oalvarez

and you might find this website of great help (both their forums and carcare products website):

www.autopia.org

www.autopia-carcare.com

have fun!

Dr. G

When rinsing, use the water directly from the hose, no nozzle. The stream will sheet off the car and make it much easier to dry without spotting.

Also, make sure you are wearing clothes with nothing on them that can scratch the car. I've seen scratches from belt buckles and buttons. Simple, yet most people don't think about it.

cdodkin

+1 on this thought Dr.

Also, remove rings and watch while you're washing and waxing for the same reason.

gab997

Need a little bit of help here. Washed the car Sunday and when drying I notice a small scratch on the paint. What is the best course of action? Looks like it is not very deep, you have to look for it to see it.

cdodkin

Are you talking about a surface scratch in the clear coat?

One that you can see in the right light, but can't feel if you run your fingernail over the area?

Perhaps caused by wiping the car during washing?

gab997

Correct, cannot feel with nail. I can only assume that it was caused while washing, the car did not have very much dirt on it and used good amount of suds...

cdodkin

This sort of surface blemish can be polished out, leaving a smooth scratch-free finish.

You should review your wash technique and tools to see if you can isolate where the problem came from, and then stop it happening next time.

To fix, you need a 'safe' auto polish, a polishing machine, polishing pads.

You may have seen guys at auto body shops using huge high-speed polishers with large buffing pads and lots of 3M polish compounds.

That's not for the weekend warrior - you can do marvelous things with such equipment - but you can do damage as well.

Instead, for the WW, you want to get yourself a random orbit polisher, such as the Porter Cable



A set of polishing pads



And some scratch polish



There's a great write-up on how to use these items to remove your surface scratch here:

http://www.autopia-carcare.com/inf-p...sh-clinic.html

And a specific how-to for the Porter Cable here:

http://www.autopia-carcare.com/inf-p...-polisher.html

Suggestion is to try the least abrasive polish first, to see if that will remove the scratch with the PC and pads.

I've had a great deal of success with a Swirlbuster polish that's designed for the home user - i.e. it's effective with the PC, but easy to use and safe on your paint.

http://www.autopia-carcare.com/son-450.html

Follow the instructions to polish out the scratch and any swirls, then re seal/wax when you're done to protect the newly smooth surface.

The PC is a great tool for both polishing and waxing the car, so it's a good investment if you like looking after your paint and want to keep the car looking great.

And it's so much better than polishing by hand!

oalvarez

nicely done, cdodkin!

gab997

Cd, thanks for the input. Will read up on the links and already have ordered the PC. Great forums on Rennlist.