Power Polisher Required?

[Dave Haddon]

Love my Ram but am **** about fine scratches around door handles. Do I need a power polisher to remove them? I tried 3 of the top brand alleged "fine scratch removers"..Mcguires, X20, Turtle..none of them touched the fine scvratches when applied by hand and buffed by hand. Is there a "better" product out there a guy can acquire that can be done by hand in home?..Thanks

 

[pacofortacos]

There might be a product, but often the only way is to properly buff it out.

Now is a good time to expand your tool selection at home

If you have a orbital sander, using the right pad on the sander and most any of the above products would probably work - unless the scratches are deeper than you think/describe.

 

[Giorgio_Rampa]

Love my Ram but am **** about fine scratches around door handles. Do I need a power polisher to remove them? I tried 3 of the top brand alleged "fine scratch removers"..Mcguires, X20, Turtle..none of them touched the fine scvratches when applied by hand and buffed by hand. Is there a "better" product out there a guy can acquire that can be done by hand in home?..Thanks

If you want to "fill" those fine scratches. Use Meguiar's Ultimate Wash and Wax.
Dry the truck with a chamois (sheep skin is recommended)
Wash it and dry it again <-- Don't skip this step
Then spray on the Meguiars Quik wax and wipe it off with a microfiber (do one panel at a time)



Otherwise, plan B, which is much more costly:
- Flex XC3401 polisher with Meguiar's Compound with a Lake country Yellow Pad
- Meguiar's MT300CC Polisher with Meguiar's Finishing Wax with finishing disc
- Wax of your choice

 

[Buddy]

Meguiar's is dropping a new spray product you may like, Ultimate Insane Paint Glosser. It is designed to hide light swirls and create gloss. A wax like Ultimate Wax can go on top for protection. Good thing is it will be easily purchased like the rest of the Ultimate line.

 

[Wild one]

Love my Ram but am **** about fine scratches around door handles. Do I need a power polisher to remove them? I tried 3 of the top brand alleged "fine scratch removers"..Mcguires, X20, Turtle..none of them touched the fine scvratches when applied by hand and buffed by hand. Is there a "better" product out there a guy can acquire that can be done by hand in home?..Thanks

It's a truck that lives in Saskatoon and gets drove year round,you're never going to stay ahead of scratches or dings Dave,and anything that'll polish out scratches,is also removing clear coat.If they bother you,put your sunglasses on when you walk up to the truck,and you won't see the imperfections ,lol.Keep it polished and 99.9% of people will never see a scratch unless you point it out to them,so don't mention the imperfections and you'll be good to go with anybody who might be getting in the pass side of the truck

 

[Dave Haddon]

Ha Ha…always looking on the bright side eh Rick..Thanks you guys..the pros know!

 

[Wild one]

Ha Ha…always looking on the bright side eh Rick..Thanks you guys..the pros know!

We live in Canada,lol. i gave up on worrying about every little imperfection years ago,as it's virtually impossible in Western Canada to keep a daily drivers finish perfect,so my work around is to keep the toys very well waxed,and shiny looking,and the majority of people won't notice the imperfections if you don't point them out,lol

 

[quickster2]

Porter Cable 7424XP is a great orbital as well. If you have some time Junkman 2008 has some great videos on YT outlining the process as well as many others. Aerolon Tech Shine (wet applied Si02) and Aerolon Tech Polish are 2 great products as well.

 

[Dave Haddon]

Yep well I know zippo mechanical but do a great job in dressing them out always have since my m1st TR6 back in ther dark ages..LOL..Warlock has a good home and is kept purty..and running well with all ther help from you guys on the Forum..cheers Kojak!

 

[Jim BB]

speaking from a painters point of view if you can catch the edge of a scratch with a thumb or finger nail it is to deep to polish out! surface scratches like around door handles I normally would use a extremely mild ( LIGHT) compound with a lil bit of water with it rub it out by hand then apply my wax again ! If you have textured handles you may want to put some masking tape around them so yo don't compound or wax in them ! just what i do to get rid of them pesky lil scratches !good luck and let me know how it works out for you

 

[Giorgio_Rampa]

Porter Cable 7424XP is a great orbital as well. If you have some time Junkman 2008 has some great videos on YT outlining the process as well as many others. Aerolon Tech Shine (wet applied Si02) and Aerolon Tech Polish are 2 great products as well.

The Flex XC3401 will do the job in half the time of the Porter Cable 7424XP.
And in this case, a truck takes a while, so saving that much time makes a huge difference.

Unless you're parking the truck indoors to do the whole thing, then you can take all the time that you want.

 

[Dave Haddon]

Ahhh ..I will try that with the water trick. ThNKS JIMBB

 

[Treburkulosis]

You won't get it out by hand. Most likely you will need a 21" machine to cut it. Removing the scratches and swirls. I used Koch Chemie H9, Meguiars 105, and Meguiars 101 with several different cutting pads to get everything that I could get out. I bounced between these three pads. Rupes Blue wool pad, Meguiars Red meguiars microfiber pad, and a Black Meguiars black microfiber pad. I finished it with Koch Chemie F6 and a Rupes yellow foam pad on a 15" machine. I used Rupes machines, but the harbor freight machines are excellent for the money. On Metallic paints use a meguiars black microfiber pad as your finisher. It will give it so much more clarity.

 

[mb33458]

Depending on how deep the scratches are, you might consider a clay bar. I pur a scratch on my truck with the handle of my lawn mower, clay bar took it right out.

 

[bcbouy]

it's a losing battle trying to keep the paint perfect on a canadian truck.my cheat is to just clay bar it in the spring after the snow is melted,apply a high quality polish to it and apply some ceramic wax every couple of washes.the high gloss will fool anyone into not seeing the fine scratches.i firmly believe the clearcoat ram uses is really low quality and very soft.i also avoid dark painted vehicles like the plague.swirls are not worth the hassle.