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How do you deal with fine scratches in clearcoat?

2K views 18 replies 10 participants last post by  highleymd 
#1 ·
My 380 SL has quite a bit of hairline scratches in the clearcoat. My best guess is that these scratches came from and aggressive car wash, given the pattern.

I also have some spotting on one side, which could be some sort of a chemical splash. It just looks like water spotting, but does not come off with washing.

I know one option is to take it to a detailer, you will likely have to buff a considerable amount of clear coat off of my car. I wonder if this is just a temporary solution before needing a respray?

I have already spent some money on this car with mechanical fixes, and don't have a huge interest in spending a ton of money on cosmetics quite yet.

I'm wondering if it makes sense to get a ROS and try and buff these out myself, if I should take it to a pro, or if there is some new miracle a snake oil that will improve the look, or at least not damage it further.

I took a quick look at the detailing forum. And I have to say I much prefer the dialogue here to what I saw over there.

Any suggestions on new technology, doing it myself, or taking it to a pro (estimates for a fair rangefor a whole car would be helpful)

As always thanks for the help.
 
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#4 ·
My 380 SL has quite a bit of hairline scratches in the clearcoat.
I recommend a clay bar treatment followed by Meguiars polish then Meguiars Carnuba wax.
 
#10 ·
I have a similar issue with mine. Lots of fine scratches that are only obvious under certain light conditions. I thought they would buff out easily so I got to work. Very minor improvement if any. Ended up bringing it to a professional detail shop. Got a call about 1h after I dropped it off and was told they can't get the scratches out and that it appears to be under the clear coat. Went to Bud's Benz, the local Mercedes restauration experts, and the owner looked at it personally. Was told that he saw this issue numerous times on older especially smoke silver painted cars and what is happening is that the clear coat is starting to separate from the base coat (the clear coat is not peeling off). He looked the car over carefully and told me he would leave it alone since the car is such an honest original car. Now I got concerned and I brought it to one of the premier Mercedes repair shop in Atlanta and talked to their painting expert. Same answer. A couple weeks ago I saw a smoke silver MY 89 560sl sitting at a dealership - same problem just not as pronounced as on my car.
I hope a good detail shop can correct your paint issue.
In my case I will enjoy the car as is and in a couple years will probably bite the bullet and have the car stripped down to bare metal and get it repainted.
 
#11 ·
I still have not figured out how to quote on my cell phone but Lanright40 makes a good point.

Last night i unpacked the kit a bit and came to the conclusion that going with the porter cable machine that everyone uses is cheap insurance and I can pull together the hex pads hook and loop and other bits and still stay close to $200

I'm planning on watching a lot of YouTube before I start to do anything and will start with a very light abrasive on flat surfaces. Lots of tape for trim and chrome. Like a doctor, my motto will be first, do no harm.
 
#12 ·
I have been a somewhat anal car polisher over the years and have had good success polishing out clear coat scratches on my newer cars using some of the fine cut polishes and clear coat buffing compounds.. I have not been as successful on surface scratch issues on my 107s, and I am fearful that I could burn through the clear coat with too much of an effort..

I think that older clear coats are somewhat brittle, thinned, and hardened, so surface is not as workable and it is a challenge to polish out scratches... You can also burn through them if you work too hard. I had a dulled clear coat area on on of my A pillars on a 560sl so I lightly hand polished with "clear coat safe" polish and it started to expose the paint coat below the clear coat, so I stopped immediately.. I have since learned to back off on this. Now when I hear somebody talk about "clear coat correction" on a 30 year old car it makes me wonder......

I am also interested to hear that Smoke Silver seems problematic... I looked at two Smoke Silver cars when I was shopping and they both had bad paint... I would be curious to hear if members here have Smoke Silver cars with well preserved original paint?? This seems to happen with certain paint formulations on older cars, and I have seen this on other makes too.
 
#14 ·
So the kit arrived earlier this week. Before I took the hard top off I did a little polishing on the hard top figuring that if I did any damage it wouldn't really matter that much as I new use the hard top anyway.

I have to say I was surprised by the results. In a good way. I did not use a particularly aggressive pad or compounds, but was able to remove lots of swirls and really reduced the look of some scratches.
My paint will never be perfect but this DA polisher looks like it will improve the look of the paint.

Like everything there are variables, the compound, the pad, the speed and technique. I am far from a pro but think that when I tackle the entire car this weekend that I should improve the appearance- taking into consideration that I have a lot of fine scratches, a few deep scratches and plenty of what look to be water or chemical stains on the clearcoat. Will it be perfect. Nope. Will it be an improvement. My thought today is absolutely.

More to follow, possibly with photos if I can capture the changes.
 
#15 · (Edited)
I have a Porter Cable orbital polisher I've been using a while. Sure there are faster machines to use, but I still think the PC is one of the best for general use for the hobbiest with the potential for the least damage if used correctly. Seen plenty of cars with burned paint and holograms all over after the seal wore off from using the higher power machines and inexperienced users.

That's why I avoid "pro" detailers. Some will be inclined to quick buff and then put a filler coat on that hides anything on the car. Once this weathers off you are back to where you were or sometimes worse off. Had a Toyota repainted by supposedly a premier shop. Few weeks later the holograms all over the car became apparent. Waited for everything to cure and then fixed the paint myself correctly.

Started off with Adam's Polishes and still have some that I use. Had really good results, but later I have picked up replacement pads and some polishes etc. from Chemical Guys. Basically it is a find what works and stick with it.

If your damage is truly just clear coat swirls and not the previously mentioned issues with paint separating then a few observations/tips that will maybe help.

Worth repeating, wash and clay first and then wipe clean with a GOOD QUALITY microfibre cloth and spray detailer. You don't want to be just swirling around contaminants causing more damage.

Always use the least aggressive pad and polish first. At this point, you are trying to do paint correction. This equates to cutting the paint. So lightest is best.

Not everything is correctable! Sometimes it just comes down to a respray.

Don't use too much product!!!! A little goes a long way.

Work the product until it looks like Vaseline spread on the paint surface. Do a small section at a time and work from left to right overlapping and then up and down overlapping and repeat the process until product is fully worked. Then wipe away and see where you are.

Get a good halogen (what I use) light that you can place at an angle to the paint so it highlights the damage for you to easily see.

Have plenty of good quality micro fibre towels on hand. If you drop one or somehow feel you have contaminated one then use a new one.

As much as you try to avoid it by following proper practices you will occasionally get some splatter and some dusting. So, I'd cover anything you don't want to have a hard time getting this off of. Soft top comes to mind. Think I'd put that down and then use a plastic sheet taped in place to protect the interior. Also I'd cover any of the black rubbery trim.

Don't rush it. Now I'm going to admit I'm a bit over the top I guess, but if I set out to use the PC on a car then it will take me a full day to two days to go through the process to get the paint how I want. That is from clean to paint correction and final protection layer.

I remember watching a load of videos from various sources about using the PC. Worth doing. Seems like I remember seeing a lot from someone called the Junkman if I remember correctly.

Hope some of that helps.

Just always keep in the back of your mind that (I'm guessing you don't have a paint measure tool) you never know how thin and fragile your paint may be so treat it with caution.

I guess alternatively, if you decide not to paint correct you could use a filler type product. Just keep in mind that eventually that same damage/swirls will appear again.

On the prevention side I am a little OTT (over the top) there too. Foam cannons, separate wash items for the top, top half sides, bottom half sides, wheel areas. Separate buckets, separate dry for top, top half sides, bottom sides, door jams and wheels. I know, I know..........

PS: With my incurable long windedness I find it funny that I am posting under the "Quick Reply" area.
 
#17 ·
Spent the better part of a day today working on the finish. Wash and clay were unremarkable

I had three things I needed to address. One was to repair light scratches caused by PO scotchbimrite. Two was a scratches on one side of the car that looked like the result of a bad car wash. Third was water or chemical spots on the car.

I used chemical guys pads and compound. The 36 took care of issue one. I ended up going down to 34 for the car wash and the chemical spots. I opted not to go down further in the sample compounds as I just didn't know how thick the clear coat is.

Ultimately the 34, followed by 38 did a nice job but not perfect. Finish is now presentable at 5 feet so I'm happy. There are a number of scratches that go to metal that I will need to touch up, so I didn't see much value in trying to make things perfect.

Finished with Jetseal and then the meguliars ultimate which may actually be a bit redundant as I'm wondering if it is not really a wax but more of a sealer?

In any event whicle not perfect the results were pretty good and well worth the investment in equipment. As an added bonus a few stains along the way were also removed. Car looks great at a distance. Now just need warm weather.
 
#19 ·
I believe this is a known problem with the early Daimler basecoat-clearcoats, the clear did not hold up as expected. I have the same condition with my '85 126 in Diamond Blue which I've owned since new and has always been garaged. The dealer once told me the only answer was repaint.
 
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