![]() ![]() He was somber: The deepest scratches invariably need to be filled with paint, as all the sanding in the world simply won't make a difference. I was still not convinced the scratch on my new car would come out with these methods, and I asked Jensen about dealing with the deepest scratches. It's not just hard to work with at that size, it's also sure to quickly become spent. Also, the sandpaper provided is tiny, just 2 inches square. My only beef with the kit was that while you can reuse the drill pads, the rubbing compound and polish come in non-resealable packets and aren't suitable for significant reuse. The system definitively improved the deepest scratches, though they were still somewhat visible. Buffing with compound and then polish with the included drill attachments shined everything up, and sure enough my light scratches were gone, with moderate ones almost invisible. After a couple of minutes of wet sanding, I'd made substantial headway on the moderate scratches on my panel, though I'd clearly dulled the paint, taking the shiny clear coat down to a hazy matte. The Trizact sandpaper was pretty miraculous on that front. Here you're actually sanding down the clear coat on your car, which is scary as hell, but it quickly became clear some sanding was required to significantly improve most of my test scratches. The "simple three step process" includes sanding by hand with sandpaper, using a drill attachment to apply rubbing compound, and finally using the drill again to apply polish. Given the depth of some of my test scratches, Ansell suggested the 3M Trizact Precision Scratch Kit ($20), an all-in-one system that also uses a drill and promises to remove light and medium scratches. The key was to get some sanding action involved on that scratch. īut why weren't these products working? "Most products won't completely eliminate the scratch, but we can make it less noticeable," said Kevin Ansell, a senior engineer at 3M (which also owns Meguiar's). With a little electric muscle, the DA system indeed made the lighter scratches virtually invisible, though moderate and deeper ones remained. The DA Power System is an impressive rotary polishing system that attaches to a standard drill, moving in an orbital (not strictly circular) motion, ensuring more even coverage. ![]() ![]() Sure enough, not until I fired up Meguiar's DA Power System ($54 total) did I see markedly improved results. "If the scratch isn't out after a few passes, you need to turn to a machine," said Pennington. The results were marginally better than Turtle Wax, but just barely. ![]() Pennington had turned me on to Meguiar's Ultimate Compound, Polish, and Liquid Wax (total cost about $35), which I put to task on the same scratches for my next test, again working by hand. While together they did a fair job at hiding the lightest of surface scratches at a distance, under most lighting conditions even minor scratches remained clearly visible. All four of these come in the form of runny white goo that is applied with a cloth pay close attention or you won't know what product you're using. I started with the simplest of the bunch, a collection of light-duty products from Turtle Wax, including Rubbing Compound, Polishing Compound, Scratch & Swirl Remover, and Carnauba Liquid Wax (total value about $20). I scratched it up with box cutter, making scratches of various depths, and then put products from four different companies to task to try to remove them. Before I tackled my own car, I decided to experiment on a test panel I acquired at the local junkyard. ![]()
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