# Wet Sanding Scratch Removal Attempt



## After_Shock (Mar 3, 2015)

Decided to attempt a bit of scratch removal techniques on my 2009 black Ford Focus, been a few years since ive tried this so the Focus is an ideal test bed mainly due to the fact the previous owner never cared for it so the paint is in varying states of quality (if it goes wrong im not fussed!) plus its had a couple of resprays..

The first area I attempted was on the bonnet, this is a repainted area of the car and after attempting to machine polish some very deep bad scratches out the below picture is what im left with. Now im under no illusion the majority of this wont come out its simply too far damaged and not enough paint left to get a good finish but its a good experiment.



Having given this area a good work over with some abrasive sand paper this is whats left:



Needless to say doesn't look too clever, gave this a work over by hand first with some strong cutting compound, then machined it with the same and as a quick final stage a finishing polish again by machine to get the below:



Must admit was surprised how much of it actually came out, its far form a perfect finish however certainly takes your eye off what was a very bad area.

Now on the side of the car which is original paint (much thinner) two bad scratches are present, the top one much worse than the lower one.



With this being a thinner paint I gave it a going over with a much less abrasive sandpaper, the results looking terrible as usual below:



Even after sanding the worse of the two scratches above was clear it was not going to come out completely, below after the same process of hand polishing then machine polishing:



The worst scratch is still slightly evident which ive tried to catch in the light below:



But all in again pretty much gone and certainly takes your eyes off it.


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## suspal (Dec 29, 2011)

Well done better than before, unfortunately in the interest of the car you have to draw the line and except that,that's the best it's going to get.


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## 3gdean (Jun 18, 2011)

Fair play dude, what grit paper did you use to try and bring it up by hand?


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## After_Shock (Mar 3, 2015)

3gdean said:


> Fair play dude, what grit paper did you use to try and bring it up by hand?


The local hardware store only had one type of wet sand paper in which is described as mirror fine, does have 1500 written all over the back of it so im assuming its 1500 grade!

Was literally just an experiment on paint that was too far gone to have any hope, however turned out reasonably well.


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## After_Shock (Mar 3, 2015)

suspal said:


> Well done better than before, unfortunately in the interest of the car you have to draw the line and except that,that's the best it's going to get.


Totally agree cant go any further on it I don't think without totally damaging the paint work.


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## dg_pug106gti (Sep 26, 2006)

Great job can't believe the difference, how did you know how far to go with he sanding or was it just a guess?


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