Big scratch along entire passenger side: FIXED!

[Scathe]

So I bought my '16 EX-T about 2.5 weeks ago, and negotiated about $3,000 off the price of the car due to a huge scratch all the way along the passenger side (the pics sadly don't do a great job of showing the full length of the scratch, but you get the idea). Imagine the scratch from photo 1 going from the front quarter panel all the way back to the rear tail light. Same with the rash in #2. #3 is a closeup of the rear passenger door handle.

With a little bit of magic eraser, some rubbing compound, some polish, a lot of microfiber towels, and several rounds with a ton of elbow grease, this is the result:

If you want to know more, let me know and I'll tell you how I did it step by step!

 

[SCOPESYS]

So I bought my '16 EX-T about 2.5 weeks ago, and negotiated about $3,000 off the price of the car due to a huge scratch all the way along the passenger side (the pics sadly don't do a great job of showing the full length of the scratch, but you get the idea). Imagine the scratch from photo 1 going from the front quarter panel all the way back to the rear tail light. Same with the rash in #2. #3 is a closeup of the rear passenger door handle.

With a little bit of magic eraser, some rubbing compound, some polish, a lot of microfiber towels, and several rounds with a ton of elbow grease, this is the result:

If you want to know more, let me know and I'll tell you how I did it step by step!

Looks really good -- well done.

If it had not fixed so well, I was going to suggest the option of adding some stripes !!!

SCRATCHES -- If you can't beat them, cover them up !!

The 1st Scratch is always the worst .. you are now past that "1st Scratch", so going forward, any new scratches you might get should not be so devastating.

Really impressed by how well you cleaned up that scratch .. looks like you could have a 2nd Career in Custom Car Detailing !!

 

[Scathe]

Thanks! All I really did was get a pack of 9 microfiber towels, a pack of 2 magic erasers, some rubbing compound, some polish/scratch remover, and some paste wax. Started with the magic erasers, and warning: they are a pretty powerful for clearcoat and will haze it up pretty bad, but they're good for removing the paint transfer that was there in this case. After that, there was the haze left over by the magic eraser, and some fine scratches that were mostly just into the clearcoat. I started with the rubbing compound on a microfiber cloth using my fingers, but some areas required more pressure and more time polishing, so I devised a better way to save my fatigued fingers: fold a magic eraser (or kitchen sponge) in half, and wrap your cloth around it. Where the outer crease of that sponge is, you've got a nice pressure point for the rubbing compound. MUCH easier to work with, and you can work over larger areas too since the sponge is bigger than your fingers.

Sometimes you'll wipe off the polish and see that you need another pass or two over parts of the area. Just keep going, it'll work out (unless you're trying to get out a scratch that's down into the primer; nothing you can do about that with this method -- make sure what you're working on is just surface/clearcoat damage). It might take a couple hours, but keep at it. Finish up with some paste wax, and you won't believe the result!

I had bought some 5000 grit sandpaper with the idea that I may have to wet sand some of the clearcoat to get rid of some of these. I didn't end up doing it though, and I can't recommend doing any wet sanding unless you know what you're doing -- you can VERY easily strip past the clearcoat and damage your paint, hurting your car even more than it already was. You can achieve the same results with just some rubbing compound and polish MUCH more safely, it just takes a little more time and effort. But there's very little risk of doing actual damage to your paint and making things worse, unlike with sanding.

 

[Harlaquin]

Started with the magic erasers, and warning: they are a pretty powerful for clearcoat and will haze it up pretty bad, but they're good for removing the paint transfer that was there in this case.

Yes, I have seen people mess stuff big time with magic erasers. They are the equivalent of 3000 grit sand paper. They work by abrasion. Awesome job.

 

[FanboyFK8]

So I bought my '16 EX-T about 2.5 weeks ago, and negotiated about $3,000 off the price of the car due to a huge scratch all the way along the passenger side (the pics sadly don't do a great job of showing the full length of the scratch, but you get the idea). Imagine the scratch from photo 1 going from the front quarter panel all the way back to the rear tail light. Same with the rash in #2. #3 is a closeup of the rear passenger door handle.

With a little bit of magic eraser, some rubbing compound, some polish, a lot of microfiber towels, and several rounds with a ton of elbow grease, this is the result:

If you want to know more, let me know and I'll tell you how I did it step by step!

Someone put the same scratch on my car today. Please share how you fixed it

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