I've had these scratches on my driver's side door for a while but I'd like to find a way to eliminate them or reduce them so they are not so visible. Sorry, may not be the best shots.

 

Has your truck ever been repainted/detailed?

The paint looks EXTREMELY thin in the picture above right along the body line.

Answer this one and, based on that answer, we might be able to help out. I don't want to recommend using a product on that area if there's no clearcoat left as it could make it worse.

The lighter scratches showin in the first picture look like they can be dealt with...

RP

 

As far as I know it's not a repaint. It only has 27,000 miles on it now and I bought it with 23K on it. To me it seems to have thin paint because it scratches so easily but it's hard to tell. How do I tell if it has been repainted? I have been detailing it. I have only used once coat of Klasse AIO and have about 3 coats of Klasse SG on.

 

Really no solid way that I know of to tell if it's a repaint short of having a paint thickness meter. This high-dollar little gadget only discloses thickness of both the paint and clear though (not one or the other).

It's going to be up to you whether to try this or not... someone else might be able to chime in and better assist you as I'm not extrememly versed in determining repaints nor am I an expert at the actual painting process. In short, I know enough to see that and throw a flag but, whether the flag is accepted by the referee or not remains a mystery...

To remove the scratches, I'd follow this very well written article by Mike Phillips of Meguiar's over at www.meguiarsonline.com . Again though, I want to stress that you should only try this if you feel confident that your clear coat is there and is fairly uniform/thick.

RP

 

Looks to me like another pic of the edge of the door should be taken. It might just be me but the 'thin' area looks to be caused from the digital pic and the curvature of the door...

 

The clear looks OK to me? Probably the way the pics were taken.

Anyhow, without a paint thickness gauge, you are going to have to take a chance that there is enough paint there if you want to get the scratches out.

The MP's article is certainly a good one. If the scratches are localized, the Scratch X and that process will work fine. If the scratches are more numerous, you might be better off with a PC, and some Speed Glaze, DACP or similar products.

 

I was thinking that too but, then I noted this area:




To me, it looks like the flash is reflecting off to the left of that area and thus, I wouldn't think that this area would look skewed (but, of course, it could be).

I thought it appeared like the paint was either really thin or the clear/paint had been removed.

chroma -- does the hood/body line paint in that area look to be missing?

RP

 

RP,

Yea I saw that too. It's not uncommon for "edges" like that to have varing thicknesses of paint on OEM, and even on some custom paint jobs. Because of that, one should be careful when using any type of buffer around "edges".

The flat portion of the panel with the scratches on it looks to be OK.......... of course, it is hard to tell unless you are seeing it in person.

 

Agreed.

 

I'll try to post some better pics and pics in some different areas so we tell if the paint in thinner than it should be. Thanks.