i posted this in the appeaance cosmetic forum but got no response

i have lotsa white scratches on my car. like someone keyed the car, but its not deep enuff that ALL the paint has been removed and has started rusting... soooooooo any remedies?

also some places dirt just won't come off... would rubbing compound be the best thing for it?

and can someone explain to me what the hell a clay bar does?

 

A clay bar removes overspray. Try polish on the dirt that won't come off. If that doesn't work then try rubbing compound (polish should do the trick). As for the scratches, depending on how deep they are you might need to have the panels repainted. If they are not very deep you can try sanding them out with high grit sandpaper, finish with 2000-2500, but you'll need a high speed polisher and rubbing compound to get the sand scratches out. High speed polishers run around $200

 

damn.. hmm no $200... can you explain overspray a litlte more?

 

overspray... as in paint overspray?
either way.. find an orbital buffer and buf away.. did the trick for my car

 

For these little white scratches, do they look like they go away when water is in contact with it? If so, then these are the kind of scratches that you could remove with GS27. Anything deeper than that won't have any effect.

Clay bar basically removes any contaminants that is embedded into the paint of the car (this includes paint overspray). When you wash your car and dry it, try sliding your hand on the paint. Does it feel rough? A clay bar removes these nasty contaminants by lifting it off the paint and onto the bar.

Make sure you use a clay bar BEFORE you use an orbital buffer or it might make the situation worst by smearing and grinding these contaminants into the paint.

 

that explains a lot.... now do any local auto store stock clay bars? I think i'll try to pick up some gs27 too, and see how it fars on a small section. if it doesn't do it, then i'll probably return it and try something else

thanks for all the advice!