It's painfully obvious the previous owner of my Monte did not properly care for the paint job. It has many, what looks like, small white scratches and specs (1/8 to 1/4 inch in length) all over the hood. I've stripped, clayed, and waxed to no avail with this so I'm curious what my options are. Is there some type of paint repair service that could fix this? The red "stripe" around the bottom also isn't looking too hot so if I have to re-paint, I may consider having this redone as well.

 

Sounds to me like your best bet would be to get the hood repainted, might as well get the stripe done at the same time too.

 

The best I can think is touch up paint. I've seen people also use sharpies to fix white scratches, but I'm not sure how long that lasts.

 

how deep are the white scratches?? are they too deap as to where you can't polish them out?? if so and this is going to be a car you own for a long time i would invest in a new paint job...but dont cheap out @ a place like maco or something...get it done in good paint by a good body shop...

but possibly some if not most of the scratches you have may be able to be polished out...i'd have to see how bad it is though

 

that's the best? Using touch up paint? I thought that would be the second best option when respraying wasn't a possibility. I'd imagine using a sharpie on a rocker panel or less consipicuous area wouldn't be too bad, but no way would I suggest using that fix on the hood. If there were a few of these scratches on the hood I'd say use touch up paint, but it sounds like they are all over the hood so i'm not so sure touch up paint would be the way to go. That's not to say that it can't be done, but if you're gonna have a shop do it, it's gonna be real labor intensive so depending on how bad it actually is it may make more sense to just respray it.

 

Well I used touch up paint on mine for between 30-50 chips in the hood and nobody sees them right away until they look very closely or I tell them. It's very smooth and you can't notice them by touch.

As for setshot50's car, you already mentioned to get it repainted so I didn't think it needed to be repeated, then the next best idea would be touch up. The sharpie idea is a last resort. The problem is I haven't seen a pic of the car, know it's condition, know the budget available, or if the car is worth respraying.

I just thew the next best ideas after you stated the first best option.

 

I barely had my car a month from the dealer and i'm finding all kinds of scratches, and nicks ...
I took it to this carwash to get buffed, and it looks like they just added to the problem with swirls and all other kinds of thing ..
Wow! good luck ...

 

It's a pain to install, but a clear bra will do wonders.... and never follow a car by less than like 10 car lengths... even the smallest stone can do serious damage to paint, and they'll fly a ways off of a tire from another car. I would buy two or three of the clear vinyl ones off ebay. The material is not as tuff, and the adhesive wont last as long... but it will do wonders against small stones.

I've never used thos "miracle cure" products because snake oil is just that....

Stick to a true polish... nothing is going to prevent damage, and the only way to repair a damaged clear coat is to re-spray it, or even it out so you can't see the damage as well. a body shop should be able to hook you up.

 

Article in the NMCOA club magazine suggests using a true carnewba wax on the front end of the car to help protect against stone chips. I'm going to give it atry & see?

If any of those scratches you have snag your finger nail when dragged across them, this will tell you the scratch is pretty deep. Finer scratches won't snag your finger nail and are easier to work on.

Stay way from car washes that have the curtain type brushes that drag over your car. Dirt and debri can get trapped in these type brushes and ruin your paint.

 

[:@] ugh! why did i buy a black car ....