Paint and Body WD 40 & a Scotch Brite pad

What was WD40 for?

Try polishing it out with some the the rubbing compound posted above first. If some of the deep scratches are still there lightly wet sand them with 1200 grit sandpaper and the go over that with 2500 grit, the polish again. The clear coat on these cars is old and there isn’t a lot of it on the car so be careful. If you don’t fell comfortable doing it, run it by a reputable body shop and have them do it. And yeah, Why did you use a scotch brite pad and wd40 on it??

I feel like there was a meme not too long ago, where a woman tried to wash her husband's car with kitchen cleaning supplies, including scotch-brite pads, and wrecked the paint like this, but all over the car.

For future reference... Don't ever use abrasives on car paint, unless you REALLY know what you're doing. Hopefully Dave can help you out.

Put the rattle can stuff away.

This is what I would do. I’ll list it in a step by step so there is no confusion.

1. I would buy some kinda polisher. This will be a tool that can spin fast. Not the slow moving device you use to wax a car. Here is a cheap but good one from harbor freight. If you have a air powered die grinder, they sell buffing attachments.https://m.harborfreight.com/7-in-10-amp-variable-speed-polisher-62861.html

1.A get the pads for polishing and buffing.

2. I would get a polish and a buff, this is your choice,there are tons of options. 3m sells stuff, maguires 105-205, the parts store will sell stuff.

3. I would slowly polish the area, then buff the area.

4. Check to see if the problem is fixed. If it’s real real close , leave it be. If not, then move on to step 5.

5. Tape off about 1” around the area to protect the good paint. Using a sanding block and lots of water, slowly and carefully wet sand with 2000 grit until the area looks mostly dull. Be careful, if you start seeing color , your into the paint and now need to have a professional paint the fender.

6. Repeat steps 1-3.

At this point the area should be shinny and new looking. Add wax and be happy.

If you already own a buffer and polish what what bit, this will be a cheap and easy fix. If you don’t, you’ll speed around $100. OR For $100 you can have a body shop buff and polish the area. For $100 you can also have a mobile detail shop guy buff and detail the car . Call any car dealership and ask for the pre owned manager or reconditioning manager , tell them you need a good mobile detail guy and they will hook you up. The going rate for a detail is $100-150.

THE RATTLE CANS WILL MAKE IT WORSE!

justin82 said:

cause I'm a ****ing idiot

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Not an idiot, just ignorant.

You know now though.

As a side note, the WD40 idea on paint is always bad. WD40 is the devil for us guys that paint cars for a living.

Yeah, my boss would flip his lid if he found out there was wd40 in the shop. It’ll kill paint jobs for months.

justin82 said:

cause I'm a ****ing idiot

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As my old man would say... Chalk it up to a learning experience. We've all done dumb stuff.