Scuff/Graze on GP - Wax or TCut?

[tartanmartin]

Hi guys, not long after picking my car up I hit a traffic cone and have left a scuff/graze on the surface. Its not deep but circular and about 3 inches across.

What would be the best way to treat this? A slightly abraisive polish (makes?) or TCut (Ive seen mixed stories)? Is there a particular polish people would recommend for a GPS - Exotica Red?

Many thanks in advance

 

[punto_matt]

Has it taken paint away or is it a mark on top of the paintwork?

 

[Tris Harris]

if it hasnt broken the paint (ie down to primer) then i would try meguiars Scratch X.

 

[tartanmartin]

It just appears to be on the surface, I cant see the white of the primer or anything beneath. From afar it just looks slightly dull and lost its shine, but up close you can see a number of small but not very deep scratches.

Out of interest, is the front wing plastic or metal? I know a lot of cars now have plastic front wings....

 

[punto_matt]

The wings are metal. If its just plastic off the cone on the paint then it should come off with a bit of elbow grease.

 

[unimatrix1]

Just T-Cut it

 

[Andy Monty]

Just T-Cut it

use t-cut metallic so as not to cloud your clear coat..... if you can feel it with your finger nail your going to need a machine polisher and a bit of wet sanding

 

[tartanmartin]

I dropped into Halfords last night to take advantage of the 3 for 2 and decided to go for AutoGlym Paint Restorer.

It got 5 stars in Autoexpress and is for light scratches and haze - haze is probably the best thing to describe it. Its not as harsh as TCut so will give this a bash first (when the weather is decent!!!). If it doesnt work, I will go down the TCut road.....

 

[sparkyd]

cant see tcut doing any harm, might be worth a try...

 

[VII CKS]

I dropped into Halfords last night to take advantage of the 3 for 2 and decided to go for AutoGlym Paint Restorer.

It got 5 stars in Autoexpress and is for light scratches and haze - haze is probably the best thing to describe it. Its not as harsh as TCut so will give this a bash first (when the weather is decent!!!). If it doesnt work, I will go down the TCut road.....

This removes fine scratches/haze, but mainly is like T-cut, it restores the colour, i.e. acting as a gentle abrasive to remove paintwork.

Only other T-Cut you have is T-cut colorfast with colour in it (i.e. black, blue, red for your car colour etc), and that just fills the gap, as long as it hasn't broken the lacquer surface. If it has you need a touch up pen.

Halfords T-cut = £7.99
Touch up pen = £7.99-£10.49 depending on 2 pen/3 pen set (if metallic car).
Mixed up touch up brush - £7.99

 

[Tris Harris]

I'd always try something else before T-cut, not a big fan of the stuff

 

[Lloyd71]

Autoglym Super Resin Polish is one of the best products you can use by hand to try and cover up scratches. It mostly contains fillers but it makes a huge difference to swirl marks, here's a 50/50 of my results from using it by hand

 

[Tris Harris]

for deeper scratches, you'd need to use something like meg's scratch x before srp as srp is mostly fillers.

 

[Ralf S.]

If you have *mild* scratches, use a gentle abrasive first.. going straight to T-Cut is a bit like using an angle grinder to remove a milk-bottle top!

T-Cut is good stuff if you use it in the right context.. i.e. the least amount and with the lightest pressure you need to get the job done. Otherwise it's probably toooo abrasive for the noncey-boy's paint that cars come wrapped up in these days.


Ralf S.