Small scratches

[Rocky Rocastle]

Well after develeping a scratch in my passenger side rear door thanks to somebody i managed to grab Ben from Rubbish Boys at weekend to get his opinion, he advised it couldn't be polished out but provided me with the following useful bit of info.


"What I would do is try is to clean the scratch out with solvent. e.g. panel wipe, IPA or white spirit if nothing else available.

Then using a cocktail stick or 00000 model brush, lay some colour into the scratch. Don't try and build it up, you just want to make sure it is has covered any primer and left an even coat. Let that dry for a while.

Then, again with a cocktail stick/brush , build up some clear lacquer. Do a coat let it dry and then do another. You want to try and keep it in the scratch, let it build up slightly proud of the surrounding area but try to keep it off the surrounding area if that makes sense.

Leave it to dry for a week or so, it will probably shrink back a bit in that time.

Now the risky bit, you need to get rid of the high spots of new paint and blend it to the old. So gently wet sand the new paint with some 2000 grit paper and as the area gets smooth, you want to blend out into the old paint a little bit, but go very steady and gently. You don't want to end up with sanding grooves or go through the existing paint. I would then very gently sand with some 4000 grit to get a better finish.

Now ideally you would polish this area with a compound and a machine polisher. If you are going to do it by hand, it should be do-able but you may need to hit it a couple of times with the compound. Follow up with a finer finishing polish to get rid of marring from the compound."

Just for information purposes, the following polishes/compounds were recommended to me that should sort a scratch

http://www.carnaubawaxshop.co.uk/sho...product_id=172
http://www.carnaubawaxshop.co.uk/sho...?product_id=76

Thanks to Ben for the above.

 

[GlanzaV]

That process is pretty much what this Langka kit uses - build up the paint/laquer then rub it down.

It's one of those things that pros make look easy though!

 

[Rocky Rocastle]

maybe but i think the trick is to not to get carried away and be minimal from the sounds of it. Maybe worth getting a cheap panel from a breakers to test first. Also useful for practicing machine polishing

 

[Husbandofstinky]

You'll be alright, no need for a panel. The only advice I can give you is just take plenty of time over it. And I mean loads of it.

The only thing I would do differently is use a 00000 guage modelling paint brush rather than a cocktail stick. Use aerosol paint into the lid too as touch sticks are over thick.

Be really sparing with the paint too as gravity will take control of what you've applied.

Its all about taking loads of time and being very very careful.

You don't need a kit, takes Ben's advice. It works and I've been doing it for years.

 

[Rocky Rocastle]

noted , i've ordered the relevent paint from Seat and the brush you were on about for £1.50 of ebay so i'll compare the two upon arrival

 

[Husbandofstinky]

Just remember to white spirit the brush and use a tissue afterwards to enure that it lasts. Hopefully you'll get a plastic tube over the end for protection when not in use. Try not to loose that if you can help it. These brushes are excellent for stone chips to as you can use them to fill the void left after a chip rather than the haphazard nail varnish type brush with touch up - way too big.

Just remember the colour match limitations, your paint will never be the exact match to what's on the car. It is impossible.

Some colour matches are better than VAG paint e.g. Plat grey met - VAG stuff way too dark. Halfrauds mix is better in this case - speaking from experience.

 

[Rocky Rocastle]

i take it then they come and match some sort of chart to the car, as you rightly say after collecting today, the Seat one is too dark so look for an alternative. I did try applying a little bit of paint to the tip of a cocktail stick but i found that unless you actual got a small blob on the end which would just disperse irratically, the paint wouldn't come off the stick. So i applied isopropynol (sp) and cleaned the scratch again. Hopefully the brush will be hear tomoz or saturday and i'll get a new pen too and have another crack, thanks for the input too



oh one question to add, the compound than Ben mentions, what would be good enough here as i really don't have anything heavy. The most vigerous i have is about a 3 out of 10 Meguairs Mirror Glaze as they said it could be used by hand as i don't have a MOP

 

[Rubbish Boy]

Yeah, use what ever you're comfortable with. Just don't use the brush that comes with the touch up pens as it will get it everywhere except where you want it. The thing with the cocktail stick is it allows you press the paint into the scratch, but a nice small brush should allow you to do the same. You want paint and lacquer in the scratch rather than sitting around and above as it won't necessarily run into it without a bit of help. And if it's not in the scratch, when you sand and polish you'll take all the new paint away leaving the scratch still showing.

Not sure which one Mirror Glaze is, what number is it? Not sure you'll get out the sanding marks with that any way. But if you drop me a PM with an address I'll let you have a little sample of something that will. :

 

[Rocky Rocastle]

Collected the Halfords paint today and to be fair its a very good match. Out of principle the Seat one is going back and the funds put towards a bonnet seal

 

[cupra.al]

if anybody does this to a scratch could you show me before and after pics in this thread please.
some little c##t has decided to put a scratch down my front wing and door.
might just get pay to get it repaired asap rather than doing a d.i.y job but would be good to see results of a d.i.y job.

 

[Rubbish Boy]

I'll post these up, but with a couple of caveats:
1) It can go horribly wrong!
2) If I fecked it up, I had aerosols of etch primer, matched paint and clear lacquer on stand by as the next fix.
3) I was prepared to pay a body shop if I couldn't sort it myself.

This was taken after I had already put some paint and lacquer into the deeper scratches. So isn't a true before shot, but you can see how bad it looked. I used a cocktail stick and the technique I described above to Tim.

This was after wet sanding, I did go on to sand a little more of the new paint as I had been a little heavy handed at the painting stage.

This was after the first hit of polish, done by machine with Mark V UNO on a firm polishing pad.

This was after another hit of UNO on a soft finishing pad.

 

[cupra.al]

i saw this a while ago in a thread was just looking for it looks like you done a quality job.
am i right in thinking you sold the car after you done this.

 

[Rubbish Boy]

i saw this a while ago in a thread was just looking for it looks like you done a quality job.
am i right in thinking you sold the car after you done this.

Yeah, it was a company car at the end of it's contract hire period. It wasn't 100% perfect but the guy who inspected it didn't notice or say anything about it so it can't of been too bad.

 

[Rocky Rocastle]

i'll post some pics, as Ben has seen the scratch on mine is just over an inch long so not massive but still very annoying, tbh it's probably a good size for a first attempt if that makes sense

 

[cupra.al]

i will definatly be paying to get mine done then as mine is id say a 2 foot scratch makes me sick everytime i see it. if i ever catch them ill chop there fingers off and feed them to all the neibours that got there cars scratched.

 

[Rocky Rocastle]

i will definatly be paying to get mine done then as mine is id say a 2 foot scratch makes me sick everytime i see it. if i ever catch them ill chop there fingers off and feed them to all the neibours that got there cars scratched.

:w4nk: why do people do such things

 

[hardyj]

Can anyone advise where I can get hold of touch up paint for black magic leon? I see from some posts that touch up paint from stealers is not always best? Have looked on Halfrauds website and can see no touch up paint for black seat leon. Also where can I get some laquer too? I see Halfrauds stock that. Is it good to use?

I am trying to remove some small scratches on me car using Rubbish Boy's method before giving it a good machine polish.

Any advice appreciated.

 

[DanGB]

Can anyone advise where I can get hold of touch up paint for black magic leon? I see from some posts that touch up paint from stealers is not always best? Have looked on Halfrauds website and can see no touch up paint for black seat leon. Also where can I get some laquer too? I see Halfrauds stock that. Is it good to use?

I am trying to remove some small scratches on me car using Rubbish Boy's method before giving it a good machine polish.

Any advice appreciated.

im after the answer too.

 

[Rubbish Boy]

I've always found the dealer touch up paint quite good myself. The last 3 cars (all SEAT's ) I've had, Extreme Blue, Black Magic and now Candy White have all matched spot on. The brushes inside are awful though but then we aren't using them.

Alternatively paints4u are pretty good too and do little kits with the paint, lacquer, sand paper, brushes etc.

 

[andreww]

I have been asking around about the method above, getting touch up paint a very fine brush and carefully painting in the scratch, however I have been told on metallic paint such as Black Magic, even after machine polishing it will be noticeable that it's been painted, so generally not a good idea on metallic paint.