It's almost unavoidable to end up with chips, scratches, and dents on your car due to small accidents like clipping a tree or having a wayward shopping cart sideswipe you.
Nevertheless, there are methods you can use in order to cover up these minor problems before they end up becoming major problems due to water seeping through those cracks and ruining your clearcoat paint from within.
You won't even have to spend a mint on car detailers when it comes to cleaning up those scratches either.
How to Fix Scratches in Car Paint by Yourself
- Types of Scratches and Fixing Them: There are three types of scratches, and they are small scratches, surface scratches, and deep scratches. Small scratches can easily be ignored, surface scratches can get covered by a good waxing, and you need something special to deal with deep scratches, like something expensive like repainting it altogether.
- Speaking of Deep Scratches and Paint: You might have to use paint to fix deep scratches on your car's finish. This is paint level scratches, mind you. If it's something that reaches the metal parts of your car, you obviously need some welding done. Deep scratches need to be painted over because they only keep getting worse and worse like an open wound with no bandages on them. You should also avoid fixing them the wrong way.
- Wash and Dry the Car Then Sand the Scratched Area: You need to wash the area with the deep scratches carefully first. Afterwards, you need to strip away the top paint layers with a 2,000-grit sandpaper. Sand the area in the direction of the scratch as well. Use a 150-grit sandpaper for deeper scratches that go deeper than the paint's clearcoat.
- Rinse and Dry the Area and Apply a Few Primer Coats: After washing and sanding, you should rinse the area then dry it thoroughly. The rinsing gets rid of the powdered residue of paint and metal. The drying preps the area for the primer coats. Spray the primer coats in order to cover the deep scratches. Spray in a back and forth manner and wait 5-10 minutes for the coat to dry before spraying another layer.
- Put a Paint Finish Then Wax the Area: Apply a few clearcoat paint coats that match the color of your car finish. Spray them, let them dry 5-10 minutes like your primer, and then spray another layer. Go multiple thin layers instead of one thick layer to ensure quick drying. After everything's dried up and whatnot, then you can wax the repaired area to seal the paint and let it serve as its new clearcoat above the clearcoat. Use a microfiber coat to apply the wax then buff it with a buffing pad.