Car has some swirls & scratches...

 

Depends on how aggressive the cut is you are using. I have always used a very mild cut on the clear and just did more than one pass instead of using like sand or something and then cutting too deep.

 

Honestly would take pretty much. What color is the car?

 

I never feel comfortable buffing on an older car with factory paint. If the paint hasnt been taken care of, you could burn through the clear easily if you dont know what your doing. dont get too carried away with the buffer, slow it down and use finer cut polish and take it slow to try and polish it out.

Most people that ive seen burn through paint is cause they get in a hurry and rush it. Too fast of buffing speeds and use a too aggressive polish.

 

Color is Black, I believe the previous owner hasn't looked after the body well. What is the best option for me to do? I don't want to cause more damage or any further problems!

 

Mines black and I do full 5 step details in the spring, summer and fall. I also have a TB and trying to do paint correction/buffing on the Evo's stock paint is a pain in teh ***. We have very little clear coat, I use Maguires ultimate compound and I honestly wouldn't do it more than twice. I believe we only have two layers of clear where Cadillacs and most others use 3/4 coats. Be gentle and keep the buffer moving or you WILL burn through quite easily.

 

Are you using a traditional buffer or a random orbital?

 

A lot of the 8's and I think some of the 9's with the non pearl paint have single stage paint(paint and clear are applied at the same time). I don't know if it's the same on the 7's...if it is you should be able to do paint correction a few times. Take it to someone and have them measure the thickness of the paint

 

Maybe pay a detailer to do it once and look the car over, giving you coming pointers and drawing your attention to more problematic areas?

Just a thought.

 

Have you ever tried this... http://www.autogeek.net/megscratxfin.html

 

Best bet is to visit a detailer, check everything over & maintain it after. In circumstances like this what are the chances of our cars needing a complete respray?

 

Honestly your best course of action would be to do everything by hand if you're so worried. I brought a 94 skyline back to life after it spent most of it's time in the south pacific. Even after it sat out in the sun for months without a wash or a wipe down, started with some fine cut rubbing compound on the whole body then used a orbital to polish it with nufinish. I have had great luck with new finish. Dealing with deep scratches is tricky, you would use touch up, let it dry, sand it down then rubbing compound and polish. I have a metallic black truck thats seen a lot of mud. I just spent a few hours hand polishing the scratches with a fine rubbing compound and they blended perfectly, then used the orbital for the polish. Looks as it did when it came out of the factory.

Key take away: polishing by hand will reduce the chance of burning anything. It's such a small car that you can do it by hand and not get tired.

 

I am a professional detailer (currently my side job) but I do full 5 step exterior details all spring summer and fall, I've tried every compound out there and I've done pretty much every car manufacturer, Mitsubishi does use a clear coat, it is thin. You can touch it up doing it the correct way, not just simply brushing in the scratches. OP if you have ?'s Pm me I can help you out. I charge $175 exterior, $85 interior and I can't keep up with the customers, my offtime is back-ordered

 

Not sure who this question is to but if me, I use an orbital, yes it bounces around a bit more but it also keeps it off one spot making it easier to not cut all the way through. I generally use the orbital with the cut, then a polish to finish it off, then hand wipe, wash and re-polish or wax depending on the customers needs.

 

Maguires is what I stick with, they make the best products IMO BUT using something like this is simply going to diminish the surrounding areas as much as the scratch is deep. If you want it done right, you use touch up paint, let cure, then clear coat using too much clear on a paint brush, then buff it down to an even level with the rest of the paint. It's a pita but that's the best way to go about fixing scratches assuming they're down to the paint since our clear sucks.