deep scratches factory clearcoat

[a1953mdl]

I am prepping my 07 Dodge pickup for sale.
I have a few deeper scratches in the bed sides. Some deep enough you can catch your fingernail on them. I don't think they are through the clearcoat, but don't know how to tell for sure.







These are just a sample. I also have quite a few chips in the paint also.

Anyway. I have tried Ultimate Compound and it worked well on the lighter scratches. I have read enough now on the forum that I think I need to go back and try harder with the UC and do it multiple times. I am going to do that. But there has to be a point when I am getting close to going through the factory clear coat and should stop. Is there a way (other than experience) to tell when I am getting close?

I am doing this by hand, should I use a DA polisher instead?

If there are still scratches when I finish with UC, is there some thing I can apply to "hide" the scratches.

Any advice on the chips?

Thanks for the help. I really like the helpfullness of the forum

Lee

[Andrew C.]

Re: deep scratches factory clearcoat

Those look pretty deep and are probably too far into the clear to even be removed. Go ahead and give it another go at them with UC, but if doing it once more doesn't make a noticeable difference, then you are out of luck.

I wouldn't try using touch up paint because it will probably make it look even worse.

If you can't learn to live with them, your only other choice is repainting those panels.

[a1953mdl]

Re: deep scratches factory clearcoat

I worked on the areas in the 2nd and 3rd pictures and they came out well. I haven't tried the area in the first picture again. Just hoping someone has a tip on how to "save" it.
It's small but is in an easily visible area.
Just trying to get it to look as good as the truck really is, in order to sell it.

Lee

[Michael Stoops]

Re: deep scratches factory clearcoat

I worked on the areas in the 2nd and 3rd pictures and they came out well. I haven't tried the area in the first picture again.

Just looking at those pictures our first thoughts were "the scratches in the second and third shots should come out pretty easily, but that first one is down to the primer". That means the first one looks like a candidate for some touch up paint at the very least since everything above the primer is gone. There is no way to repair that with simple buffing - unless the image is somehow deceiving and it's not really bad as it looks. But it looks seriously bad.