Cutman

Will that do anything for scratches?

Eandras

TrailBadger

Clay bar treatment. We've picked up some over spray from one of the local mills near where we park. So we'll be opting for a clay bar kit sometime this spring.

mr72

I will point out, just because this is the internet and you never know who will read it someday...

this is absolutely the correct advice BUT to use a DA polisher and multiple different pads and compound and wet sanding is not for the feint of heart or the inexperienced. The Jeep factory paint has quite noticeable orange peel and if you wet sand a spot here and there, even if you are good enough to prevent going through the clear coat, you are almost guaranteed to take out the orange peel and even after buffing it correctly (2-3 compounds & pads and DA etc.) you are going to end up with a spot of paint that doesn't match the rest of the Jeep in texture.

Just putting that out there.

Good detailers may wet sand an entire car to get rid of orange peel making spot repairs like this much more seamless. A good detailer can do a drop fill with clear nail polish in a scratch that is invisible, and can even do touch up jobs on metallic/pearl finishes with the little touch up pens that you can't detect afterward. It's an art, let me tell you. I think it's easier to paint an entire panel than it is to make a seamless chip repair in a pearl finish like the silver on my Jeep.

Hopefully clay bar by itself will get it close enough for you then some cleaner-wax to top it off (and wax the rest of the Jeep while you're at it) and bingo, you're done. But if it requires sandpaper, any compound with more grit than ordinary wax or a power tool like a DA or worse a rotary buffer (talk about burning through fast...), then most of us are way better off leaving it to a pro.

Rednroll

Absolutely. There are 3 different abrasive levels of the foam pads
Orange=Compound Cutting
Blue= Polishing
Black=Finishing

Think of them along the lines of different abrasive levels of rubbing/polishing compounds. Orange is most abrasive, and then moving towards the black being least abrasive. For scratches depending on the depth, I will typically start with the Blue pad, and test it out to see how well it's working on the scratch I'm trying to buff out, if that isn't enough then move up to the orange. For most noticeable scratches (ie easy to see in the sunlight, finger nail catches on it), most of the time I use the orange with a mild or mid level abrasive rubbing compound, then use the Blue with a cleaner/polishing wax, then go to the Black with some carnauba wax and by the time it's done the scratch is gone and it looks like glass. General use where there are just light surface brush swirl marks and surface stains, I do the same process but start with the blue and move my way to the black.

Similar to what mr72 outlined in regards to wet sand paper. I typically don't have to use wet sand paper using the foam pads. The orange foam pad combined with the rubbing compound is a good and my preferred substitute for wet sand paper. However, with paint chips where the chip has gone down to the paint layer or beyond, what I will do is tape the surrounding chip area off with some blue painters tape. Then spray that chip area with some color match Mopar paint, followed by 2-3 coats of Mopar clear coat. After that dries, the chip repair area will be uneven (raised above) the factory paint (which is what you want). Then I will take some fine wet sand paper on a sanding block to level it out with the surrounding factory coat. Then follow that with the orange, blue, black pad process and watch that chip virtually disappear.

I've used various methods over the years including clay bar. This past summer I tried out the foam pads and they're currently my favorite method. My JK is a 2009 and the top of my hood now looks fresh out of the factory.

For scratches that have gone beyond the factory clear coat and/or the paint layer, then I use a similar method as the chips but use a paint pen and clear coat pen to fill the scratch void, wet sand after dry, orange, blue, black pad.

All the methods are virtually the same and just depends on the depth of the scratch you're starting with and the tools you decide to use in each step.

Steps from worse to least
-Fill it
1. Paint with color match paint to fill and match surrounding paint color
2. Apply clear coat to color match and fill void
-Blend it
3. Wet sand paper to level surface
4. Rubbing compound
5. Polishing/cleaner wax
6. Wax