Question about polishing

[jhuntsman]

I have a car that i painted black and polished using fine tamiya compound in the white tube and now it has fine scratches in it from the compound. what do you guys use to remove these scratches? thanks for the help!

[Steve Keck]

Jeff, You don’t mention what black you used. Enamel can be soft and susceptible to scratching.

Tamiya white cap polish is not at all aggressive. It should not have created the scratches.

If you used the Tamiya white cap polish first, then I suspect whatever you used to apply the polish was contaminated and that is what created the fine scratches. That, or just handling the model could scratch it. I use cotton balls or cotton facial cleansing pads (from the big blue box store) exclusively. If I drop one it gets trashed immediately – easier than going through your suffering.

Now that you have to deal with the scratches I suggest you use the Tamiya red and blue cap polishes. The blue is less aggressive. Start with the blue and see if it removes the scratches. If not, then use the red, then the blue and finishing up with white.

You can polish right through the paint and need to apply more. Go slowly and use a light hand.

[jhuntsman]

thanks for the info steve. i used black enamel with enamel clear over that. i have the tamiya blue cap compound. ill try again using cotton balls this time and see if that helps get the scratches out. there is 3 good coats of clear on it so i dont think ill go thru. thanks again!