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Originally Posted by Reasy
First, how well do paint pens work? If they work well can anyone suggest a brand or type of paint pen?
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paint pens work almost exactly like regular pens in that you know how you start writing a serious letter, and 3/4's of the way through, you start to misspell a word, but catch yourself, and then you attempt to blot/correct/smear the characters enough to make the correct word better visible, but it sorta ruins the seriousness of the letter.
paint pens are about precisely applying an amount of paint to a small area. they still require a careful hand, wet sanding, clear coating, and buffing to make anything invisible.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Reasy
Second, Do waxing/Buffing compounds like I see all over car repair videos really buff out scratches incredibly well? If so, could I polish/buff the scratches and then immediately put a clear bra over the car to keep the paint looking good and protect the paint?
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so with the line of questioning that you're asking, my suggestion to you would be to consult either a body shop, or a car detail specialist about the costs of the processes they could do to remove or minimize the scratches. i get the impression that you would prefer a quality job in this case more than you would value learning a new skill/technique on your new car.
detailing cars isn't impossible. but it's a skill that takes time. you don't become a great novelist or a renowned pianist the first time out, and the same goes for car detailing-- doing it yourself, you WILL make mistakes. some are correctable, others aren't.
as hayes talked about, that particular scratch looks very deep. so i doubt most detail guys will be able to completely get rid of it. but with some careful buffing, they could likely minimize it so it's not very obvious (i've done this to my own cars to the point when people compliment the car while looking at the 'bad side', i almost laugh).
i agree with him that repainting is likely going to be the best option to completely eliminate the scratch. if your car is only black, and not a metallic flake, this really shouldn't be a problem for most shops to blend in without major issues.
notice that i keep talking about how far the scratch can be 'gotten gone'. there are a number of levels of acceptability that is entirely personal preference, and each level is going to have widely-varying costs depending on who does it and what process they choose to use. the end results will very likely be much the same.
the very first thing you need to decide is how much work is good enough. if it can be seen at 10ft? 5ft? only in direct sunlight 1ft away? pristine never-there finish? note an increasing finish quality is going to have higher and higher costs.
if you're only going for a 5ft finish, it should be easily accomplishable with a very mild buffer pad, some polishing glaze, and about 10 minutes...
all that said, if you want to attempt to do this yourself, i highly recommend autogeek.net for their video series, though i generally order most of my supplies through them as well.
everyone's got their preference on compound product lines, i usually pick based on what i need to accomplish, is cheaper, has the least marketing jargon, and still has good reviews. i've worked with the auto parts store stuff, and while a good finish is still possible, it tends to take more physical effort and time than some of the more specialty compounds autogeek sells. personally, i like to use the
wolfgang uber compound with a white rotary buffer pad on most of my cars with light swirls/scratches. for the most part, it gets everything to a 5-3ft niceness, and is plenty for my standards, as i know using the car like a car, it's going to get screwed up again.
i learned in a dealership to use a rotary buffer, though many will recommend against them-- they are a very specific skill, as they move/scratch in a specific direction, and applying slight differences in pressure to different parts of the pad can make drastic changes in the final product.