How can I fix tiny scratches

[Quicksilver]

Here's what some of the comments are talking about.
Yahoo! Video Detail for Turtle Wax Scratch Repair Kit

[PropellerHead]

Originally Posted by PandaTrader

Hey,

I have a few very tiny scratches on my X5. Mine is in kalahari beige. Is there a way to fix the scratches and it looks professional. They are ver small, fine and not deep at all.

If they are fine and not through the clear (sort of a plain white scratch to the eye), you should be able to use a polish to lessen the effect or eliminate them entirely.

The first thing you want to do is clay the area. Nothing will help you if you lay a random orbital (RO) polisher on the car and pick up a huge chunk on the pad. It will swirl around in a zillion little places and look worse than it did. Claying is easy and quick. I used to worry with the clay lube stuff- it's really just QD spray- qucik detail. It leaves a residue that I do not like to work with. I just use a shallow fill of a lot of preferred car wash soap and the clay. Soap the area on the car first and then glide the clay over. This won't help the scratches, but it wont kill you paint when you start the polish process.

For polish, start light and go progressively more intense. You could start with an AIO- All in one- that has both wax and a mild abrasive polish. Use an orange or yellow pad. Clear the polish away and you should notice the scratches are less noticeable. Some of that is the polish that 'dulled' the edges of the scratch, and some of it is the wax within the AIO that fills the scratch. If you're satisfied, you're done.

If you're not and can still see more of the fine scratches than you'd like, go with a fine polish. I like Einzette's 1Z product for this. Any will do. No need to clay at this step. The paint should be clear of large particles that could damage it. Use the same color pad, but be sure to clean them if you use the same ones. You should again see that the scratches are less noticeable. They may actually be about the same, but with no wax in the polish, you are effectively rounding out the edges of the scratches- slowly eliminating them.

Still not happy? Time for a clear coat safe rubbing compound. I like 3M's. This is where you're on the lunatic fringe of clear coat safety. You have to be careful here with the edges of the lines in the middle of an X5 hood. The edges of the hood as well. Used with an orange pad, you might actually get a 'haze' on the paint as the clear's been buffed pretty low. Don't worry. If you do, reverse the process all the way up to an AIO with a green pad. The brightness will return. The scratches should be gone- or very much less apparent. Are they not?

Edit:
I totally forgot the option of a wool pad. This is where that option would fall. A wool pad is VERY aggressive and you must be VERY careful in it's use. I would even fall back to a Menzerna or 1Z polish rather than go full compound and a wool pad. Use cautiously, but not as drastic as wet sanding below.

Well, the next progressive step is wet sanding the paint. You must begin with a clear coat thickness tool so you know how much clear you can sand away. If you go through, you are headed to get it resprayed with clear- at the very least. If you do it right, you WILL get a haze, and you WILL have to polish/buff it out to regain the color. This is such a step that you should practice on old paint panels from a junk car first. You use progressively fine sand paper and water to lightly sand the area until a haze appears over the scratches.

Or yeah. Call a local detailer. But seriously- my bet is that all you'll need is a polish with an orange pad after clay bar. My mother in law's '01 3.0 is Kalahari Beige and it hides scratches well enough.

Here is a shot of the paint on my 4.8is after a polish:


Here is the hood of my 3.0 X5 with ~60K miles on it at the time:

[PandaTrader]

Thanks guys,

Lots of options. I will see what I'll do.