Hello,

I have a couple of 1-2 inch long hairline scratches. I used a steady hand and touch up paint on one but it did not work. I found a touch up paint bottle with a pen tip at Walmart and the same color as my car that seems interesting. Before I tried something else, I thought I would ask.

How do you typically remove hairline scratches that are deep enough that a Megiar's Scratch X or even rubbing compound can't touch?

Thanks,

Mike

 

I forgot to mention, the car is an '03 Maxima Dark Gray.

Mike

 

You used touchup paint on an 03?
When I apply cleaner wax it seems to hide hairline scratches on my 95. Otherwise, just use some Meguiars Scratch-X.
I hope that touchup paint matched your car's paint well. The touchup paint I applied to my car doesn't match for ****. Good old 3-stage Pearl White.

 

If you can feel the scratch with your nail it can't be repaired. Touch up paint works marginally well on chips, but for thin scratches there is more or less nothing you can do but get the panel repainted....at least if you want it to look good.

Using touchup paint is more than just slathering it on there. You need to sand, possibly primer, touch up, touch up, touch up, touch up (many thin coats =D ) then wetsand or polish. The stuff at walmart a.) Will not match right, b.) Will not look good, c.) Will not stick without proper prep.

I have been wanting to do some of my own touchup for awhile now...but the process is tricky if you want good results. I am probably going to get an airbrush sooner than later to try and start using that on chips. Even witht he airbrush I wouldn't do hairline scratches though...even if they turned out smooth the color difference would be noticeable because you would have to sand so much to get it to stick.

 

You might give Langka a shot. I've had good results using it on chips and it's supposed to work on scratches as well. Langka.com

Also, if you can't feel it with your fingernail, a good polish and wax should go a long way to hiding it.

 

If your nail drops down in the scratch any, you cant get rid of it, all you can do is make it look better. But your gonna have to use a high speed buffer with compound, and then high speed polish and coat it nicely with some wax.