What to use to remove a tree branch scratch?

Draeger · 20 Apr 2012 at 17:14

Took our 1 year old lad to a country park near us today, had a great time. Until I set off for home. There's a narrow access road that runs up to the car park that will only take one car at a time, it has passing places along it near the top and the bottom but strangely enough, nowhere in the middle.

So I'm half way down when another car comes over the blind summit and we meet. its a fair bit to reverse back so I go onto the verge a bit and so does he and we begin to tentatively crawl past each other. On my side there are a good few branches sticking out but I'm keeping an eye on them. Slight lapse in concentration and I heard a pretty quiet dragging sound along the side of the car. Didn't really think anything of it and drove home. Got home and walked around the other side of the car to be met with a long scratch that starts just behind the headlight and ends just after the fuel filler cap.

It's a sort of "white" mark type of scratch. I've ran a fingernail over it and I can't feel it. I had a very quick bash at it with 3M Finesse-it which I've had good results with before. It's removed the "white" scratch but upon buffing it up you can still see an actual scratch on the surface of the paint. Difficult to photograph but here's a couple :-

Wondered if anyone had suffered a similar mishap with tree branches and had any tips on the best method to approaching this?. :cool:

kPATm · 20 Apr 2012 at 17:21

If you cant feel it with your nail T-Cut it

Maz · 20 Apr 2012 at 17:52

I wouldn't even T Cut that, get some spit on the end of your finger and rub it!

Or use normal car body polish.

Makhaira · 20 Apr 2012 at 18:23

Try waxing that area, you might find it smooths out the edges of the scratch enough for it to be unnoticeable.

WrathOfAchilles · 20 Apr 2012 at 19:49

Smear a little bit of petrol on it and set it on fire - burn it off. Any left over you can store it in your garage in a jerry can.

lordrobs · 20 Apr 2012 at 21:29

I carelessly reversed my car into a hawthorne bush and scraped it up a treat. To get that back to perfect condition I used 3M Perfect It III Fine which removed the scratches, 3M Imperial Hand Glaze to remove the hazing that the Perfect It caused but your Finesse It would probably do the same job and topped the lot off with AG SRP.

TL: DR I think you need something a bit more abrasive in the first instance.

Draeger · 20 Apr 2012 at 21:46

I'm going to have a crack at it tomorrow with the Finesse-it and an electric buffer. If that doesn't work I'll look into using something a bit more abrasive as suggested.

Setitonfirelolwut?. :eek:

L0rdMike · 20 Apr 2012 at 21:52

Replace the whole door, its the only way to be sure!

TB1968 · 21 Apr 2012 at 04:19

Clay bar and lube, see if it comes out on that, then relayer the wax and buff up.
Some good meguires polishes out there for this sort of thing