Common Clear Coat Scratches

This guide is a super quick overview to learn how to remove scratches from cars, how to determine what type of scratch you have and how to correct it.

Learning how to remove a clear coat scratch  can be easy if you understand  what a scratch on a clear coat finish is in the first place.

What the heck IS a scratch anyway?

It's important to understand when you remove automobile scratches  they have what is known as a “2 stage” paint finish. This means there is a base color (color of your car)  and a top “clear coat”. (primer is under the base color)

The top “clear coat” is a clear urethane that has a catalyst to make it more durable than the base color coat. When you remove a scratch on the clear coat you are working on the top "clear coat" and not affecting the base color at all. Manufacturers came up with this technology to make car finishes more durable.

Scratches look white because the scratch is in the clear coat…even if it touches the base color.

A scratch in the clear coat reflects light which is the main reason it shows up so bad. Its similar to facets in a diamond reflecting light.

A car scratch in the clear coat is very similar to the facets in a diamond…light hits the edges and reflects. This is EXACTLY what is happening with a clear coat scratch, the sharp edge of the scratch in the clear coat top surface is reflecting light at you!

Good news… 70-80 % of car scratches are in the clear coat layer only.

In most cases you can remove scratches from automobiles in the clear coat permanently and quickly with the correct technique.

Here is what is happening.  By polishing or a combination of wet sanding and polish you remove a microscopic amount of clear coat to "flatten the area" and thus remove the scratches that reflect light.
Its OK, you are only removing microns of clear coat.

Here is a pretty good way to quickly decide if the scratch is only in the top clear coat and can be SAFELY removed and thus not needing touch up paint.

1. Pull your fingernail across the scratch… can’t feel it? It can be removed.
2. Can you barely feel it? It *might* be borderline with correct technique can be completely removed.
3. You can definitely feel it (or obvious scrape , chip etc) Touch up paint will be necessary.

For the 70-80% of clear coat scratches that you cannot feel with your fingernail you can permanently remove clear coat scratches with the correct technique and accessories.

 Borderline Clear Coat Scratches

Some clear coat scratches are what I call "borderline"  clear coat scratches you may need to wet sand to completely remove them.

Wet sanding your brand new car can be pretty scary… however this is where The Ultimate Car Scratch Remover System leaves every other product in the dust.

The Ultimate Car Scratch Remover Core System has a patented sponge with replaceable 3000 grit latex “paper” that is so gentle professionals use it on fresh 24hr old clear coats to remove imperfections like when you remove scratches from cars. So you can imagine how gentle and effective is when you remove scratches.

Steps to remove clear coat scratches for professional looking scratch removal.

"When it comes to removing clear coat scratches, with professional looking results,  The Ultimate Car Scratch Remover System has no rivals.  The Ultimate Car Scratch Remover system is designed and made up of the same exact formulas and components a professional would have in their tool box."

Touch Up Paint Repairs

If you have determined your scratch is more of a “gouge”, scrape  or chip and requires car touch up paint there are some things you must understand about the process.

Once you understand a few secrets, doing really nice car touch up paint repairs yourself will be a snap! There are a lot of misconceptions about how…to do car touch up paint repairs. Believe me I have seen it all…the amount of totally wrong information on the internet on doing auto touch up paint repairs is shocking.

...there is a fundamental difference between removing scratches on the clear coat  and  a  touch up paint repair.

Removing Scratches on the clear coat – you are really REMOVING the scratch, permanently! You are actually removing a microscopic amount of clear coat in order to get the surface flat again. Thus you have removed the defect that was causing the reflection…a scratch! Typically scratches that DO NOT penetrate to the color layer can be removed although there are limits. If you do the "fingernail" test this will give you an indication of how to SAFELY proceed.

...car touch up paint repairs - you are actually ADDING to the scratch to "remove" it."

Sounds weird huh? You can not "remove" a deep scratch, chip or scrape because to flatten it out would require wet sanding excessively and you would make a even bigger "sore thumb". So you need to "camouflage" the scratch to get it to "visually disappear" into the surrounding paint finish when you are doing car touch up paint repairs.

NEVER EVER use the brush on a bottle of touch up paint. It will apply WAY too much paint and do it in a very messy way. BLOBSVILLE!

You may have heard the term "blob". I hate this word...it's EXACTLY WHAT YOU DON'T WANT after you lay down the paint. One reason this term "blob" came about is by consumers, innocently, using the useless brush on a bottle of OEM paint when doing automobile touch up paint fix.

... with simple techniques you can apply automobile touch up paint by hand with professional looking results.

...to get the nicest touch up paint repair possible you must level the touch up paint flush with the surrounding finish.

 The Ultimate Car Scratch Remover system bundled custom touch up paint kit comes with everything you need to do this   One of the biggest “secrets” to doing professional looking touch up paint repairs is to “surgically” apply touch up paint. It takes VERY little touch up paint to do a repair correctly. This is one case where more is NOT better! This is a STEP- BY-STEP system if you can watch a few videos you can do this!

In general these are the steps for a professional looking touch up paint repair. (there a several optional steps available in the kit)

 The Ultimate Car Scratch Remover BUNDLED with the Ultimate Custom Touch Up Paint Kit is the ultimate solution and there is NOTHING else you need to buy to get professional looking results.  There is no other product in the WORLD that even comes close....GUARANTEED.

Understand no touch up paint repair, applied by hand, is invisible, not even a Pro can do that.

Customers all over the world have saved $500 - $1000.00+ when compared to taking it to a body shop and having entire panels resprayed.