Steel Wool to the Bumper
 

My cars front bumper, no joke, had a deep rock chip about every inch, all around. In between, there were smaller rock dents, little gritty holes, everywhere. I will put a picture up soon to show you. I had some 0000 Extra Fine steel wool, and decided I would attempt some noob wetsanding.

I think I did a pretty good job because now I can run my hand along the bumper and not get scratched...

I followed up with some Meguiars ScratchX to get rid of the blemished that occured (the whole front of my car was gray). Car is BB by the way.

Now it looks really good and glossy, but at certain angles, I can see basically everywhere the swirls created by the steel wool. I already used my Dual Action to polish it (a few times around), so I dunno what else to do.

I need to know, how thick is the clear on these cars? How much more can I polish before I eat away the clear.

And Yea I know, steel wool is not meant for this, but it's all I had and it really does look a loot better. I"m just left with a different problem now.

Now you need to follow up with a compound meant to remove 1000 grit scratches using a foam pad at 3000 RPM or so.
The newer "Finesse" from 3M is the best.
Then use a swirl mark remover (again, Finesse is the best).
It might still have a faint swirl after that, but you can finish up with ScratchX or whatever you like.

Hm, my only sources to get stuff (I can't order online, it's not allowed unless its urgent at my house) are local stores. At the top of my head, Napa, Kragens, Target, Costco etc. Maybe Walmart if I drive far away. But I'm sure I've seen 3M products before...

And what if I can't get a foam pad? The DA I use is a cheap 20 dollar "4000RPM" 6" pad size I got on sale at Kragens. I don't think they make foam pads for this kind of DA. Can I not just use a regular cotton pad with the 3M?

Thanks for the info though, it's a big relief knowing that I can still fix this and haven't crossed the point of no return.

There is the possibility of fixing it with a wool or cotton pad, but it is far more likely that you will do more damage.
Paint is a funny thing. You would be better off paying someone to fix that little bit than deal with the stress and possible damage that you could do yourself with the wrong tools and materials.

You need a proper rotary (not DA) buffer, waffle foam pads of the correct density for the materials you will use and an assortment of polishes from aggressive to mild.
If this is something that you will want to do again - and I think you might if you were adventurous enough to take a steel wool pad to your bumper - take the time and money and invest it in the proper stuff.

The 3M site has a ton of useful info:
http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3...ns/Paint_Dept/

and a catalog of the stuff I use:
http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3...t=GST1T4S9TCgv

The Perfect-It 3000 line is magic.

Meguire's has good stuff too and their site also has a lot of information.

Steel Wool? That's insane. You should have read my bumper repair post.

https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.php?t=116991

goddamnit

Not sure what possessed you to use steel wool. Good luck with fixing that.

Actually, 0000 lot is really fine. Works on the head lights and glass windows.

Maybe but there are much better solutions.

LOL @ steel wool on paint...

Yes, but headlights have almost unlimited surface thickness for you to use heavy abrasives on. You can hardly damage plastic lense with steel wool to the point where it can't be polished away. Glass is probably 100 times harder than paint so that can't even compare.