Are the scratches below simply too deep for the Flex? These are on my bro-in-law's Saab (it's a 2003 with 19000 miles that basically sat outside under a tree, undriven for 5 years). He's basically letting me use it as my test-panel. FWIW, the results so far (just claying and 1 pass with wool and SIP) have been EXTREMELY impressive; the car was, as you can guess, a complete disaster when I got it, and when my bro in law came over to see the progress, he was blown away, his jaw literally hung open for a few seconds as he walked around the car. Yay!

Anyways, I'm using the Flex at about 5.5 with wool and Menzerna Super Intensive Polish. I've tried 2 passes (one with little pressure and one with alot of pressure) on this section, but this is the best I've gotten it. I could try another pass (or 3), but I don't want to damage the rest of the "good paint". I'm thinking these types of scratches aren't candidates for polishing.

Do I need to try "compounding" to get these out? Or is the only way to fix them to repaint them? I don't mind trying "compounding" as long as it's reasonably safe for a noob; my bro in law doesn't care if I burn through the paint on this car (I asked :P ).

Thanks again for everyone's help.





obligatory Moe plug: Moe has been super helpful to me throughout my "education". If anyone is debating buying products or trying this stuff out, give Moe a call. He hasn't sold me a product that didn't live up 100% to his description, and his post-purchase support is A+. Take it from someone who tends be on the more difficult side of customer service

And if you haven't bought a CR Spotless machine, my $0.02: it's probably the first thing you should buy if you're interested in saving time and avoiding needless scratches; it's best thing I've bought for cleaning the car.

 

Difficult to tell, they may be able to be sanded out and polished, but would want to take a paint measurement first before putting sandpaper to it. Since have a contact with Moe, I would give him a call maybe he could come out and polish this out for you.


John

 

· Deep Scratches- a surface scratch that will `catch' your fingernail is approximately 0.04 Mil (1.0 µ) deep will usually require wet sanding

 

Hard to tell from those angles Joe. Like Jon said, if it's caught with your nail, it'll require sanding. Maybe some closer high-res pics if you can, and just email them to me.

 

My fingernail definitely catches these scratches. And there are tons all over the car.

Hopefully a glaze will at least cover them up? I'll try the Menzerna Glaze after I've finished the Super Finish polish step.