Any advice for polishing under door handles?

lane5515

lane5515

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I need some tips/how to advice for polishing under door handles? I have a vehicle with terrible fine scratches under and above the door handles.
 
I would disassemble the door and remove the handle if it was that bad, but that's depending on if you feel comfortable doing that.
 
I do them by hand the best I can with foam applicators or pads. Sometimes microfiber also. I use something aggressive like M101. Sometimes im happy with the result, sometimes not. Depends on paint hardness, how bad the scratches are etc. Seems like some cars it works great and some it doesnt clean up real good.

I have seen some guys take off the the handle part of the latch and get to it with a small buffer but I dont know how complicated that is to do. Probably not worth it but I dont know.

Interested in replies to this thread.
 
No matter where the scratches are
located, the goal is to remove as little
paint as possible: "Using the least
aggressive product to get the job done".

I'd start with something like Meguiar's
ScratchX 2.0, on a yellow foam
application pad. Then, if something
more aggressive is deemed necessary,
I'd move up to using a product like
Meguiar's Ultimate Compound.

It may take a few attempts to totally
correct the blemishes, and/or meet
your expectations, using this method.


Bob
 
One trick for removing heavier door handle scratches I used back in the day was softer terry cloth and rubbing compound. You can follow up with a polish on a MF. You can actually feel some pretty decent heat being created by just hand pressure.

On the opposite end of the spectrum on a light colored vehicle the door handle scratches can be improved immensely by using cleaner wax and a foam wax applicator. Some really ugly looking scratches under door handles are just really dirty looking fine scratches, if that makes sense.
 
I have an old paint stick i use for this. It's one of those thick ones and pretty substantial for applying some pressure when needed. I took some velcro and applied about a 2" strip of it to the end of the paint stick. I then took some old buffing pads that i was going to retire for tire dressing applicators and cut them into rectangular shapes to fit the velcro on the paint stick. A little Menz FG400 and bam!

I have some of those threaded spindle extenders for my rotary but found i couldn't get my 2" rotary pads in tight enough so i adopted this little work around (literally).
 
Seeing as fingers could be the scratch makers, a micro glove would get at all the scratches with product of your chosing.
 
DetailTrail said:
Seeing as fingers could be the scratch makers, a micro glove would get at all the scratches with product of your chosing.
Click to expand...

Yep :iagree: This is how I do it too. CarPro do some nice MF Gloves & are great for this, just a few drops of polish/compound on a couple of fingers & away you go. :dblthumb2:

Aaryn NZ.
 
I have used just M105 and work the area by hand.
 
I have good luck using a microfiber applicator pad and some ultimate compound. Usually 2-3, sometimes 4 passes does the trick
 
By hand, no need to get a polisher in there.

I would never disassemble a customers door panel to clean behind the door handle. I can think of the number of problems this could cause.
 
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