To my horror, I found a 3-4 inches long fine scratch on my Basalt Black 997. I am not sure how I got it but when I ran my finger across it, I cannot feel the scratch and even the clear coat appears to be intact. I just washed my car a few days ago but this time I used a chamolis to dry the car instead of the blower. But I did not notice the scratch while drying the car.

So my questions:

1. Does anyone know how this could have happened?
2. Anyway to remove it? I tried Meguiar's ScratchX but it did not help.

TIA

 

If the scratch is as light as you say it is, just take to a body shop and have them polish it out. Otherwise, you'll need a polisher, pads, and polish...unless you already have it. Do you?

 

I would advise against taking it to a body shop. Most painters wouldn't know how to finish down if their life dependent on it.

You are lucky to be in the Bay area - call Bob Willis - www.justwaxed.net

He is one of the best and "CAN" fix black paint to perfection.

 

+1. In fact, my dealer burnt my paint to the ground. I refuse to do any sort of detailing done at the dealer.

 

Thanks for the pointer. I will give him a call and see what can be done.

 

you are most welcome!

 

Another vote for BOB, he is the man for the job, your luck he is local to you!

 

I was at Costco and they have this scratch removal pens from Dupont. Does it work at all? Or is it just going to make it worse?

I have also just washed and clayed/polished/waxed the affected area. The scratch is faint now but it is still there but just require closer look. My wife actually could not find it the first couple of minutes as she was trying.

 

I can also vouch for Bob. There are others too in that area.

Cheers,
GREG

 

On your question of how it happened, who knows? There are a million ways. I'd say it likely happened when you washed it though, and the only reason you didn't notice it is because a shallow scratch like that will sometimes take a little time to show up after a wash. You probably had a tiny little piece of sand/dirt in the chamois.

As to how to fix it, my preferred method for years is to use a polishing compound with a rag and do it by hand. This is a very old school method, but by far the best way to do it. It won't damage your clear coat and gives you ultimate control over exactly how much clearcoat you end up polishing down. Ultimately that's the only way to get rid of a scratch other than using one of those filler pens and waxing over it. In my experience those work ok but require redoing it just about every time you wash the car. Most places these days use polishing compound and a 6" buffing pad on an angle grinder, which IMHO results in taking off WAY too much of the clearcoat since you have so little control.

Using some elbow grease on a scratch that size may take you a half hour or more, but it'll end up perfect.

 

By polishing compound, you do not mean something like Zymol HD Cleanse. Correct?

 

If you are not familiar with the polishing process or the polishes, I think you should look for some professional help. No offense but I was were you are in 2008 and I got totally frustrated and messed up my car's finish on my hood trying to get a small spider web looking swirl out.

 

 

I completely agree that I should let a professional take a look. I will contact justwaxed.net as soon as I get some time.

 

He is truly a master of his craft. I am active on some other boards where he posts his work and he has been very generous by sharing information with me online. He has helped me figure out what products / techniques will fix some tough problems I had on my own cars. The one that reall saved me was the water spot removal issue I had. Turns out I had the right product but was not using enough pressure. I think his exact words were something like, this is not a job for the noodle armed. Lol. He was right. That waterspout removal was a lot of scrubbing!