Can a Scratch Be Buffed Out?

Somebody's cart got your door, a branch got the side of the truck, or you finally saw the spiderweb of swirls in the sun. The first question is always whether it comes out. Most of the marks people show me do. Some don't, and I'd rather you know that before you pay for anything.

What you're actually looking at

Factory paint is layers. Primer on the metal, then the color coat, then a clear coat on top that does the shining and takes the abuse. That clear coat is thin, thinner than a sheet of printer paper on most cars. Every swirl, wash mark and light scratch you can see is sitting in that top layer. Whether a scratch buffs out comes down to one thing: did it stay in the clear coat, or go through it?

The fingernail test

Wash the spot first, or at least wipe it with a damp microfiber. Dirt in a scratch makes it look worse than it is, and dragging your nail across grit adds new scratches. Then run your fingernail across the scratch, not along it.

• Your nail glides over it. It's in the clear coat. This is the kind that polishes out completely.
• Your nail catches. Treat it as through the clear coat. Polishing can round off the edges so it catches less light and you notice it less, but the line stays.
• You can see white, gray or bare metal in it. The color coat is gone. That's touch-up paint, or a body shop if it's long or the metal is showing.

A second check: spray the scratch with water. If it nearly disappears while it's wet, it's usually shallow enough to polish out. Water fills the scratch for a minute the same way polishing levels it for good.

What buffing actually does

Polishing doesn't fill a scratch. It takes the clear coat around it down, a tiny bit at a time with a machine polisher, until the surface is level with the bottom of the scratch and there's no edge left to catch the light. That's why it's permanent: the scratch isn't hidden, it's gone. It's also why it can't be done endlessly. Clear coat doesn't grow back, so I check its thickness with a gauge before I start, and if a panel's already been corrected too many times, I'll tell you a step isn't safe.

That's what paint correction is. Same idea whether it's one scratch on a door or swirls over the whole car.

The stuff people try first

• Scratch remover from the auto parts store. On one light scratch, by hand, it can help. A lot of them also have fillers in them, so part of what you see is the scratch hidden, and it shows up again after a few washes.
• Toothpaste. It's a mild abrasive, so it can soften a tiny mark. It also leaves a dull patch around it, and it's a lot harder to stop at the scratch than people expect.
• Magic Eraser. Keep it off your paint. It's basically very fine sandpaper, and it hazes clear coat.

If you want to try one light scratch yourself: clean it, put a little scratch remover on a microfiber applicator, work a small area with light pressure, then look at it in the sun. If it isn't better after two goes, stop. More rubbing by hand mostly makes a hazy patch that's bigger than the scratch was.

Swirls are scratches too

That spiderweb you see around a light in the sun is thousands of tiny scratches in the clear coat. They come from automatic wash brushes, a dirty towel, or wiping dust and pollen off a dry car. Every one of them passes the fingernail test, which is the good news: swirls are the kind that come out. Because they cover the whole car, getting rid of them is a full polish rather than a spot fix.

Rock chips are a different problem

A chip from the truck in front of you on the highway isn't a scratch. Paint is missing, and polishing can't put paint back. A chip needs touch-up paint in your car's color code (it's on the sticker in the driver's door jamb). What polishing can do is clean up the haze and light scratches around the chip so the panel looks right again. When I see your car, I'll tell you which marks are which.

What it costs to have it done

One bad panel, a hood or a door somebody scratched, is spot correction, priced per panel. Text me a photo and I can usually price it from that. For the whole car:

Each one is quoted for your car, and it's done in your driveway. I use your outdoor spigot and an outlet, which is how I keep the price down. Right after correction is also the time to ceramic coat it, if you want the finish to stay that way.

Hazy plastic is the same job on a different surface: headlight restoration is paint correction on a lens.