Today I'm gonna show you how to do a quick cleanup on parking lot damage on this Scion FRS.
This is my buddy Serge's car,
and a lady scuffed his car in a parking lot and left all this damage.
This car is in super good condition; he takes really good care of it,
the paint always shines, and it has a really nice wheel setup.
To have this happen made him sad, so I told him to bring it in
and I'll try to repair it.
Let's assess the damage.
First I'll drag my finger across the damage.
The damage is focused on the lower quarter panel.
The car hit it with enough force to dent it,
and there's damaged and peeling paint inside this lip.
Normally I'd recommend a repaint for this type of damage,
but to properly repaint this part, you'd have to repaint this whole panel,
which ties into the roof, and then blend it into the door.
It's a hard part to paint, and it's an extensive job.
I told Serge to bring in the car,
and we're gonna try to spot repair and spot polish it.
My goal is not to repair all the damage and make it 100% perfect,
but I want to make it 80 - 90% better.
If I can improve the look without having to repaint,
that's a benefit because he won't have to repaint the area,
and the lady hit his car and ran off.
I can see the damage is from here to here,
and it's a lot of scuffs and a lot of scratches moving sideways.
There are some deeper scratches which go into the paint,
and I can feel them with my finger, and they will not be able to be removed.
This is a hard area to color sand because there's a hard edge and hard lip.
All this area needs to be polished, and if I were to color sand it,
I could actually burn paint on the edge and hurt the car.
So let's start polishing. I've got three polishes here: V34, V36, and 38.
Normally I'd choose V36, but I'll start with V34 for a little extra cutting power.
I'll grab some water to condition my pad, and we'll start polishing.
I've got all my equipment, and I'll polish with V34.
This damage is pretty heavy, so as a professional I'm gonna use a rotary polisher.
I have a Flex PE14-2 as my rotary of choice for today.
This one has been well-used and I've used it extensively for a long time.
I'll use a 3-inch pad to spot polish this area.
I'll start with V34 and see how it cuts.
Then I'll probably refine it with a white pad later.
You don't need too much polish, you only need a small amount.
I'll position myself where I can polish a little easier..
try to put my legs under the car.
This helps me get closer to the car, this car is lowered a lot,
so I have to be sitting on the floor.
I'll polish between 1,800 and 2,000 RPMs.
I notice I'm taking a lot of the scratches out.
There are still some deeper ones, but I'm minimizing it a huge amount.
There's a spot here where the car first impacted then moved along.
I don't want to put too much pressure and burn the edge even though it needs to be repainted.
I'll add just one more dot of polish and keep moving on this area.
It hasn't turned clear yet, so I can still work it.
Remember: this is about reducing the amount of scratches.
I know they can't all be fixed, but if I can take a lot out,
that's a win right there.
I'll buff off the polish and assess the damage...
In my opinion, we've made a big improvement on the paint.
Toyota paint is really soft, so I want to polish without harming it.
I've already reduced the scratches 80 - 85%.
The thing about scratches is they cut into the paint like a 'V.'
I can't remove all of the scratch because these are way too deep.
I need to take off just enough paint so the scratches doesn't look as visible.
I've already pulled off a lot of the damage, it's already a big difference.
V34 on the rotary made some marring and holograms on this soft Toyota paint.
Now I'll grab a DA and a white pad with V36 to finish out the paint.
I'll use a DA because it's gentler and softer on this paint.
I'm grab a TORQ 10FX machine and we'll make this Scion look how it's supposed to look!
This is a TORQ 10FX machine, and I swapped on a 3 inch backing plate.
This is the same size backing plate I used on the rotary,
so I can use a super small pad.
I'm switching to a DA because Toyota paint is real soft.
The rotary builds a lot of heat and cuts really hard,
and it left some holograms here.
We can refine it with V38 on a white pad.
I'll use my TORQ 10FX DA, white pad, and V38 to clean this up.
V38 is designed to clean up holograms and will take these out instantly.
Holograms look bad, but they're some of the easiest defects to remove.
Once a machine makes holograms, you can polish them out.
I'll take my TORQ machine and work it on speed setting 6.
I'll spread it on setting 1...
...there we go. I'm only polishing this spot, not the whole car.
I'll go up to speed setting 6 now and polish away!
Let's go ahead and grab a microfiber towel,
and buff off the V38 to inspect the surface.
And there we go! That's what I wanted to see.
We removed all the holograms,
and made about 90% correction of the damage.
That's a win for the day in my opinion!
I knew we couldn't fix it all, there are some scratches that are just too deep.
I could probably sand down some of the scratches to make them less visible,
but I don't want to remove more paint than I have to;
it'll reduce the paint's life too much.
In my opinion, to get 85 - 90% defect removal on damage
that a body shop said was un-repairable...
It looks a LOT better!
Unless you're really close to it with a light,
you're not going to be able to see the difference.
This car is so low that nobody will notice it unless they're right on it.
Hopefully this gives you a good idea on spot repairs.
If you have some damaged areas or defects,
you can just polish those spots with a rotary,
a TORQ 10FX,
or with both like how I did it.
If you want to check out the products that we used:
The V-Line of polishes, TORQ 10FX, and the Flex PE14-2, go to our website:
ChemicalGuys.com
where we have everything you need to do any type of detailing job
from interiors, exteriors, and in-depth paint restoration.
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