Forum friends,

My "new to me" 2017 XJ has some very shallow vertical scratches on very front of the hood. There are five or six of them, all in a row, each about 1/4 to 1/2 inch long. Possibly due to previous owner taking it through a car wash. Anyway, I've tried hand polishing with a scratch remover, but they are just deep enough for that not to work. Has anyone had any experience (luck) with a product called Dr. ColorChip? I've watched several Youtube videos, and it seems like a good solution. It's made for rock chips, but given the size and location of these scratches, I think it will work. Want to see if anyone else has tried it before I drop $60 bucks. Thanks.

Cheers,
GME

 

GME, I have done some minor paint repair for a friend (had a pissed off girlfriend and keyed his car GOOD!!!!). To take the paint and just apply it out of the bottle as is, I found it to be too thick and what you end up with is a "bubble" of paint where the scratch was. What I do is get myself something like an old Testors paint bottle (1/4 oz bottle) and I put a little bit of thinner in there (maybe a 1/4 of that Testors bottle) and then I add some matching paint to get it a little thinner. You can then take a tooth pick with a fine point and dip it into the bottle to get a drop of paint on the end. You then run the toothpick along the scratch and you want just enough paint that it fills the scratch, but rises just slightly above. The paint will shrink a little due to the thinner as it dries, leaving the surface completely flat. It is some what of an art knowing how much paint to leave behind. But, once you figure it out, the scratches and be made to completely disappear. I did a good enough job that he drove the car around shortly after I did the repair and she was so pissed that she keyed his car again. He then gave up on trying to fix the paint.

Depending on where you are in VA, I am an hour south of DC. I am sure we can make something happen in an afternoon.

 

Thermo - thank you! I'm reaching out to the Jag dealer on Monday to ask about getting a paint pen. I had a detailer tell me to use the pen to fill in the scratch and let it cure for a while, and then he or another detailer could wet sand and buff it to even out the paint. I'm thinking this might be worth a try. He quoted me $50, but he was also in the Tidewater area. Price might go up by a factor of ten where I live! I'm going to be on some business travel for a few weeks, so I plan on looking into this more when I return, and possibly have a local detail take a look in person. I may have to take you up on your offer depending on what he says. Thanks again!

 

There are several YouTube videos relating to repairing the type of scratches you have. I've not attempted to use this method, but it's intriguing. Search "squeegee scratch repair"
If any of you have performed this procedure, let us know the results.

 

Dr. Colorchip is amazing, when used correctly. But the correct use is for filling chips, not scratches.

You say your scratches are "very shallow." If that's true, you wouldn't need to be adding paint, like from Dr. Colorchip, because the scratches would only be in the clear coat. Do you see primer in the scratches? If so, they are "deep" scratches.

If the scratches are just in the clear coat, you would be able to remove them by wet sanding very carefully with 2000 grit wet/dry sandpaper and then polishing to a high gloss with a machine polisher.