Successfully removed scratches

[Oregon_dude]

This is great thank you Bob, and Chris (aka meeks). I appreciate it.

Bob your AS looks beautiful.

We just bought our used AS last week, and scratched it on the trip home to Portland from Denver. I’m handy with many things but I’ve never gotten into detailing autos and certainly not an AS so I appreciate the fundamentals. I was mostly concerned about damaging the clearcoat. I do see Griot’s has videos so I’ll check those out too.


Thanks again. I’ll post results.

Chris

[Oregon_dude]

Okay heres the result today. 1st pic is the correcting cream half way through. 2nd oic is after i polished with griots one step sealant.

[Oregon_dude]

To clarify, the 2 scratches went all the way up and back to the white roof. So the left side of the pic had two scratches and the right side obviously still has one scratch untreated and the other scratch hasn’t been wiped clean yet.

[Meeks]

That looks fantastic!

Thanks so much for posting!

Chris

[ChappysGoing]

Hi! I am so appreciative of this. We have our second AS and it was brand new. Made it through a 5 week trip with no problems... until one of our last campsites when my son and husband were annoyed with me for wanting to move a perfectly parked camper from the handicapped site (last first come first served site available) when another one opened up. It was a struggle of a move and needless to say they were fed up and "didn't see" the tree branches that were attacking the side of our camper. Sigh.

I have several long scratch marks I am hoping this will remove. I think I have all the products down from your advice. But, my only concern is that I thought we were only "supposed" to move in a horizontal direction on the clear coat because otherwise it makes little visible scratches? Does the orbital prevent that?

Total novice with buffing scratches (or anything). Thanks! Kirsten

[Meeks]

Originally Posted by ChappysGoing

Hi! I am so appreciative of this. We have our second AS and it was brand new. Made it through a 5 week trip with no problems... until one of our last campsites when my son and husband were annoyed with me for wanting to move a perfectly parked camper from the handicapped site (last first come first served site available) when another one opened up. It was a struggle of a move and needless to say they were fed up and "didn't see" the tree branches that were attacking the side of our camper. Sigh.

I have several long scratch marks I am hoping this will remove. I think I have all the products down from your advice. But, my only concern is that I thought we were only "supposed" to move in a horizontal direction on the clear coat because otherwise it makes little visible scratches? Does the orbital prevent that?

Total novice with buffing scratches (or anything). Thanks! Kirsten

Hi Kirsten,

I would have moved camping spots with the Airstream, as well, out of courtesy. It’s probably also in line with the campground’s stated rules but of that I’m not sure. Either way you have my compassion! Strain on a trip is no fun at all.

The scratches, from how you described them, should be no big deal to remove. It will just take some time given the fact that you have the equipment and products.

So, I would test a small section with the random orbital moving in both vertical and horizontal directions as instructed with the machine. I found no discernible “scratches” on the Airstream’s clear coat from doing it this way which is generally how one removes scratches in clear coat on a vehicle. But the key is to test cause then you’ll know! If it does leave “scratches” no worries as you should be able to get them out by just moving the random orbital horizontally.

Once you get the hang of the random orbital after a short while you’ll find you get more daring and aren’t nervous any longer. At least that is what happened with me .

Happy scratch removal. You got this! It’s easy and super satisfying!

Chris