guess.
 
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