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MG MGF Technical - How to remove faint surface scratches on bodywork

To All

I'm just preparing the car for sale, mixed feelings, and I want to remove some faint surface scratches. They're just in the clear top coat and virtually come out with autoglym polish and wax, but I wondered on using something to remove them completely.

You hardly notice them, but i know they're there, so wondered if anyone had any bright ideas.

Any suggestions gratefully received

Cheers

DJ
DJ

You could try the following in descending order or aggression

P2000 wet/dry paper
Rubbing down compound
Solvol Autosol
Tcut-regular
Tcut-superfine
Farecla superfine rubbing milk

Make sure the area is completely clean and use a lint free cloth, lubricate with warm soapy water if using P2000

Finish with urethane wax like Mer or Autoglym.

Dave
Dave andrews

Well, you could use T-cut, slightly more abrasive than autoglym.
Or you could use 1500 grade wet and dry paper (use wet) folowed by T-cut and then autoglym.

BUT you run the risk of rubbing thru the laquer, and then there will be a patch which is not quite the same colour as the rest of the car. I'd leave it if I were you, the buyer knows they are buying a second hand car.

Also I wouldn't do the final polish with autoglym, it has chalk as the abrasive, which fills the cracks and shows up white, use a car wax rather than polish to finish off.

Will
Will Munns

Dave

Cheers for that. I found some Autoglym colour restorer in the shed which seems to be similar to T-Cut, but my concern was damaging the paintwork further. Its pearlescent Tahiti Blue. Would that be OK to use?

DJ
DJ

Personally I'd follow Will's advice and not use any colour restorer on it (I did on my 'F', however it wasn't an obvious area). Metallics are especially bad if you go through the laquer.

Go for the wax rather than the Autoglym, and leave it at that. At least try it before getting abrasive.
Leigh

Wet and dry on your pride and joy? On a 10 year old abused Corsa maybe....I would also only use T Cut and Colour restores on a tatty car.

If it really is only the light scrathcing of a well washed and regularly polished car, then I would suggest a good polish with Autoglym and then one or two applications of Autoglm extra gloss protection. You need to leave the Extra gloss for at least an hour before polishing - better still leave overnight and give it a final polish the following morning. It nicely fills those little scratches and gives a brilliant shine.

Cheers

Patrick
Patrick Beet

Patrick,

Have you ever seen/felt P2000 wet/dry? its used by paint refinishers / coach builders to cut the shine onto lacquer, its about as coarse as a damp lettuce leaf but has a number of advantages over 'free' abrasives like rubbing compound and T-cut.

DJ,

Metallics are perfectly OK provided you are careful about going through the lacquer layer , if you are not heavy handed then you should be fine. If the scratches are deep then you will never remove them with T-cut or similar. Having not seen them I cant comment on which is the most appropriate abrasive to use but I have used P2000 widely on a number of cars I have sprayed including my seven which is a metallic green with lacquer over and a classic 1965 Ferrari 330 GT in ice blue metallic.

Dave
Dave Andrews

Thanks for all your comments. Dave, thanks for the advice, I feel happier that you've used this on a Ferrari. I think I'll start with the T-Cut and see how I get on. I'll be talking to you more when I've got the Elise.

Patrick, thanks for the advice on the extra gloss, I've never left it on that long before, so I know where I'm going wrong now.

Cheers

DJ
DJ

Another trick is to polish along the length of the car rather than a circular action. This helps to disguise any remaining micro-scratches.

Chris
Chris

This thread was discussed between 28/01/2003 and 29/01/2003

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