I have some scratches on my white 2002 FX4 and was wondering if anybody knew how to get them and out and then prevent it from scratching again. Thanks

 

It would really help if we new how deep and how big the scratches are.

As long as they are not to deep you may be able to have them buffed out.

 

theyre not really deep or wide but after i wash my truck u can see them if you look and i just cant stand it

 

If you use your vehicle, it will get scratched. There's no getting around that unless your vehicle is a trailer queen show car.

If you have just spots of scratches that you cannot feel with your finger nail, then you can use a product like Meguiar's ScratchX to remove or reduce them. If you can feel the scratches with your fingernail, then chances are you might need paint work to fully correct them.

The thing to remember with Meguiar's ScratchX is that it's not a wipe on wipe off product. You really have to work the product agressively against the paint until the product is broken down to make it work. You'll probably need several applications of this before you notice results, but it works great for small corrections. Doing an entire vehicle this way is possible, but not very practical. It would take many full days of hard work to do a F150 by hand with ScratchX. If your entire vehicle is swirled up, then it's best to use a machine to remove those scratches, but they will come back in due time.

Here's some quick tips off the top of my head to minimize the chance of inducing scratches on your vehicle when washing or drying it...
- Use a wash bucket with a grit guard on the bottom. Some guys use what's called the two bucket method (one for clean soap and one for dirty rinse), but one bucket carefully used works fine for me.
- Use a soft natural (not synthetic) sea sponge (clean all the sand from it first) or a genuine sheepskin wash mitt or a grout sponge from Home Depot. I've had very good experienced with grout sponges over the years and they're inexpeneive. I would not recommend using generic microfiber wash mits as I've seen too many of these scratch up paint.
- Use the proper amount of car wash soap, which is often 1oz per gallon of water (most people don't use enough), but it depends on the soap so check the label.
- First hose the vehicle down with water and then apply the soap with the sponge or wash mit, etc. Wipe lightly for the first pass and thoroughly rinse your sponge afterwards. If your sponge is noticibly dirty, then squeeze out the filth before you put it back into the wash bucket. Now you can use a bit more pressure on that previously wiped area if necessary, but you want to use as little pressure as necessary to minimize the chance of further scratching / marring.
- Dry with a soft microfiber towel that you know won't scratch the paint and do not use a lot of pressure when wiping. In fact, if you can get away with patting it dry, then that may be your best bet. I use a handheld blower to get some of the water off and follow that up with a plush waffle weave microfiber towel to completely dry things.

I'm sure other people have their own way of doing things, but these are some of the many things that work for me whether I'm doing my own vehicles or someone elses vehicles.

 

thanks that helps alot

 

If you have scratches on the truck that are from toys, plastic, paint etc, you can get them off with carb cleaner. Get 2 rags. Spray carb cleaner on 1 rag (not directly onto paint), and rub it over the scratch until it goes away. Don't rub it for more than a few seconds though. And wipe the excess away immediately with the other rag. Carb cleaner is very good at removing any kind of residue scratch. But you have to be careful or you might be able to remove some clearcoat. I have done this tons of times on several vehicles, (mine included) and I've never seen it hurt automotive paint. But I don't let it sit long.

 

If the scratches are deep, but there are not a whole lot of them, then you can pick up a kit by Dupli-Color. It includes filler putty, clear-coat, rubbing compound, and fine-grit sand paper. In addition, you need a bottle of touchup paint for your particular color... I've used it a few times on my truck, and it does a geat job. After the repair, you really can't even tell there was a scratch, unless you look very closely. Does a great job. And all for under $10 - can't beat that!

 

Great write up there by qad... everyone can learn something from that (especially the note on the MF wash mitts -- they're swirls just waiting to happen!).

Before I try to tackle the 'scratch' issue, can you post some pics of your problem? Different levels of scratching/swirling/maring can call for different types of products to deal with them. In a nutshell, you don't want to go after something that is fairly simplistic with a heavier 'cutting' type of product (and vice-versa).

Let us know...