My son is an idiot.
He decided to wash his car (dark blue Fiesta) with a little washing-up sponge that had a green nylon scouring pad on one side.
The paintwork is now covered in swathes of tiny scratches.
What can we do to get the shine back? Is it just a question of T-cut and elbow greae, or is there some magic method used by car dealers that restores the shine?
He is a typical teenage student, so if it involves too much hard work then It will probably not get done....
T-cut & elbow grease. You can go down the farecla & polishing machine route, or even pay a body shop to do it, but it's essentialy the same process. (You'll get a shinier finish if you use the different grades of polish, but it's more work)
Just tell him to keep washing it that way. He'll soon have the coolest matt-finish student wheels in town! Chicks will dig it!
I think some sort of T-cut-esque cutting agent, some polish and some elbow grease will probably make it better as long as he hasn't scoured through the paint anywhere.
Tell him to try it on a small unobvious area first.
If it's a lacquered finish, as pretty much all metallics are for example, I would strongly advise you to take professional advice before doing anything. In particular, don't use anything abrasive on it.
Neighbour had a loaner whilst his car was being repaired. It collected a small car park scratch. He tried to T-cut it out... ended up costing him
200UKP to have the panel refinished!Chris
Oh dear God...
If they are fine scratches (they probably will be) then T-Cut *wax* (it seems much gentler than T-Cut proper) may well get them out- I've found it to be very useful indeed and has surprised me with its effectiveness. However, I'd consult a bodyshop if it's deep damage and it's a reasonably new car he cares about- rubbing and rubbing with T-Cut based products could take it down to the primer!
Morse
The message from bigjon contains these words:
I knew a girl who cleaned her white Minit with Vim [1]. It was OK at first 'cos she did it in the rain, but by the time she got to her driving test[2] the sun had come out and it dinnarf look stupid.
[1] Tells you how long ago it was. [2] Yes, she was the sort who thought her chances would be improved by having a shiny car.
That would depend upon the paint finish. If its a metallic it might do more harm than good, producing bald patches.
Polishing machine and G3 should do the trick.
I got one of these
Never. Do you normally include 40 lines of text just to ask one stupid, irrelevant, off-topic question?
Mer Polish is also very slightly abrasive, so works on very fine scrathing.
Good idea,
Thanks for the suggestions, I will get him to try T-cut on a side panel first and see what happens.
These scratches can be polished out, (it is a commom occurrence when kids wash their folks cars) but if you don't know what your doing with regard to paintwork then leave it to a paint shop to sort out, they have the proper equipment and skill to rectify the problem.
A reputable paint body shop will also have various grades of professional rubbing down compounds at their disposal and will know exactly which type to use on your paint defect, they won't use T-cut wether its for solid colour or lacquers.
T-cut is indeed a mild abrasive but in the trade it is only really classed as a paint cleanser and not a rubbing compound.
Stephen.
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