No matter how much pride you take in looking after your car, sooner or later it’s going to get a scratch. You can’t stop wear and tear completely.
The same is true if you’re buying a used car. It’s not going to look like it has just rolled off the production line.
Either way, there are steps you can take to remove and repair scratches in your car’s paint and make sure it looks its best.
It will help if you clean your car regularly. Birds and squirrels can leave behind unpleasant deposits which can damage the paint if left for any length of time. What’s more, regular cleaning means you’ll notice scratches sooner.
Once the car is clean, use a wax to provide a protective surface layer which will give the paint and bodywork some extra protection against the elements.
Of course, a wax won’t do much against a parking bump or a yob with a key and nothing better to do. So if you do find a scratch, you’ll want to repair it.
First, decide what kind of scratch it is. A shallow scratch should be treated differently to a deeper cut which goes down to the base metal.
If you can still see the car’s paint colour in the scratch, it should be straightforward to polish it out.
Use a product like Autoglym Super Resin Polish. This combination product is part wax, part polish, so it removes oxidation while leaving a protective surface finish.
If that’s doesn’t do the trick you’ll need a slightly more abrasive product, one which will move some of the top layers of paint from around the scratch to fill it up. Autoglym Paint Renovator is a good example, as is T-Cut.
Autoglym also offers a complete scratch removal kit.
However, care needs to be taken as the continued use of these abrasive renovators will do more harm than good. Use them sparingly.
Deeper and wider scratches may be beyond the help of these products, but that doesn’t make the bodywork beyond repair. Touch up paint kits are available from the likes of Halfords which should be enough to repair most scratches, provided you are careful to get an exact colour match.
An alternative to the DIY route is to use a specialist company such as Chips Away. This is more expensive but should give a very professional finish.
