Repairing scratches in gelcoat

[RMarine (Paul)]

Hi, I need some help/advice....

I got my car in November and although I have only driven it a few things I am convinced this is the hobby for me!!!!  

I gave it a really good clean and polish over the weekend (the sun was out) and although it is a very pretty little car it does have a lot of little scuff and scratch marks on the main body of the car.

now, I like the car but the marks are all I see every time I look at the car 

So I want to get them fix/removed...

I was told years ago that scratched in your Gelcoat are very easy to remove so I ask a "Detailer" around today and he quoted me £500 to remove all the scuff marks and make the 2 or 3 deep scratches "look 100% better"..... 

This seems a lot, what do you think? any advice would be gratefully received  

[the stoat]

I am just about to fix mine.  While gelcoat 'should' be thick meaning you can polish them out I think this thickness is variable.  Therefore I have purchased some gelcoat from Westfield and some flow coat hardener.

I will use this to fill the scratches then sand and polish.  There are many YouTube videos showing the best way to do this.

[CraigHew]

It is a lot.  How many hours work does that translate to and what materials / tools are to be used?

There are many threads on here about polishing and removal of marks, more on the wider internet. There is also advice about deeper scratches as per the post above.

You will need to buy some decent cutting compound or some fine wet n dry to flat the surface, these will cost you a few quid. Then you need either lots and lots of elbow grease or a machine polisher (MOP), again a decent MOP will cost you some cash.

 

So, you could spend £100 and two days work polishing it yourself or throw cash towards the detailer.

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

I've posted lots of info about tidying grp on Westfields in the past, I'll dig out some of the old threads if you like.

In the general automotive world, £500 isn't exactly bad for a decent detailer to be doing really extensive corrections on such a small car. (The costs for big 4x4's really can get eye watering, I've bought decent sub 100k mile second hand cars for less!  )

Even doing it yourself, you can easily blow a two or three hundred plus on a half way decent rotary polisher and compounds, plus mops, though wet and dry paper isn't too costly.

BUT, I don't know if I'm the only one to find this, but I am finding the gel coat on grp supplied in the 2014-2016 period at least, to be really soft, compared to the old gel coats from ten years ago and older.

I used to machine polish my old car once a year, just before Stoneleigh, and it would look like new. It lasted at least well in to winter. Even then, by the time the next year rolled round, it rarely had anything requiring flatting back with wet and dry.

With the new car, every time I wash it after a drive, I find a new addition to the patina; often deeper marks too, things that will deffinately need flitting prior to compounding. Mines been on the road since 2015, and when I get the chance and weather, once it's warmed up a bit, I'm going to have to wet and dry every panel and mop the whole car. Trouble is, I know it will come back quickly.

That's what would make me wary of spending big money to correct it, I wouldn't want to get in to a situation of not wanting to use it for fear of marks. As it is, I've slowly conditioned myself to it looking good from a metre or two, and try to treat the rest as a patina of use, a badge of honour to say the car's out there getting driven  (It doesn't always work, but I keep trying  )

[Thrustyjust]

Dave, how do you wash your car ? The worse thing you can do is get the grit to touch the body. By sealing the body and then waxing it and regulary waxing will prevent dirt from sticking to it. When washing a car , first wet the body, then use a snowfoam style cleaner. This will lift the grit from the body and wet you rinse will wash off.You can buy the stuff in a bottle and just mix in a pump sprayer and not need a jetwash and snowfoam tool This will leave a grey hue on the body and using a lambswool or synthetic hand mitt wash off in small sections and rinse out , with a bucket with a rinse guard. If waxed properly , then the rinsing with a hose will be enough to wash the suds off. Dry with a microfibre and then use a detail spray to top the wax up.

Now that sounds very laborious, but it will take a small fraction of the time it takes to detail and mop a car. Remember that every time you use a cutting compound on a car, takes a layer of gel coat off. 

Hope that helps.

 

[TAFKARM]

Whats this "washing" thing you're all talking about?? Doesnt the dirt add a layer of protection to the paint?

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

Two bucket method plus GTechnic wash mit. Proper car type drying towel to dry off.

Currently it gets two coats of Autoglym wax after it's been machine polished, with either a top up of Aqua Wax, or more often  are-seal with GTechnic C2V3 post washes.

I don't generally snow foam the Westfield, (though I do with the tin top), normally the Westfield is just hosed down prior to washing to remove loose grit etc.

[BenD]

im with russ on this one ill wash mine if its really covered in cow poo but id sooner be using it than washing it

[lewis]

Only time I washed mine since 2015 is after a spin at Mallory Park and even then I didn't get all the mud off  

[RMarine (Paul)]

Right, now I'm even more confused.... lol 

For me, it's about time.. I don't have any spare time to work on the car. Between family, work and my other hobby, time is the one time I am really short of.

So if we say it would cost me £100 in materials and a mop and 2-3 days to labor, it is probably worth the £500 to give it to the guy and get a personal to do it right.

Going forward, my plan is to use the car as much as I can and wash it only before a show. The difference with these marks and others I get in the future is, I didn't make them... sounds silly I now, but I'm a pretty weird guy

Thanks for all your advice.

Quote

12 hours ago, Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - WSCC AO Rep said:

I've posted lots of info about tidying grp on Westfields in the past, I'll dig out some of the old threads if you like.

Dave - if you can dig out those old posts, I would be grateful. as I can really find them on here.  

 

 

 

[BenD]

I'd pay someone to do the correction work. As others have said the gear to do the work is expensive. And u also find it very boring I lose interest very quickly lol. 

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

Might be worth getting another quote or two, as well. This time though, rather than getting quotes from Detailing companies, who's whole MO is to make the finish as near perfect as possible, why not see if you can get some from body shops, whose target is just to get it back to "normal". (Obviously, you'd need to discuss what you wanted, machine polishing the scratches out, possibly with light wet and dry sanding of the deeper ones? And that you were NOT looking at resprays).

[RMarine (Paul)]

4 hours ago, Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - WSCC AO Rep said:

Might be worth getting another quote or two, as well. This time though, rather than getting quotes from Detailing companies, who's whole MO is to make the finish as near perfect as possible, why not see if you can get some from body shops, whose target is just to get it back to "normal". (Obviously, you'd need to discuss what you wanted, machine polishing the scratches out, possibly with light wet and dry sanding of the deeper ones? And that you were NOT looking at resprays).

 

that's what i will do ....