LowSlowJoe
New member
- Sep 10, 2014
- 21
- 0
Just joining AutoGeek after looking for a few days.
I just recently bought a used car from Hertz Rent to Buy program, I've never seen a one year old car with 22,500 miles on it, with so many scratches. The car seems to be in excellent mechanical shape, but the car wash they ran it through must have had wire brushes on it. (OK, I'm only sightly exaggerating).
Shortly after getting a look at the car, I started to try and see how many of the scratches would come out with a little polishing. Found a good deal on a Harbor Freight DA, also purchased some NuFinish scratch doctor and went to work... Well, my first try at things showed me that most of the scratches would indeed buff out, but clearly there were some RIDS too... Given the car drove so well, was at a good price, and I really needed a decent car, I wound up buying it. There are a few minor dings, that no amount of buffing will do anything about, but hey I knew there would be, and after I drive it for a year, I suspect there will be a few more...
So, anyway as I searched the internet for advice on removing scratches and/or what products work the best, I found myself looking at AutoGeekOnline quite frequently. After I did manage to get most of the scratches out, I started to get the idea that this car might actually look pretty darn good if I put some tender loving care and quality polish/sealer and such into it.
I almost was convinced that a bottle of Blackfire Wet Diamond was what I needed, given I really don't like putting too much effort into making a car look shiny and new. However I was disappointed when I learned you can't buy that stuff at any local stores.
Now I'm in my early 50s, polished and tried to salvage, or make the best out of many a rust bucket and also kept a few newer cars looking shiny over the years. Mostly all by hand, sometimes using what back in the day seemed like miracle in a can, AKA Dupont #7 rubbing compound. Had to give that up when clear coat finishes came along... then I found that NuFinish was pretty easy to use product and for the most part, made my newer clear coat cars look pretty good with minimal effort.
Fast forward to my slightly abused paint on a year old Chevy Cruze... well, I did wind up using some Maguires M01 by hand on some of my scratches, before I read you weren't supposed to use that stuff by hand. Even so, apparently all those years of working with Dupont #7 taught me enough to know that a little can go a long way. As it turns out, I don't think my brief dive into the improper use of Diminishing abrasives did any real harm and maybe actually did do some good. However after reading that I shouldn't be doing what I did with the M01, I figured I should do a bit more reading and figure out what modern products might be out there.
Back to the Blackfire stuff... I hate that you can't buy that stuff locally... But did learn that Duragloss has some products that might be just as easy and possibly just as durable and shiny as BlackFire... So I found my way down to the local auto parts store and got myself some DG 101, DG 111, DG 501, and even some DG 951. I also picked up some Maguires Ultimate Compound, ScratchX 2.0, and even some Swirl X at another local store. So, I'm now armed with enough polishes and sealers to do a dozen cars with... (maybe my wife's Cruze will also get some attention)
Now, for the moment, I have revived a previous love of polishing old scratchy auto surfaces, but long term my goal is to do as little as possible and still maintain a reasonably shiny car, well into the future. Maybe there's enough stress relief in it all to keep me doing it more then once every year , but hey I don't think I'm going to be one of those guys that adds a new layer of something magic on my car ever month, I've been there and done that, don't plan on totally reliving my youth.
Anyway, that's me and how I came to be here in a nutshell.
I just recently bought a used car from Hertz Rent to Buy program, I've never seen a one year old car with 22,500 miles on it, with so many scratches. The car seems to be in excellent mechanical shape, but the car wash they ran it through must have had wire brushes on it. (OK, I'm only sightly exaggerating).
Shortly after getting a look at the car, I started to try and see how many of the scratches would come out with a little polishing. Found a good deal on a Harbor Freight DA, also purchased some NuFinish scratch doctor and went to work... Well, my first try at things showed me that most of the scratches would indeed buff out, but clearly there were some RIDS too... Given the car drove so well, was at a good price, and I really needed a decent car, I wound up buying it. There are a few minor dings, that no amount of buffing will do anything about, but hey I knew there would be, and after I drive it for a year, I suspect there will be a few more...
So, anyway as I searched the internet for advice on removing scratches and/or what products work the best, I found myself looking at AutoGeekOnline quite frequently. After I did manage to get most of the scratches out, I started to get the idea that this car might actually look pretty darn good if I put some tender loving care and quality polish/sealer and such into it.
I almost was convinced that a bottle of Blackfire Wet Diamond was what I needed, given I really don't like putting too much effort into making a car look shiny and new. However I was disappointed when I learned you can't buy that stuff at any local stores.
Now I'm in my early 50s, polished and tried to salvage, or make the best out of many a rust bucket and also kept a few newer cars looking shiny over the years. Mostly all by hand, sometimes using what back in the day seemed like miracle in a can, AKA Dupont #7 rubbing compound. Had to give that up when clear coat finishes came along... then I found that NuFinish was pretty easy to use product and for the most part, made my newer clear coat cars look pretty good with minimal effort.
Fast forward to my slightly abused paint on a year old Chevy Cruze... well, I did wind up using some Maguires M01 by hand on some of my scratches, before I read you weren't supposed to use that stuff by hand. Even so, apparently all those years of working with Dupont #7 taught me enough to know that a little can go a long way. As it turns out, I don't think my brief dive into the improper use of Diminishing abrasives did any real harm and maybe actually did do some good. However after reading that I shouldn't be doing what I did with the M01, I figured I should do a bit more reading and figure out what modern products might be out there.
Back to the Blackfire stuff... I hate that you can't buy that stuff locally... But did learn that Duragloss has some products that might be just as easy and possibly just as durable and shiny as BlackFire... So I found my way down to the local auto parts store and got myself some DG 101, DG 111, DG 501, and even some DG 951. I also picked up some Maguires Ultimate Compound, ScratchX 2.0, and even some Swirl X at another local store. So, I'm now armed with enough polishes and sealers to do a dozen cars with... (maybe my wife's Cruze will also get some attention)
Now, for the moment, I have revived a previous love of polishing old scratchy auto surfaces, but long term my goal is to do as little as possible and still maintain a reasonably shiny car, well into the future. Maybe there's enough stress relief in it all to keep me doing it more then once every year , but hey I don't think I'm going to be one of those guys that adds a new layer of something magic on my car ever month, I've been there and done that, don't plan on totally reliving my youth.
Anyway, that's me and how I came to be here in a nutshell.
