Originally Posted by Silverado
Oh man Tag, be careful with that sandpaper....if you don't really know what you're doing, you will screw up the paint beyond simple buff/polish/wax repair.
Wet sanding helps a lot....use a spray bottle to regularly apply a mist to the area you are wetsanding....also dip the sandpaper in a bucket of water....use little to no pressure while sanding...and stop to check your progress often....nothing worse than fixing the problem, only to take it too far and make it worse.
I would advise before wetsanding, to take a light to medium grit compound and use a high speed buffer to polish the area. Usually that will work. Again, stop to check the work often.
If you ever get a scratch down to metal, clean it real well, dry it real well, then put some touch up paint in it....let that "cure" real well, then sand it as mentioned above. I touched up an Eagle Talon one time that had a 4" long, 1/8" wide, down-to-bare-metal scratch in the right rear quarter. I prepped it (used an air hose to dry it), put the touch up paint into the scratch, filling it completely, let it set for a day and a half. Then I spent 2 hours wet sanding the spot. It actually took another application of touch up paint, more dry time and another 2 hours of wet sanding, but I was able to make the scratch disappear completely. Unfortunately, the girl driving the car wrecked it two days later and it was brought into our body shop. That car never was the same. But, the rear quarter still looked great.
The other thing to watch out for is the particular part of the car you're working on. As you know, typically, wings/spoilers/ground effects/etc are made of plastic rather than metal. While they appear the same color and everything, they don't buff/polish the same. Any scratches in your rear wing/lip for example will require you to be much more careful when buffing because you can easily burn/melt the plastic (I've done it, it isn't pretty). So watch out for that.
As for the Back to Black that you mention, that stuff is awesome. There is another one that is out that is less "greasy" than the Back to Black stuff, but works the same. It works great on black bezels, moldings, bumper caps, and black grills too. I actually used it as tire dressing one time when we were out of the dressing at the shop (not recommended). Don't get any of it on the paint if you can help it. Also, just a tip using the black stuff...put it on, let it set for a minute or two, then run a cloth over it again to wipe off the excess. A great product to use at shows.
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