My [del]sonofabitch[/del] loving boyfriend dropped something on my car that put a nasty gouge in the paint job. He didn’t tell me, but instead attempted to use touch-up paint to [del]fuck it up worse[/del] fix it, and then smeared it with his thumb making a discolored smear one inch outside the scratch. I discovered this days later. My well-meaning neighbor got out his rubbing compound and got rid of the smear and smoothed out the gouge a bit, but it dulled the finish in a 3" or so area. I tried waxing it which made it a little better, but it looks like he rubbed a little too hard.
Sigh.
Is there a way to fix this?
Clear coat.
Google it and seek a product to restore the glossy layer to your paint. Common problem.
IMHO, I’d take it to a body shop and ask how much it would cost to have touched up. It shouldn’t cost too much. My guess is that the clearcoat has been polished away in that area.
Rubbing compound doesn’t normally leave a glossy finish behind. It’s an aggressive abrasive that needs subsequent steps. I’d bet the biggest problem is that it wasn’t followed up by a finer abrasive (polish) to bring out the shine. It’ll take some elbow grease, but a true polish will get you where you want to be.
That is, if the damage isn’t all the way through the clear coat. If the dull area is down to the color coat (you’ll know if the residue on the cloth from polishing is the color of your paint), you’ve got a bigger problem on your hands.
Could you point me to what kind of polish I need to look for? I have a feeling that this is what I need as my kind neighbor didn’t rub for that long, and it’s not that dull, I think I’m just being anal…
The problem with most things called “polishes” is that they’re not really abrasive. They’re glorified waxes. And while that might make things shiny until they wear off, they don’t actually smooth the surface you’re putting them on.
So you need something that actually does remove a little paint. If you don’t mind online ordering (because these products can be tricky to find in local stores), I’d recommend one of the mild abrasives in the Meguiar’s professional line. I love their #80 Speed Glaze. It produces great results by hand. You could also use the #81 Hand Polish. But that’s a finer cut and so would take longer for similar results.
Alternatively, if you need something you can pick up at the local parts store or Wal-Mart, you can get Meguiar’s Scratch-X. It’s extremely mild, in my opinion, so getting noticeable dullness or scratches out will take considerable elbow grease. But it will work eventually.
The thing about all these products is that they are “diminishing abrasives”. That means that as you rub a portion of the product in, the abrasive components begin cutting at their most aggressive, but then break down to become finer and less aggressive as you keep rubbing. So as you work the product, it’s like using pregressively finer grits of sandpaper, until it’s a super mild polishing agent. Very cool stuff.
And I mention products from the Meguiar’s line because those are products I’m familiar with and have had luck with. Other companies make similar products.