Should I Polish?

[RRR]

My heart hurts when I look at the scratches that *&^%$#@ dog left on my 8 month old car. They are not bad enough to call the insurance and do a paint job, but enough to piss me off whenever I look at it.

Some say take it to the shop and have it polished and others say that that is a bad thing to do and it will damage the paint even more.

Any advice?

[pop3]

If it's metalic as many are these days polishing is not that simple as if you can notice it it has gone through your lacquer, polishing the scratches out of your lacquer will most probably make things look better, but as for the deep ones, sorry theres nothing easy you can do with that.

Edited November 6, 2006 by pop3

[teej]

If your scratches are that deep, a polish isn't going to do any good... i'd suggest taking the hit and doing a respray of that panel... take it to a good shop tho....

or you can bang it up even more so that the insurance company will pay for it...

[Skyline]

If the car has standard (non-metallic) paint,try getting some T-Cut from overseas.It really is good for removing scratches and looks great after a second polish is applied.

I got some sent over from the Uk and its done wonders for the dog scratches on my doors:)

[Dakhar]

I don't know where or if you can find it, but we used to us a wheel polish, one brand was "mothers."

Good luck

[helicoptor]

If the car has standard (non-metallic) paint,try getting some T-Cut from overseas.It really is good for removing scratches and looks great after a second polish is applied.

I got some sent over from the Uk and its done wonders for the dog scratches on my doors:)

Prior to applying T-Cut you should carefully paint over the scratches, and let it completely dry. (with the same colour paint as the car of course)

T-Cut is exactly that, It cuts and can be unforgiving if not used correctly.

Trust me - Im a doctor

All the above is out the window if you do indeed have a metallic finish, in which case a re-spray is the best option IMO (was a VW car valet many yrs ago)

[phibunmike]

Before trying to get T-cut, try with a cloth and some normal white toothpaste. That will get rid of superficial (even reasonably deep) scratches, and possibly avoid a lot of complications...

[moonoi]

And you don't need to go overseas to buy T-Cut.....I bought some at my local Tesco (Lat Phrao)

I've also seen it in Central

[taxexile]

take your car to one of the many car detailing outfits that all the big towns have.

for somewhere around 2000-3000b they will clean and cut back and then polish the whole car.

they have special compounds for metallic finishes.

i had my metallic black pick up done recently , to get rid of cat claw scratches around the door handles where they had tried to jump up when the car has been parked and long scratches down the side of the car caused by contact with branches etc.

the transformation was remarkable.

if you are in the sukhumvit area of bangkok , there are a couple of places on soi 26 near to carrefour.

doing it yourself is possible , its hard work , and the polishes and scratch removers will cost around 2000b to buy (autoglym , simonize or meguirs) , and you wont have the rotary pads they use to bring up the shine evenly.

[RRR]

Thanks for all the advice!

Think I will take it in and have it done, do not fancy doing it myself!