There’s nothing worse than a scratch on your vehicle. Car dings, light scratches, and rock chips age your car and can potentially lead to rust. In most cases, you can repair your auto’s blemishes in the comfort of your own driveway.
Save your time and money by skipping the trip to the auto repair shop. These six items used for car scratch repair can easily be found — some items you may already have hidden in your home.
1. Paint touch-up kit
If you have the time and a bit of money for supplies, the traditional repair method used by auto repair professionals can provide high-quality results. Popular Mechanics takes you step-by-step through the repair process in this easy tutorial. The key to a professional repair is time. Allowing each coat of lacquer paint to not only dry, but cure will give you the perfect results. You can use an auto paint touch-up kit or assemble the components yourself.
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2. Toothpaste
For a quick fix on light scratches, toothpaste acts just like a buffing compound. The silicone within the toothpaste gently polishes the surface of the paint, smoothing out the scratch. The North Carolina Consumers Council recommends using a whitening toothpaste in their easy-to-follow steps to remove scratches from a car’s clear coat.
3. WD40
Light to medium depth scratches won’t be completely removed with WD40, but they will definitely be hidden. A quick solution to those gentle scratches, this technique can easily be used after you wash your car. You simply spray WD40 on the scratched area and gently buff with a microfiber cloth. The scratches will just disappear.
4. Shoe polish
You can use car wax to help eliminate many auto scratches. If you don’t have any on hand, shoe polish stands in as an excellent replacement. The editor at Autos.com recommends using a shoe polish slightly darker than your existing paint color. After cleaning the area with soap and water, you apply the polish and lightly sand the scratch away.
5. Super glue
Once applied, super glue will self-level. The capability to smooth itself makes super glue a quick and easy way to reduce the appearance of a light scratch in the clear coat of your auto paint, according to Gravity Autos Roswell. The key is to just fill the scratched area with a small amount of super glue and then let it level itself out. Remember, you can always add more, but it is difficult to remove too much.
6. Nail polish
The wide variety of available colors makes nail polish a quick and handy way to cover an auto scratch. DentGoalie suggests using light, even coats of nail polish to cover scratches that won’t buff out with other methods. Keep in mind that polish often dries to a slightly different color than it appears in the bottle. Paint a bit on a piece of paper, let dry and then see if it matches before applying to your vehicle.