Hi everyone. Is there any easy ways to remove scratces without respraying? I have few odd ones at the rear, boot lid and bumper. Thanks

It depends how deep they are. If your finger nail catches in the scratch it will need touch up paint at least. Lesser scratches will probably polish out. You should post this in the Styling and Car Care section of the forum, lots of good advice from the regulars there.

This - if the fingernail test barely catches the scratches at all, there is a good chance a decent amount of polishing will remove them.

Thanks very much.

Have used autogylm scratch remover and that works well...the only colour I would avoid using it ii on is black cars as used it in a few friends cars and sometimes leaves a dull finish

I had loads of deepish scratches from driving down narrow French lanes with thorn bushes either side. The vineyard at the end was worth it and they pointed out an easier route.

My local bodyshop buffed them out for me, no charge.

Another product I've mentioned before is Duraglit Brasso wadding. Not a car product but sometimes seems to work miracles. I've removed scratches I thought impossible.

Then a good wax polish takes the Brasso off the paint. Try it on a small," out of the way" scratch first - you might surprise yourself!

3M cutting compound is pretty good in my experience. If in doubt pay somebody or at least practice first. I use 3M for making good(ish) bodged large touchy ups.

You'll be surprised what a machine polish using the correct cutting compounds and pads will achieve. A decent rig will cost 150 quid plus. If this is a one off repair take it to your local body shop - speak to one of the pros and get them to do it for you. Whilst vag paint is pretty durable, it is easy to strip the paint on the edges of the bumper if you have not spent several hours practising.

I bought an old bonnet from the scrap yard to practice on and it was the best 20 quid spent as all of my errors were made on that. Even if the scratch can be felt with a nail it is possible to make it a lot less noticeable.

Another product I've mentioned before is Duraglit Brasso wadding. Not a car product but sometimes seems to work miracles. I've removed scratches I thought impossible.

Then a good wax polish takes the Brasso off the paint. Try it on a small," out of the way" scratch first - you might surprise yourself!

I've used Brasso with very good effect after being told of its ability on Briskoda over 5 years ago.

If its a minor scratch, affecting the lacquer only, a machine polisher will make them vanish or at least make them very difficult to spot (depending on depth of scratch).

You could take it to a body shop, but for under £55 you can get a decent DIY setup that'll remove hundreds of scratches, e.g.

- Silverline Sander Polisher 180mm (£41.44 from Toolstation, cheaper elsewhere).

- Hook and Loop Polishing Sponge 180mm (£2.21 from Toolstation)

- Maguires Ultimate Compound 450ml (around £10).

I can vouch for the Silverline Polisher, great piece of kit, variable speed (a lot of alternatives are too fast and will damage paintwork).

Finally, get a good look on some demo videos on YouTube and seek some advice the Styling & Car Care Section here or have a good browse on the Detailing World Forum for tips, techniques, polishing speed etc. Practice on a discreet area first, or even better someone elses car (or a spare painted panel if you have one lying around). Don't polish to far, go easy and check regularly if the scratch is satisfactory, if you polish right through the lacquer, it'll look worse that you started, but it doesn't take much polishing to hide most scratches.

Good Luck!

Thanks for all advise, scratches are quite light ones just on the surface. Will shop around, have few friends with polishing machine i think so they might help me out. Not very confident doing them by myself but might have a go at some point.

The guys with loads of experienc will be able to confirm this, but the silverline looks like a rotary polisher? If that's the case from what I've read you need a certain amount of experience to use a rotary as it's easy to do more harm than good with one of those so a DA might be a better option if like me you're a novice though I don't know what the limits of a DA are so prerhaps they'll let us know

Be careful with the bumpers, paint is quite thin and if you rub too hard with a cutting compound its easier than you'd think to get down to the plastic underneath.

Yup you have to be VERY careful using a rotary. IMO if you don't know what your doing your best spending the money on a orbital as there is much much less chance of doing damage to your paint with one of those.

its all too easy to catch a lip with the rotary and then burn through the paint...suddenly the money you saved on the rotary over the orbital is gone out the window.

Anyone used http://www.chipex.co.uk/ ? I have the usual road rash in places, a couple of small door scratches and a longer, wider scratch on the bumper (similar to the blue BMW on the examples page of the chipex website). Seems straight forward enough the apply, thinking about giving it a go unless anyone can suggest otherwise?

I battle with this subject, I don't want the car looking tatty, but I know as soon as pay for any sort of body repair, some div will go and do it again.

Hear one reviewer that tried a system like this (not sure if it was this exact one) but they said they they always ended up just wiping away loads of the paint from the chips too so were lever left with the chips being filled in much or at all some times.

Yeah I can appreciate that. For road rash they talk about smearing the paint over the area with a gloved finger and I wondered if the filling would be less than ideal.

Still, I think I'll try it and report back. Can't be any worse than than the chip stick my dad used to insist on using on his previous car, it looked horrendous with blood red spots all over a bright red bonnet.

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