Using Optimum HC by hand for small repairs

G

Gregor

New member
Greetings!



Noob here and first off let me say thanks for all the valuable information in the forum and the Daveb eBook. Encouraged by the eBook, I'm planning on testing the deep scratch repair process on one my cars. The book calls for finishing with a machine and recommends SFX-1, followed by SFX-2. I don't have a machine yet and looking around the forums it appears that Optimum HC is prefered over SFX-1.



The scratch I want to repair is small, so I'm thinking that it's possible to do it by hand, but I'm not sure well how OHC behaves when under hand power. I'm also hoping to use OHC on some bird etchings as well as some other minor scratches that Scratch-X wouldn't remove.



Comments and recommendations appreciated.



Gregor



PS: For those interested here is picture of the scratch. Its just under 2 inches and can be easily felt with a finger nail. I suspect its through to the color coat, but I can't see any metal. The car is metalic silver/grey and really looks more normal than this zoomed in shot appears. The scratch is on the passenger side front fender, so its fairly visible.



65929988.jpg
 
Gregor- Welcome to Autopia!



Good luck with that scratch; I have lots of cars in colors like that and I can never get my touchups to turn out very well :( But that sure doesn't mean *you* won't!



Do the sanding with fine grit (3000) sandpaper (use the Meguiar's Unigrit stuff, it really is *that* much better) and you should be able to do the polishing by hand.



I've never used HC but I've done similar work with 3M PI-III RC 05933 and other aggressive (but OK by hand) products. You could look into the Hi-Temp line from TOL , for instance. There *are* aggressive products that work OK by hand. I generally reach for 1Z Ultra/Extra, but it contains wax and I don't know if you want to use something like that on your touchup.
 
Because of what's required to break it down, I've read that OHC is only recommended for rotary not the PC (although others here have reported success using OHC with a pc) - but I'm thinking you caouldn't get enough 'action' to work the HC properly. A different rubbing compound would likely be better by hand.
 
Thanks for the tips. I finally located some 1500 and above sandpaper at a local auto paint supply store. They had the unigrit sanding block but it was expensive. Instead I went with 1500 and 2000 grit sandpaper and small pink eraser, per the instructions in the eBook. I'm practicing on an older car I own that has some touched up blobs from a failed repair I did many years ago. The 1500 worked really well at smoothing out the blob and as expected left the finish dull. All I had on hand was some Scratch-X which helped a little but not near enough.



Next up I need to locate some 3M products, or find something else that works by hand. The paint supply store had a bunch of Meguiar's compounds and finishes, but I didn't have my abrasive cheat sheet and was not sure which ones to get. They do carry 3m Perfect IT products but only in the quart size, which more than I want to buy without every trying it first. The Sonus SFX line is looking a better atm if only because the product choices are a tad easier for a noob. How about Poorboys SSR line when done by hand? Comments?
 
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