Hi to one and all at Briskoda

Having recently discovered the forums I finally got round to registering. Some good tips and advice from the people in the know!

I recently bought an ex-demo CR diesel vRS hatch (extras including rear sensors, heated seats and xenons) from Alex Lawrie Skoda in Liverpool. The car has 'Black Magic' metallic paint and although I didn't really want a black car, knowing they're a nightmare to keep looking A1, the deal was just too good to miss.

I expressed my concerns to the dealer and they agreed, as part of the deal, they would Autoglym the exterior. Great, I thought, everything's hunky dorey. On collection of the car (only six months old with 5K recorded miles, I was a little disappointed to say the least about the general condition of the paintwork.

There were many little scuffs around the rear bumper and rear doors - I thinks the manager had kids and a dog, as do I. They told me they had done the Autoglym work but this was no good as they hadn't prepared the paintwork in the first place.

I'm now left with these marks and cannot polish them out. The dealer is prepared to take the car back in to have the paint looked at but I was wondering if there was a quick and easy solution - I know bodyshop repair centres use a black paint-like fluid that can be buffed up to make the paint look new but don't know what it is, where to get it and how to apply it.

Will it do the job given the Autoglym work or will this need to be stripped off? Do I take the car back to the dealer or sort it myself I get the result I really want. This is an awesome car and I want to show it off!

Any advice would be gratefully received. Thanks.

welcome to Briskoda

have a little look in the Styling & car Care section of the forum ... some very useful advice there

I have a Flamenco Red Skoda and a Metallic Black Kia Ceed so i feel your pain .... Autoglym is good stuff, but nothing like what some of the guys on here use and i'm fairly sure they'd be able to point you in the right direction for getting the scratches corrected.

As a rough rule of thumb, if you can feel these scuffs with your fingernail, they are too deep to polish out and will require painting.

Either way, it sounds like it needs a machine polish.

There isn't a lot you can do yourself without spending money on the right kit - plus you won't have the skill. So this really needs to be done by someone who knows what they are doing. A professional detailer will use a paint depth gauge and a rotary polisher, with specialist pads to take a thin layer of the clearcoat off your car and restore the finish. It's not an easy job. If you want someone to do it, look at the directory on www.detailingworld.com.

If you let the dealership do it, they'll probably just get their car wash monkey loose with a polisher on the car. They'll probably do an OK job, but not as good as a true detailer who takes pride in their work.

I suppose it depends what you'll be happy with.

Thanks for the feedback guys - think I'll let the pro's look at it! Regards.

Somewhat older, my Black Magic car has it's fair share of scratches and scuffs (predominantly around the door handles and on the back bumper). In fairness I did know they were there when I bought it and no, black wasn't my first choice of colour either!

So far several 'miracle scratch removal' unctions have been tried with no discernable effect.

At least you'll get to monitor the condition of the paintwork on a very regular basis whilst trying to keep it clean...

My octy has its fair share of deep scratches, but the use of a dual action polisher to round the edges off do make they considerably less noticable.

Black Turtle Wax - works a treak on black cars!

If you can't fix it, cover it up!