The Truth About Scratches

[alparmer]

To be honest, dings and scratches drive me crazy especially in black vehicles. However, in a Jeep every scratch has a story. I mean, I rather not get one but if it does I'm totally fine with it. It's kinda how they look better with some mud sprayed all over the sides. I see really nice beautiful expensive Jeeps all the time that look like they haven 't even been rained on aka mall crawlers. It's all good but a Jeep needs battle scars and tattoos.

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[Spank]

I actually want to pull the fenders off my Jeep, give everything a good rinse, hit every area of paint I can with a nice buff, Back to Black the holy hell out of the plastic, and put it all back together to make it look nice again before I go and pile another 80k miles of hard outdoor reality onto it.

There's just something therapeutic about cleaning a Jeep that you're going to totally ruin mere moments later.

 

[Bandana]

Sting gray isn't too bad on the scratches, but in the right light my souvenirs are on full display

 

[offcamber]

I scratch mine all the time. I then come home and buff the scratches out. The OP is wrong, unless you go down to primer, you can buff it out. I've had my Jeep so brush marked my friends thought i'd destroyed the paint. An hour or so with the buffer, back to new.

Before:

After:

 

[longfiredragon]

* It’s not going to buff out.

* Ceramic won’t help with scratches. It will help with surface contaminants.

* To really prevent them, you need full paint protection film.

* PPF is always expensive. Painfully expensive. Like $5-7k expensive.

* Scratched plastic will remain scratched. You can’t fix it or heal it.

* The hardtop is painted. If you scratch it, it will remain scratched.

* Waxing and polishing can cover scratches temporarily but won’t remove them. An orbital buffer won’t remove them (unless they are extremely superficial).

* When you drove through that brush, you damaged your paint. Call it character if you want. But you damaged your paint and reduced your resale value.

* If you really plan to use your Jeep (and you should!) your options are 1) white paint so scratches are hard to see, 2) not caring (good luck with that, deep down), or PPF. That’s it. There’s no ceramic shortcut or anything.

* Driving carefully when near brush can really help. You’ll avoid many scratches, and the ones you do get won’t be as bad.

* There’s nothing wrong with caring about your paint. Just don’t let it stop you from enjoying your Jeep.

Thank you for attending my TED Talk.

Well, yes and no Mr Ted.

Here in FL ceramic coatings help a lot with the bugs, they come off a lot easier than without, and I have tried most products over the last 25 years. We have this little bastards known as love bugs. They hatch, mate and die and serve no purpose other than that. Unfortunately the other thing they do is left on your vehicle for more then a day or so and the acids in their body eat the paint right off, really bad.

I have tried all the recommended tricks and most wax. Ceramic coatings by far work the best. They will eventually eat through it but it takes weeks not days and when washing they come off a lot easier. Why? Because it's a proven fact ceramic is much harder finish than your normal wax.

Although ceramics won't stop scratching all together they are more resistant to scratches and small road debris, again because they are harder.

I have also found a product made by Seafoam that works amazingly well at preventing scratches. And I have put it to the test on the tread lightly trail here in FL. I applied it, went down some trails that looked like they were made for ATVs. Cringing the whole time, knowing is was going to have major damage. When we finally stopped and I looked over the jeep, I couldn't believe it, only a few minor scratches.

I am not overly concerned, and I intend to use my jeep for it's intended purpose, but there are some good products out there that work very good.

Oh, and if you want total protection, there is a ceramic film you can apply that will stop scratching and rock chips etc. The shop here that does it warranties thier work for the life of your vehicle.

 

[Cowboy from hell]

This thread is dumb. Scratches are inevitable. Enjoy your jeep folks! You can't take it with you in the end. Its kinda like having a smoking hot girlfriend, and never banging her. Only to save that pristine booty for the next guy to smash.....

 

[[DELETED USER 82058]]

Ceramic does help protect against scratches. There are some that self heal and I’ve personally seen the results. PPF is amazing, like garage door impacts that would normally be a repaint, just peel off the PPF and replace. As far as removing scratches, depth plays a huge role but a really good detailer can knock down some pretty crazy scratches and use a paint thickness gauge to determine how far they can go with cutting.

 

[Overwatch]

I couldn’t get my first jeep in the color I wanted so I got a deal and then had it wrapped. It looked amazing and scratches didn’t matter. When I sold it I had the wrap removed. Now my new one in Sarge, thats staying the way it is.

 

[BMB]

I scratch mine all the time. I then come home and buff the scratches out. The OP is wrong, unless you go down to primer, you can buff it out. I've had my Jeep so brush marked my friends thought i'd destroyed the paint. An hour or so with the buffer, back to new.

Before:

After:

What’s your process? Looks really good!

 

[Thane]

If: first comment is "your jeep sure has a lot of scratches"
Then: goto last line "yes it does, good day!"

 

[Xcoaste]

It bothers me more when my soft top windows scratch.... that just stings too much!

 

[five9dak]

I couldn’t get my first jeep in the color I wanted so I got a deal and then had it wrapped. It looked amazing and scratches didn’t matter. When I sold it I had the wrap removed. Now my new one in Sarge, thats staying the way it is.

Sarge with a matte clear wrap looks amazing. Just saying.

 

[five9dak]

It bothers me more when my soft top windows scratch.... that just stings too much!

You can cut and buff those too. Lay them on a towel on a table and go to town with the buffer.

 

[swozey]

PPF is really 5-7k??? I figured 1-2k for the vehicle totally wrapped..

 

[J-Dub]

PPF is really 5-7k??? I figured 1-2k for the vehicle totally wrapped..

Film cost alone is around $1300-$1500 for a full Wrangler.

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