o.k.- not so bad... but, while driving home in traffic about 45 mph suddenly over a brick wall i see a soccer ball launched into the air and obviously headed for my lane- it appeared to me that at my speed the ball would land right in my windshield... of course all of this happens within one second, but seems like forever- i know that the stook can stop faster than whoever might be behind me, so i choose to not stop completely to avoid the ball but to slow the speed at a rate that the person behind me could follow- the ball landed full force against my left front fender - if it had hit the hood i would be looking for a new one. it was a hard hit, and the ball bounced way up off the fender across the street. i did not want to look to see the damage... got home and thank goodness i survived with only very light (hairline) scratches. they did not come out with mild washing, but applied finish first and most of the evidence is gone. do i dare try anything harsher to finish the remaining small scratches? i have never used rubbing compounds and really do not want to cause additional damage. should i try wax on top of finish first, or just more finish first? any color other than black would probably not show anything!

Turtle wax makes a black colored wax that fills light scratches. Don't let it dry too long, do a little square at a time if you treat the whole car.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by NSXS:
[B]Turtle wax makes a black colored wax that fills light scratches.

You can take out nearly all minor scratches using a hard paste wax (but NOT rubbing compound), using a "slightly" damp cloth. Rub the area fairly hard, a little at a time. Polish the wax off before it dries, and then take a look. If the scratches aren't completely gone, repeat up to three times. If you can still see the scratches after this, it means they are too deep to remove, and you'll probably have to live with it :D. If you do this more than three or so times, you're likely to remove all the clear coat, and a couple of layers of paint :D.

One trick I learnt on my previous car was to give the area of deeper scratches a VERY light spray coat of the exact color match from an aerosol can. Count to ten and then polish the area using a damp cloth with a minimal amount of car wax on it, to remove most of the overspray (not the scratched area). (To check for overspray, look along the damaged area - not straight on to it). As long as you aren't heavy handed with the paint spray, you can do this a couple of times. When the new paint hardens (maybe 6 hours), go back over the area with the waxed cloth, and rub just hard enough to remove any excess overspray remaining, and blend in the paint in the scratched area. Because new paint will not bond very well to the original coat, it should be relatively easy to clean off all the overspray.

I've used Meguire's scratch remover/clearcoat prep to get scratched from seagull claws. For some reason seagulls like my car and land on it. One tried to land on a freshly waxed hood, and couldn't stand because it was to slick, scracthed the hell out of the paint. But after using the Meguire stuff, it's hardly noticalbe. The scratches have to be pointed out to see. The stuff works great for swirl marks too.

great suggestions- anyone know how wax works with finish first? will try wax first and if it does not work will move on to the meguires... my recollection is that meguires makes a carnuba based type wax- maybe try that first? thanks again for the postings and your suggestions-

[QUOTE]Originally posted by wanabe:
[B]great suggestions- anyone know how wax works with finish first?