I recently discovered a few deep scratches in my rear driver's side door. Has anybody tried to repair scratches on their Maximas? Mine is Pearl White if that makes any difference. If anyone has tried to remove scratches, please let me know what you used and how it worked.

 

You can do it, but if you want it to look good it takes some careful prepration.

First, wash the car and use a citrus cleaner/degreaser to clean the area around the scratch. If there is rusted metal showing, you'll need some 600 grit wet/dry sandpaper. Wet the area and lightly sand the rust off.

Take a toothpick and run around the edges to make sure any paint around it is firmly attatched to the metal, some of it will flake off if loose. It's a good idea to sand even if there is no rust, you want to lightly sand the paint to roughen up the old paint so the new paint will adhere. Just sand very lightly and barely over the old paint, using water with the sandpaper. You can skip this if it makes you nervous, but it helps the new paint adhere.

Now use some rubbing alcohol and a rag to clean off the area. Get some touch up paint for your paint color from the dealer and shake it well. Get a clean toothpick and dip it into the paint, don't load it up with too much paint. Touch the toothpick to the scratch and let the paint flow off onto the metal. You should put down thin coats every few hours, you don't want to just blob the paint on. I've read recommendations on doing it a dozen times in thin coats, but I think you could get by with 3-4 instead. You just want to keep adding paint until the area is covered and the paint is bulging up slightly.

Don't worry if it doesn't quite match the paint at this point, just let it alone and give it a week or so to completely dry.

Ok, now pick up a meguiars 2000 grit sanding block. Any 2000 grit sanding block will probably work, the meguiars is very nice for this sort of thing though. Don't use plain sandpaper... Soak it in water for several hours, and apply a small amount of car wash over the scratch. Take the sanding block and gently go back and forth over the scratch until the touch up is level with the surrounding paint.

Done!

Using a toothpick to apply the paint with a slight bulge, then sanding it is what makes it blend. If you just throw the paint on, it won't match well because it's not flat, which causes light to reflect differently and make it look a different color than the surrounding paint.