How to Remove Car Scratches Correctly?

The scratches on a car can create a sore eye and make the car unattractive, and regardless of the cost or what the make and model of your car might be, the scratches are hard to escape from.

Scratches, most of the time, happens without notice while driving or when the car is parked. The most common causes of scratches are;

8 Most Common Causes of Car Scratches

• loose pebble rocks,
• driving on backcountry dirt roads,
• elements of nature such as hail,
• close parking to other vehicles,
• shopping carts wandering around the parking lot,
• kids in the neighborhood playing close to your car,
• parking in a heavily wooded area with branches,
• malicious people who intentionally scratch your vehicle.

Protecting your vehicle the best way possible from scratches can be achieved;

however,

you do not need to obsess over it. There are a few essential measures that you can take without any cost attached to them, here are some:

Hot Spots For Car Scratches To Occur

Grocery store and mall parking lots are notorious spots where scratches often take place.

Empty shopping carts abandoned by shoppers run wild, especially during heavy shopping times such as evening hours when people head home, weekends, and holiday shopping season.

These abandoned and not adequately stored carts are bound to hit vehicles and depending on the type of a cart, plastic, or metal base, and the speed it comes will determine the kind of damage it may cause on a parked vehicle.

The other major cause of scratches on a car comes from other drivers who parked their car near yours.

On more than one occasion, most of us have been involved with incidents where when the car door opens; it hits the vehicle next to you.

Shopping carts and other drivers hitting your car on a parking lot is not the only causes of scratches. A straightforward way to protect your vehicle from getting ding is to park away from everyone else.

You may need to do some walking, but at least you will decrease the chances of your vehicle getting scratches.

Driving through a road construction zone is also another catalyst for the possibility of something small, like a pebble hitting the body of your car.

Suppose you live in an area where the winters are rough, the chance of scratches appearing on your vehicle's surface increases.

Car owners in areas prone to getting pummeled by snow and ice tend to see the rise in scratched car surfaces because of scraping the cars from ice and snow using dense rough brushes.

In addition to damaging that can be caused by scraping snow and ice from your car, where crews trying to keep the roads clear from snow will distribute road salt and if you are driving behind or side of those trucks, you can be assured that those salt pebbles will hit your vehicle.

Depending on the speed those salt pebbles are traveling, they are notorious for not only auto body damage but also glass damage.

Whether you are driving or parked in a mall parking lot, the necessary precaution is awareness of your surroundings.

Products To Fill in Scratches On a Car Surface

You managed to keep your car from the way of harm; however, to the best of your efforts, though, the scratches are present, and you need to erase them.

Generally, the car scratches tend to be hair-thin and may not be noticeable with a naked eye, and you will need a close-up inspection with a light source to see them.

The deep car paint scratch, where the scratch has penetrated deep passed the clear coat and reached the paint surface, will require more severe touch-up and, in some cases, a repaint to have it fixed.

On specific colors, such as black vehicles, the scratches tend to be much easier to spot because they are more visible and stand out against a black background.

The best way to fill in the scratches is to use what is known as scratch filling compounds like Nasiol CleaRub 305 & Nasiol CleaRub 505. These compounds are specifically designed to fill in the scratches with a method of using a buffing machine.

We advise you to please stay away from quick scratch remover pens, the majority of these products are cheap and will not hold up to what is being promised on their advertisements.

There are also on store shelves car touch up paint products that claim to fill in the scratches, however, finding the exact color for the make and model for your vehicle is next to impossible, and plus these products do not fill in the car scratches.

One word of caution throw out here is that if you have no prior experience of removing/filling in scratches with the method of using a compound and a buffing machine, it is best to take the job to a professional.

Why leave the job to a professional?

Using a buffing machine might look easy and straightforward,

however,

it is imperative to know what you are doing because you could end up causing much more severe damage to your vehicle if you are unsure about what to do.

When working with a buffing machine, you will need to work in sections on your vehicle and go slowly to the next section and do not jump sections as you go along. For hard to get areas, you will need a smaller buffing wheel.

We can’t stress enough the importance of using a professional to help you remove the scratches from a car.

Most inexperienced drivers who attempt to do the job on their own can cause more damage, such as removing the paint from the body with the buffing machine.

Once the paint is removed, there isn’t much you can do besides repainting, and that could cost you more money.

Final Stage After Buffing The Car

Once the buffing process has completed, the car's surface should feel smooth and hopefully free of scratches if the process was done correctly. Next,

use a clay bar, which is like Playdoh type of material, to remove dirt, dust, and other remnants that may still be present on the surface.

Using a clay bar is relatively simple, start rubbing the entire body of your automobile to remove dirt and remnants.

Having multiple clay bar is helpful because you don't want to keep using a dirty bar all over the vehicle, and also you will need a bottle of water to spray the surface as you move along, avoid using the clay bar on a dry surface.

We listed above how scratches occur and the most common and efficient way of removing existing car scratches from the surface of your vehicle.

Car scratch repair is not easy or quick as some might claim, it is time staking work where precision and attention detail is necessary.

In our next article, we will go to the next step of protecting the surface, after buffing, with ceramic coating.