How To Repair Minor Car Scratches?

There are a number of factors that can cause car scratches, juvenile behaviour, car accidents, and parking lot mishaps and poor parking, all these are factors that can lead to a car scratch. Scratches normally detract from appearance of the car, although it can be quite expensive to apply a small touch up or even paying for a new paint job.

Car paints are usually catalyzed enamel that are hardened by toxic chemicals. It becomes stable immediately within hours of application.

Minor scratches are ones that do not touch the clear coat or go into the areas of low gloss. They can easily be polished out with several compounds.


Use the following tips in order to repair the minor scratches on your car.

Determine if the scratch is actually a scratch

– More often, what appears as a scratch is a just a raised line from an impact. It usually occurs when the car contacts another object, say bumper, whose coating is softer than the car paint.
– These scratches require much less effort to remove.

Establish the depth of the scratch

– Normally, a car has four major layers; the clear coat, colours, primer and then steel. It is much easier to repair if the scratch go as deep as colour or the clear coat. If you can see a different steel or colour, then the scratch is very deep and might be impossible to repair.

Prepare the vehicle

– Wash and dry your car thoroughly, more scratches can be created if you repair the scratches when your car is dirty.
– Spray the scratched region with water.

Sand the scratch

– Wrap a 2000 grit sandpaper around the sanding pad and start sanding towards the direction of the scratch-horizontally.

Rinse the region with water at short intervals

– If you have a scratch that goes deeper into the clear coat use a 1500 grit sandpaper so as to level the surface and then used the 2000 grit sandpaper to get rid of the scratches caused by the coarser sandpaper.

Polish the region

– You can apply a good rubbing compound to the scratched region. Use a buffer pad to spread the compound around the region that is dull as a result of sanding. Turn the buffer on, set it at its lowest level and slowly move it around for at least ten seconds.
– Increase the speed to roughly 2000rpm and buffer for at least sixty seconds. For better results, you have to move the buffer from one side to the other gently and then move down slowly.
– Do not stop until the dullness is completely faded. This might take you at most five minutes depending on the level of your speed and the amount of scratch.
– Check to see if the scratch is still visible.


Wash and rinse the area

– Use clean water when doing this. Make sure that you also look for a clean towel to get rid of the leftover compound residues from the painted region.

Car wax

– To seal the paint on your car completely, you can use car wax. There are many brands in the market, just look for the best.

Extra tips

– To remove raised marks, you can scrub the affected region with a soapy rag. If that does not work, you can try an adhesive remover as well.
– A tooth brush can also help a great deal. It is used to rub off the leftover compound residues from the car.
– Note that, although one part of the scratch is shallow, the opposite end or the middle might be a bit deeper.
– Therefore it is critical to survey the entire scratch keenly, before deciding on which direction to approach the removal of the scratch.

Things to note/warnings

– Avoid getting debris or dirt between your car and the sandpaper, this will lead to more scratching.
– Always remember to wipe off, any visible leftover compound residue as soon as you are done buffing. The bad thing about the residue is that it tends to adhere itself to the paint and hence more difficult to get rid of.
– Do not buff in the same region for more than one second. If you do so, you will scratch it to the next layer.

Things you will need:

· Spray bottle
· Buffer pads
· Buffer
· Water
· Soap
· Sanding pad
· Rags
· Rubbing compound
· Car wax
· 1500 and 2000 grit sandpaper