Alright, a few months ago, while my car was very dirty, there was a case of water sitting on my trunk. It was hit, and it moved. As you can imagine, it put a crapload of scratches on my trunk lid. Now, I thought they needed to be filled with paint, but that didn't work. Due to the fact that my fingernail can not get stuck in these, I am fairly sure they are all only in the clear coat. I tested this by sanding down a bit of the most prominent scratch and following up with a buff of the area with Maguire's Scratch-X. It worked, the scratch is much less apparent now and I'm sure with a little more work, it would be completely gone. So, what is the most effective way to get rid of these things? I'm thinking about getting one of those porter cable buffers you guys like so much and just go over the entire car to get rid of not only these marks, but all the swirl marks and such. So, I have a few questions for you guys...

Is wet sanding the best way to go about getting rid of these? What other compounds/etc would you guys recommend to get rid of these?
What buffer would you recommend?
Procedure tips?

Lithium: I detail approx. 100 BMW's per year for a pre-owned dealership and a lot of them have water spotting. While I use products more along the lines of bulk/body shop stuff, you will do very well with the Porter-Cable and the right pads/products.

I recommend you contact Meghan at AutoGeek and see what they have in a complete kit. You usually can save some $$ and they can give you some good guidance.

I don't have enough privileges to post pics yet, but you can see some examples of swirl/spot removal at my PhotoBucket Dot Com albums under Totoland.

See Ya

http://img293.imageshack.us/img293/558/1000762szr1.jpg

There's the scratches. Will the orbital be able to remove these, or do I need to wetsand beforehand?

I did take the sandpaper + scratchx to it a little bit and it defiantly helped, a little more will get the tested scratch completely out.

When the car is wet, the paint looks flawless which gave me an idea... I have a tube of BMW clearcoat.. if I just take a little bit, fill in the scratches and then sand down where I filled in, will it look good? Or am I better off just sanding down the clearcoat?

I doubt if a random orbital like a porter-cable would be able to remove wet sanding (can't say for sure because I use a rotary and compound pad for that).

The scratches don't appear to be too bad. The quick test I always give is: if you can feel the ridges of the scratch with your fingernail, you need to wet sand. If not, you can compound them out with a p-c and light compound. You will probably start with a cutting pad + compound, then switch to a polishing pad + polish, and finish up with a finish pad + wax/sealant.

If you already have a pc plus pads, you can always test a scratch with that, before you tackle wet sanding.

I've never tried BMW Clearcoat, so no opinions from me..someone else might chime in.

Toto

A PC can remove wetsand marring, but I always recommend using 2000+ grit to be sure. I think on that scratch I would not jump right to a wetsand, but would compound with the PC first; use a relatively aggressive compound then finish up with a finishing polish. Odds are good it'll look sufficiently better than you won't really mind it anymore.

If not, you can get some 2500-3000 grit paper and give it a go.

I think on that scratch I would not jump right to a wetsand, but would compound with the PC first

This is sound advice. We recommend taking the least aggressive approach first and only going as aggressive as needed to remove the imperfections.

I have been able to remove 2000-2500 grit wetsanding marks with the Porter Cable 7424, a cutting pad and an intermediate to advanced swirl remover. This usually requires following up with a light cutting/polishing pad and a fine swirl remover to remove hazing and minor swirls left behind by the cutting process.

Even if I use a circular polisher to remove the wetsanding marks, I still follow up with the dual action polisher and a polishing pad to remove holograms and buffer swirls.

Once the paint is glossy and swirl-free, apply a wax or sealant with a finishing pad.

I can feel ridges a little, I just cant get my fingernail caught in there.

I'm going to need a little help on what to buy as far as pads, polishes, and other such things go, I really have no idea. As far as Wax/Sealant, I've got some Wolfgang Deep Gloss stuff that I got from autogeek.

The scratchX + some good old fashioned elbow grease has been pretty successful in removing the 2000grit wetsanding marks, but I will have to inspect it under noon light today, im pretty sure its not perfect.

I take it you guys would not recommend filling the scratches with new clearcoat?

I would not use touchup on that mark yet. I really think what you're feeling is a little paint that has raised up and is causing the scratch to look more like a deep blemish than it actually is. Now don't misunderstand me, it is probably too deep into the clear to remove entirely without wetsanding, but I think if you compound via machine you will remove enough clear to make it so the scratch is no longer visible to the naked eye unless you point it out under direct light (it will look like a very shallow indentation in the paint).

If you're still unhappy with it after compounding via PC you can then try wetsanding and make it even less visible, I've just seen way too many similar scratches almost disappear after compounding to recommend jumping right to sanding or touching up.

As for which pads/polishes to use, everyone has differing opinions on that. Autogeek is a supporting vendor here, so I'd hit them up for a good PC+pad+polish starter kit, something with one or two light cutting pads, one or two polishing pads, a finishing pad, backing plate, and at least two polishes (one cutting, one finishing).

For example, this: http://www.autogeek.net/hk7424.html (plus one extra orange pad: http://www.autogeek.net/vcpad.html )
plus this: http://www.autogeek.net/optimum-hyper-compound.html
and this: http://www.autogeek.net/opt400.html

Comes to $239, will probably remove that scratch (and will remove wetsanding marring, should you need to), and will be enough to polish a number of cars, and maintain your car for quite a few years.

Update: OK, wet sanding is definitely working, and working very well. I have gotten to the point where the scratches are completely gone, and the wetsanding marks are invisible unless under direct sunlight. At noon, you cannot tell they are there unless you look at it in such a way that the sun is shining directly on it. I am pretty happy with this result, but my hand hurts like hell at this point, lol.

So, now I just need something to remove wet sanding marks, and while I'm at it, all the swirl marks from the rest of the car. Will this kit: http://autogeek.net/hk7424.html combined with ScratchX and my sealant do the job? I definitely don't need those huge bottles of stuff you linked too picus, those look like major overkill. After I finish this I am getting a car cover for the car, so hopefully I will not have to do anything but minor touch ups in the future.

I'm just happy this is coming out :) I'm going to order now, get the rest of the scratches out with wetsanding now, and hit the car with the PC over spring break, when I have garage. This thing is going to look new ;)

thought: Would getting the autogeek bundle be the best value, or just get the pads and then pick up the PC7336 from Lowe's for $109? Reason I ask is I dont know what pads to pick if I buy seperatly.

Here's where I'm at. I have circled a reference point in this one, you should be able to find it in the first picture too.. the bottom circular nick had five little things above it in the first pic, this point was sanded a little bit too. You can see all the other little damage and crap all over the rest of the hood in the very bright sunlight today.

http://img248.imageshack.us/img248/8536/1000791sqj5.jpg

As you can see, the long, nasty scratch is gone :)

No way in hell im going to do the whole car (or trunk, for that matter) like that though...

Nice work. ScratchX will not work with a PC, it will bog the pad down (it's by hand only). If you want smaller bottles of polish maybe these?

http://autogeek.net/xmt-intermediate-swirl.html

http://autogeek.net/xmt-ultra-fine-swirl.html