An enthusiastic young car washer had a go at our car at the weekend, and with great ingenuity, applied a brillo pad to some stubborn dirt. So we’ve now got half a dozen small areas of surface scratching. It’s a 20 year car so no great drama, but I’d like to remove the scratching if possible. I’ve had a go with T-Cut with no effect. Any other DIY solutions?

Thanks

T-Cut and some more patience, then finish with a good wax.

Ohh, and it could be much worse. Like a cleaner scrubbing the stainless steel surface of an expensive range cooker like ours did. She didn’t come back.

no advice, but lets see the pics please

Ohh, and it could be much worse. Like a cleaner scrubbing the stainless steel surface of an expensive range cooker like ours did. She didn’t come back.

That’s some 1st World Problem.

Read that back, do you know how that makes you sound?

Do you wear red trousers?

Shots fired.

Ohh, and it could be much worse. Like a cleaner scrubbing the stainless steel surface of an expensive range cooker like ours did. She didn’t come back.

My ruddy missus did this to a brand new stainless steel hob. apparently I cannot fire her for this tho.

That’s some 1st World Problem.

Certainly is, but it’s no worse than having a car scratched and personally I love my cooker more than I love my car 🙂

Read that back, do you know how that makes you sound?

Sounds to me like he didn’t like his cooker being damaged and stopped employing the cleaner who damaged it. About right?

We have an “expensive stainless steel range cooker”*. The solution to that problem is to attack the whole thing with a green pad to give it an even brushed look and stop wasting your efforts polishing it. Either that or do as my OH does and assume it’s self cleaning.

*it’s actually rubbish, despite being new when we moved in (god knows why, the previous owners took anything else of even slight value including the curtain poles) eats oven door seals at an alarming rate (and they’re £75 a pop, I think I’ve only ever replaced 1 for about £15 on all my previous ovens! The oven just burns stuff from underneath, half the piezos don’t work, the safety thermocouple in the second oven doesn’t work.

Do you wear red trousers?

Actual lol. True though.

“Yah, we totally sacked the cleaner for superficially scratching the cooker. I mean, what are they teaching them in scrubber school these days? You can’t get the staff…”

G3 rubbing compound
New image cut and wax
Arm and hammer toothepaste
Rotary mop and very light pressure

Yah, we totally sacked the cleaner for superficially scratching the cooker

When you pay someone to do something I think it is only right to expect them to do a good job don’t you think? She also filled a bucket with bleach cleaner when it was on a dark wood work surface leaving lots of marks everywhere but fortunately we were able to sand it right back and re-oil it. The cooker will be like that until the day it dies.

This thread has gone very STW in no time at all.

Anyway, rule of thumb is that if the scratches in the paintwork are deep enough to catch a finger nail then you won’t get them out with polish.

If they aren’t quite that deep then you might have better results using a more aggressive cutting compound like Farcela G3, then a medium cutting compound like T-cut, followed by a polish might help.

Patience is key, and be careful with the more aggressive compounds, they work by removing paint

Does no one feel for the young brillo pad scrubber? – I can still remember my dad’s reaction when I did this to one of his vintage motorbikes at least 47yrs ago 😕

johndoh

Member
When you pay someone to do something I think it is only right to expect them to do a good job don’t you think?

I’m afraid that you’re missing the point they are trying to make. Not to worry though, its the sort of thing the wealthy often don’t understand 😉

It is possible to polish swirl marks out of stainless steel. Just takes alot of time and effort.

its the sort of thing the wealthy often don’t understand

When you find a wealthy person let them know then please. It certainly isn’t me.

When you find a wealthy person let them know then please. It certainly isn’t me.

Are you sure?

http://www.globalrichlist.com/

Wealth is all relative.

This thread has all the LOLs.

Op: without lots of cost and specialist kit, g3 to start with, then try some Autoglym Super Resin Polish. It will need reapplying reasonably regularly but contains fillers so does some pretty good voodoo stuff.

Rubbing compound from Halfords, yellow squeezy tube. Gets rid of all sorts of scratches including the finger nail ones under the door handles, and brings the shine back if your paint has gone dull/matt.

Has anyone recommended a polishing skills course yet?

Read that back, do you know how that makes you sound?

Sounds to me like he didn’t like his cooker being damaged and stopped employing the cleaner who damaged it. About right?

Or maybe as someone who can afford a range cooker worth thousands of pounds and can’t be arsed to clean it himself, so employs someone to do the work for him.

Then sacks the person for making a mistake. Then seems to brag about it on the internet.

He may be acting completely reasonable, however, in 1st post, he came across as an arrogant, privileged arse.

He may not be any of the above, but that’s how it came across in his post.

The OP on the other hand, seemed to a much more reasonable and level response to a similar issue. No red moles appeared to have been harmed in his scenario.

Well this escalated quickly.

jesus christ

What method you use will depend on how deep the scratches are. Can you see the undercoat (eg scratches look white against the paint)? If so you can’t polish them out, it needs paint on it.

If the scratch is just in the lacquer you may be able to polish out but as you have found polishing by hand isn’t working – you may need a machine polisher. I have one and it’s like night and day compared to doing it by hand. However it isn’t cheap and there is a bit of a learning curve.

A pic of the scratches will help me to help you.

Assuming it’s not through the clearcoat, G3 Pro scratch remover will help, applied using the white waffle they sell. You can get them in Halfords.

This is how you use it (clean the paint thoroughly first):

Avoid T-Cut in future, it’s a non-diminishing polish and could leave you with a dull patch of paint.

If you don’t already own the products, it might be worth getting a quote from a mobile detailer or chips-away type blokey. Probably be able to improve it quite easily with a heavy cut polish on a coarse pad using a DA poliosher.

Brillo pad the rest of the car for the brushed effect all over..

be careful though… Back in the 70s my dad had a beautiful yellow car (I know) I was given the job of t-Cutting it as he was about to sell it. I set to work with enthusiasm. there was a stubborn dark shadow on the drivers door about the size of a 50p. The more I worked on it, the bigger it got. Once it got to about the size of an A4 sheet of paper, I consulted him and the conclusion was that it was the base coat showing through as the paint got thinner and thinner…

He may be acting completely reasonable, however, in 1st post, he came across as an arrogant, privileged arse.

Blimey, you’ve marked my card.

Is it a piant finish or lacquer over paint? With the former you might get away with fine polishing and with the latter you’re goosed if he’s gone through the lacquer.

My kids once played at washing my car. They pretended to wash it with handfuls of sand and small stones that were the water in their buckets…

My kids once played at washing my car. They pretended to wash it with handfuls of sand and small stones that were the water in their buckets…

Did you then ‘play’ at locking them in a darkened cupboard for 72 hours?

Our eldest once used the door of a neighbours brand new Jag to draw on with a stone.

Lovely picture of the family be drew….

Thanks all … in fairness, I did applaud the youngster for ingenious thinking and if nothing else, he did get rid of the dirt in those spots! As far as I can tell, it’s reasonably superficial, hard to catch a fingernail, so I’ll try the G3 approach. FWIW it’s a metallic light silver coloured car … and it is 20yrs old, so anything but pristine!

If Johndoh had said…

an expensive range rover like ours

…I doubt he’d have got flamed.

Why is it so #firstworldproblems to be upset about a cooker but it’s perfectly normal for an expensive car to be a man’s “pride and joy”? You sexist pigs.

Why is it so #firstworldproblems to be upset about a cooker

Hah, yes. My £1,600 cooker (discounted price as it was ex-display) – some people on here pay close to that every year for their car insurance (and I drive a 13 year old Mazda). Ahh well.

We used to have all stainless appliances and the staining on them used to drive me nuts… Now gone to black finish and a lot easier to keep clean….no need for scratchy, scoury things at all…!

Hah, yes. My £1,600 cooker

Never mind that how much were you paying the cleaner?

In all seriousness, stainless steel is really easy to refinish. Watch appreciation/modding sites are a great resource for how to achieve different types of finish.

Have you tried polishing it with the face of an enthusiastic young car washer? Not sure it’ll work but should prevent further mishaps. Not my car but I’ve had no more problems with my cleaner since I held their face to the gas after they marked my cooker.