Mister2

Is finding out all of the blemishes that were not there the last time you washed/waxed the car. However, it's worth it when you've put that elbow grease into waxing the car and standing back to look at the finished product!!

I have my car handwashed. I can't do it myself because I live in an apartment complex and don't have access to a water hose. I do wax it myself though with Mothers Cali Gold. It's a pretty durable wax.

While waxing, I noticed today a scrape on the back of my rear left wheel well. Unfortuately it got through the paint. I tried to touch up some spots and prevent any paint from flaking off. However, the scrapes that did not get through the paint to the plastic I can't touch up obviously. Will polishing compound get rid of the residual scrapes? It's not very noticeable but I would like to get rid of it as much as I can since I feel it's pointless to repaint the whole rear bumper because of a little scrape.

After all the effort we put into avoiding S2000 exterior damaging situations like parking away from a bunch of cars, keeping it in the garage, etc., there will be situations beyond our control when damage will be inflicted. It's just a car and it can always be repainted and/or repaired if the damage is too much.

wanabe

mister2- you are right- cant avoid everything!!
yup, i would try a compound on the scratches... i always go lightest grit polishes first then if i need to , heavier -

OC S2K

Sure you can wash the car yourself. Have you heard of Quick Easy Wash from Protect All? They make maintenance products camping and RV recreationalists. All you need is QEW, wash mitt, couple of buckets, and a drying towel.

Read here:

http://www.autopia.org/forums/showthread.p...?threadid=32078

(On a side note, everyone who hasn't already should look at the Hall of Fame forum over on the Autopia.org forums).

As for your scrape, could you take a picture of your scrape? A product like Meguair's ScratchX might help. I'd tray a clay bar followed up by ScratchX first. Like Wanabe said, always try the lightest polish with the lightest pad (if using an oribital) with the least amount of pressure first.

TurboVtk

even simpler do what i do, take a bucket and go to certain gas stations that have self wash systems, what i do is spend 2 bucks to rinse the car about 7 min of rinsing put some water on the bucket with some soap, then go all out with the mitt, then 2 more bucks for 7 more min of water and rinse the hellout of it. dry and wax, if you want you can do what me and my friend do at times, we team up and wash two cars with 4 bucks! now a car wash for 2 bucks you cant beat it lol

Ubetit

QEW

TurboVtk

how about a wash and wax day in the nyc!