Had car detailed - questions
 

Hey guys, I just got my car back from getting detailed yesterday. Before taking it in I let the detailer know that I had a few horizontal hariline scratches on the hood. These scratches had a faint white appearance and were visible from most angles (still not sure how they got there, although my car is black). After I got my car back, it initailly appeared that the scratches were gone. However, when I got the car home and inspected it further, I noticed that the scratches were still visible, but only at certain angles, in certain light. They had also lost their "whitish" appearance and were now basically the color of the car, but still there (if that makes sense). Does anyone know what this might mean? If so, is there any way that I could remove them permanently?

Thanks

It all depends on the depth of the scratches. If you can feel them with your fingernail then you probably can't buff them out. The detailer may have taken the paint down as far as possible to minimize their appearance or may have just used a wax with fillers. If he used fillers then they will be right back to the way they were in a few washes unfortunately.

If they used wax then what i assume you are describing is the wax filling the gap on the car where the clearcoat and quite possibly the paint was scratched off.

with the wax filling the scratch it works as a mirror and reflects the paint surrounding it, so now in some angles the scratch is gone because the wax reflects the color of the paint and it is a smooth surface

it is no longer white because of this, yet you still notice the scratch in some angles because the scratch is still present just masked by the reflection


just my 2 cents

Yeah, that's what I thought at first too. It's kind of strange though because I can't feel the scratches at all with my fingernail. They are perfectly smooth.

Is your car black too Blink? I have the same exact issues on my car...

Detailing just minimizes the swirls and scratches. I have a black G37 and spent many hours detailing it. The only way to get those scratches out permanently is to wet sand it. I had so many swirls and scratches from the winter season. After putting on some intensive polish and then final polish, it looked better. Then the sealant layer was put on. Then the glaze layer was put on. The last layer was a chunk of wax...lol.

After building up all these layers using a Porter cable (except wax). The car looks amazing. If there was such a thing as black gold, my G looks like it :)

Yup, it's black - best and worst decision I've ever made, lol.

Removing all marring from the paint can be a long process and can only be done if the paint is thick enough. The paint on our Z's is roughly 5 mill's thick. The most you can remove is .5 of a mill. This will leave enough clear coat as not to induce premature clear coat failure. Most marring from washing and daily use is not that deep, so it is relatively easy to remove. Usually only a fraction of clear is removed. As mentioned earlier if you can feel it with your finger nail then it is to deep to remove. When you gave your car to the detailer did you discuss what you wanted done, like all marring removed or just a single stage polish that will make it look better but not remove all the swirls etc? I always have this discussion with my customers so there is no misunderstanding. If all the marring was to be removed, then you need to contact the detailer about your concerns.

I do recall the detailer saying that the paint on the hood was a good deal thinner than the rest of the car. I think the hood was about 65 micrometers or so compared to the rest of the car being around 90-100.