So I have a bottle of this stuff that I was hoping would remove or at least hide some minor scratches on my car and my wife's car. Either I suck or it doesn't do **** on even the most minor of scratches.

I am following the directions, it looks like it works for about 15 minutes when the scratch shows itself again.

Or am I using the wrong product? Do I need something more like a rubbing compound and/or a polish?

Will rubbing compound/polish also help with orange peel?

 

ScratchX is just a [Meguair branded] mild polish. It didn't work very well for me either, so now I use Griot's stage 2 polish with a random orbital buffer after clay-barring. Others, e.g. Leesha, have reported good results with ScratchX tho'.

Ideally you use the mildest polish available and only move to a more aggressive polish (like polishing or 'cutting' compound) if still needed.

It depends on your definition of 'orange peel.' Proper machine-polishing will take out the type of orange peel resultant of a series of wet/Sun dry evolutions over time, such as my '8 sitting on the lot for about 9 months prior to my purchase.

 

Personally, I've never had any real luck with scratch remover products. I have tried four of them all did little to nothing.

ScratchX
GT88
Quixx
NuFinish Scratch Doctor

so, save your money, I wish I did!

 

like heuy said, scratchX is just a mild polish. Any mild polish will do pretty much whatever scratchX does... it's nothing special.

Depending on the severity of the scratch, it may or may not be removable. General rule of thumb: if you can "feel" or catch the scratch on your fingernail, chances are it won't come out completely. If it doesn't feel like a scratch, you can probably either compound, or wetsand/compound it out, but you'll honestly want someone with a little more knowledge to do it for you.

Even if it is too deep to remove completely, you can minimize the scratch so it's not so obvious.

rubbing compound will NOT remove orange peel. You need to flatten the paint to do that, which definitely involves wetsanding.


We've disputed this before, but now I'm starting to think you're confused as to what orange peel is. You CANT develop orange peel unless you repaint.
What you're talking about is probably oxidation.

This is orange peel


And this is oxidation

 

yea i'm talking very mild lines that you can only really see when looking at certain angles and under certain lighting conditions, not things you can stick your finger nail into.

 

I included my "..what your definition of orange peel is.." comment just for you good Sir.

Mine certainly looked like an [albeit mild] peel of an orange to me (even if it was purple)

 

maybe you're talking about swirls?
Here's a car that I worked on awhile back

after

 

I use swirlX before waxing so what i'm trying to get rid of isn't that. The orange peel thing, maybe my definition was wrong, It just looks bumpy/wavy not smooth looking (it doesn't feel that way though)

My usually procedure is:
wash twice
dry and let the car sit
claybar
swirlX
NXT

if this help in what I might be missing..

 

That's it Bigbacon but you can still have "wavy not smooth looking" areas, as did I way back when, only on my roof and trunk lid. The random orbital buffer with a semi-mild polish did the trick for me.

Note to cjkim - I'll use "wavy not smooth looking" from now on.

 

I guess I'll grab a mild polish and go to town next time. I dont own an orbital buffer so it will be done by hand.

More time to spend detailing!

 

trust me when i say this:

invest in a good quality rotary with a couple nice pads. I guarantee you'll wonder why you hadn't earlier.
Honestly, I'd skip the orbitals. It's a nice way to get familiar with machine polishing, but you won't find yourself using it much after getting used to a rotary.
I only say this because I have a Porter cable i touch maybe once a year.

I use a Makita 9227c

I've said this before, but if you're serious about detailing, find a different LSP. NXT is mediocre at best, and it's not really any cheaper than better alternatives.

I'm not really sure what you mean by "bumpy and wavy".
the picture i posted of orange peel is obviously an EXTREME case.
Maybe you're seeing something more like this?

 

A rotary buffer is great - in the hands of a pro. I accept my 'weekend warrior' limitations and safely stay with a random orbital.

My own 'wavy not smooth' was more like overlapping half circle crescents in a uniform uni-directional pattern all over the roof and tunk lid. Wish now I'd taken a picture.

 

thats what I am seeing and thats what I thought orange peel was....

and yes, I'm not trying to go all out and be super detailer-man, I only spend the time to do this like 4 times a year. If was going to go uber nuts I would get all the tools and best stuff available. I am just trying to make it look better. The car has too many chips and major scratches to be show room awesome ever again so to me there is no point in going all out. I just trying to save whats left.

 

I'd loan you my random orbital but the nearest Nova is just too many light years away!

 

ScratchX is basically for removing cone-kills after an Auto-X. That is about all it will do.
Anything that actually "intrudes" on the finish will be unaffected by ScratchX.