How to fix a scratch on a car
How to fix a scratch on your car
No matter what at some point you will discover a scratch on your car. It may have happened when you parked in a busy parking lot at the grocery store or when something scarped across your car. The scratch are never pretty. The good news is that many of them can be fixed.
There are many kinds of scratches. Some are very superficial, some penetrate all coats of paint or they are something in between. Some are tiny and some spread across the whole length of the car. Some are not even scratches, they may be marks, or deposits left on the paint coat of your car from the "offender" that rubbed against your car, like a red mark from a shopping cart or paint color of a post or another car that touched your car's body.
How do you fix a scratch on a car?
First you have to determine if it is a scratch or a mark. A mark, as in the example above from a shopping cart, may be removed with aerosol tar or adhesive removed. For tougher marks you can try acetone or lacquer thinner. Put some on a soft rag and rub over the mark.
Fixing a scratch
Look at the scratch and see how deep the scratch is. Does it go to the primer or all the way through all coats of paint to the metal. If parts of the scratch extend below the paint you may try repairing what is possible without making it to a project that involves repainting the whole panel.
Typically in modern cars there are several coats of paint. Starting from the bottom first you have a primer, then the color and finally a clearcoat. You can sand out a scratch in the clearcoat. Sanding through the clearcoat to the color underneath it will mean you need to respray the whole panel with new clearcoat. If the scratch has penetrated into the primer you need to match the color of the paint, spray the whole panel and add a new clearcoat over it.
Step-by-Step fixing a scratch
1. Clean the area around the scratch with soap and water and dry completely
2. Make a color mark into the scratch by rubbing a contrasting color to the paint of the car into the scratch - for example, you can use dark shoe polish for light color painted car and white shoe polish or white-out on a dark color car.
3. Sanding - sand down the paint around the scratch. You need to sand to the depth or level of the scratch, but not past that. Use 2000 to 3000 grit wet/dry sandpaper. You can use a sanding block. Wet the sandpaper in cold water that has a couple of drops of liquid dish soap. Sand and rinse and repeat. Continue until you no longer see the contrasting color. Always sand lightly and slowly so you don't go past the layer where the scratch is.
4. Dry the area completely and make sure the scratch is gone.
5. If your car has a clearcoat and the scratch penetrated to the color layer - respray the clearcoat
6. Buff the area in circular motion. For a smaller area you can use a terry washcloth and rubbing compound. For larger area you can use a power buffer. You are doing this to remove the sandpaper scratches form the area.
7. Wipe with cloth and wash the area again if needed
8. Polish with a fine compound.
9. Seal with car wax.
If the scratch is larger and penetrates through all layers of paint you may consider taking the car to a professional to get the job done. Especially if you require color matching and repainting of a panel or more.
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