my brother backed into my truck this morning.... put some hairline scratches on the paint right above the muffler, any ideas how to fix them myself? im not looking for those cheap marker things but dont want to go to the body shop. i have some touch up paint that came with it and just looking to make it look close to normal

 

wet sand it

 

X2 get it nice and smooth and than use your touch up paint to finish it off.

 

A good detailer can polish them out or dimish them pretty easily and reasonably. I would only recomend wet sanding as a last resort because once you are through the clear and into the paint then its a guaranteed trip to the body shop.

Edit: This is all depending on how deep the scratches are and if they are not into the primer or metal.

 

I would say the general rule of thumb is if you can catch and edge when you run your fingernail over the scratch, then trying to sand & polish is probably not going to work. When you sand & polish a scratch what you are doing is sanding your clearcoat down past the scratch so its no longer visible. Then polishing the area to bring the luster back out. If the scratch is to deep then your going to burn through the clearcoat and you will have to refinish the panel.

Best bet would be to find someone who knows how to use a high speed buffer. They should be able to make it look better but probably not take the scratch completely out.

other than that there is some stuff calld "butter wax" or "better wax" that you can use. It will bring the luster out in the paint and sort of hide the scratches. you will have to apply accordingly as it will wear off.

As far as touch up... Ive found touch up to work the best for rock chips as opposed to long slender scratches. to me it makes the scratch stand out even more. the touch up rarley matches right on and the touch up paint always seems to bleed beyond the boundaries of the scratch.