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I bought a 2004 Forester a few months back. Being my first newish car, I thought I should learn how to look after the paint. It has a mica metallic blue paint that looks fairly good, but has a range of mainly fine scratches. For example, fingernails around door handles, miscellaneous swirls and scratches on doors and bonnet. Most don't seem deep (ie. don't catch on your fingernail), so seem to be superficial in the clear coat.
I went to an auto place and showed it to a guy who seemed knowledgeable, spoke about his own car cleaning (sounding like an obsessive car cleaner!) and gave me various advice about products. He was saying some products could remove the light scratches and lessen the visual impact of the bigger ones. As he recommended, I ended up buying some Meguiars products: car wash, fine-cut, wet-look polish/wax combo (I don't know if this is only sold in Australia: http://www.meguiars.com.au/productde...Protect&show=1). I picked up some MEguiar's foam applicator pads and microfiber cloths.
I tested it all on a whole door by hand in the order and manner recommended by him and Meguiars, and the paint certainly looks cleaner, glossier etc. But it doesn't really have a marked effect on the scratches. I can still seem them all!
Having done a bit more reading, I am wondering whether I need a power buffer to make effective use of the fine-cut (the fine-cut doesn't say you need a power buffer on the bottle, but you get that impression online, but is that for the older formulations?)? Or if by hand is doable, just how long do you rub it on, how much product do you use, how much pressure is recommended (soft/medium/hard?), should I be wiping off much product or should most of it be disappearing during the rubbing?
And how long should I leave the wet-look on to dry before hand-buffing it off (ok, I think I answered this one by looking at the swipe test page)?
Appreciate any tips
b
I went to an auto place and showed it to a guy who seemed knowledgeable, spoke about his own car cleaning (sounding like an obsessive car cleaner!) and gave me various advice about products. He was saying some products could remove the light scratches and lessen the visual impact of the bigger ones. As he recommended, I ended up buying some Meguiars products: car wash, fine-cut, wet-look polish/wax combo (I don't know if this is only sold in Australia: http://www.meguiars.com.au/productde...Protect&show=1). I picked up some MEguiar's foam applicator pads and microfiber cloths.
I tested it all on a whole door by hand in the order and manner recommended by him and Meguiars, and the paint certainly looks cleaner, glossier etc. But it doesn't really have a marked effect on the scratches. I can still seem them all!
Having done a bit more reading, I am wondering whether I need a power buffer to make effective use of the fine-cut (the fine-cut doesn't say you need a power buffer on the bottle, but you get that impression online, but is that for the older formulations?)? Or if by hand is doable, just how long do you rub it on, how much product do you use, how much pressure is recommended (soft/medium/hard?), should I be wiping off much product or should most of it be disappearing during the rubbing?
And how long should I leave the wet-look on to dry before hand-buffing it off (ok, I think I answered this one by looking at the swipe test page)?
Appreciate any tips
b
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