Greetings All ... made a big mistake with my car today;

Gave nephew a bottle of tar remover and pointed him at my silver Fabia which as an ex-police vehicle has been shockingly neglected inside and out.

After 30 mins, the car looked brilliant.

After 40 mins the swirls in the paintwork caused by the little green kitchen scourer became visible .... :eek:

Cutting his head off will make me feel better but won't help with the problem.

Help please ... how can I put this right?

Oh Dear! Depends how deep these scratches are of course. You'll need lots of elbow grease and patience to sort this out.

Try cutting polish for metallics first, clay barring may work but I have no experience of them. If that don't work Tcut for metalllics is the next abrasive to try. If they fail it will be a visit to the paint shop, they usually have some trade cutting compounds and the skill to rid you of your swirls. Worst case is a relacquer job. Good luck and don't let your nephew near your car again, ever.

Thanks for the advice, lots of hard work then?

Jeez ... I may just use his head to clean the inside of the tailpipe!

Have a look at some of the stickies at the top of the styling and car care forum, or have a look through some of the detailing posts, lots of info to be had.

If you feel flush and cant be hooped to do it yourself have a look for a local friendly detailer (Not a valeter)

Moved this to styling and car care.

I would try Meguirs swirl remover2, hope this helps

I would would start with 3M Imperial Hand Glaze

If that doesn't work, then move up to 3M Perfect It III Fine Rubbing Compound.

Although you'll need to get these from a factors, they have the advantage of being usable by hand.

Greetings All ... made a big mistake with my car today;

Gave nephew a bottle of tar remover and pointed him at my silver Fabia which as an ex-police vehicle has been shockingly neglected inside and out.

After 30 mins, the car looked brilliant.

After 40 mins the swirls in the paintwork caused by the little green kitchen scourer became visible .... :eek:

Cutting his head off will make me feel better but won't help with the problem.

Help please ... how can I put this right?

So has the whole car been scoured?:eek: or are we just talking small sections of panels?

I'd agree with the 3M Extra Fine (yellow top) recommendation or Megs #83 if you're working by hand.

If that doesn't work I'm sure one of us with a Rotary or PC wouldn't object to a days machine polishing!

any pics on how bad this is? As if it is like my mates car who deided to try and clean bird **** off with a kitchen pad, needed the wing respraying? It cuts quite deep!

I took a trip to Halfrauds and bought Turtle Wax Safe Cut and some polishing cloths.

I showed the boy how to do it, and sat back and watched The car had only patches of damage where he had removed tar spots, but it looked horrible.

Several hours later, the car looks MUCH better and the blister on the boy's polishing finger means it's a lesson he will remember

I'm not going bananas with the car, it's a 90k X plate Fabia SDI and only cost £1300.

It looks better now, thanks all for the advice.