I have to admit that I have a bit of a thing for keeping my car clean - were it not for the fact that I don't have a drive and that I live on the 5th floor of a block of flats I would probably be out every Sunday washing and waxing my car.
A couple of weeks ago I took the opportunity to give the car a 'quick wash' before taking some friends out for a drive. Happily washing all that grime off the car (it had after-all collected a few particles of dust whilst parked!) my grip on the sponge suddenly slipped and I brought my other hand (with bucket) to catch it before it fell to the ground. Unfortunately in an effort to save the 99p sponge from hitting the ground, the bucket managed to make contact with the door and created a rather pretty collection of scratches about 4 inches long. I was mortified!
Of course, these weren't your basic scratches either - you could easily feel them with your finger nail. However they fortunately didn't go down to the metalwork. Still cursing myself and the sponge for causing all the trouble, I quickly rushed out to buy some Colour magic polish with the wax chip stick to see if I could polish out the scratches. After many applications (I lost count how many times I rubbed the door panel!) I eventually gave up - the scratches proved to be a match for this product and now proudly displayed
themselves even more prominently surrounded by new pristine mirror finish paintwork - doh!
I resigned myself to buying a touch-up stick from the Dealer and having unsightly blobs of excess paint on the door........
But there was a sudden flash of inspiration! Recalling a demonstration on QVC I remembered thinking how this Mer product seemed too good to be true - they were rubbing away at a piece of car bodywork with sandpaper then applying the special cream and hey presto! - it was as good as new - surely a trick of the camera?!
With nothing to loose my kit duly arrived from Halfords at a not unreasonable cost of £25. On opening up the package you can't help but feel a little short changed. For such a large box there really isn't very much inside it - it's mostly packing! What you do get is: a VHS video guide on how to use the product, the scratch removal cream, 1500 grade wet and dry paper, clear coat liquid, brush, power drill foam attachment 'Touch-up' sticks rubbing block.
Apparently the kit has been put together by Mer with the aid of Farecla who are experts in auto bodywork repair.
Before attempting to repair your car you are strongly advised to watch the guide video on how to use the various components within the kit. The video runs for about 15 minutes and it has to be said that it lacks a little bit of polish(!). The presentation is competent but how can I put it? - 'Home grown'. The picture quality is reasonable but not crystal clear and it would have benefited from more a more complete breakdown of the steps involved. It was easy to understand but I felt the step where they show you how to rub down the paintwork to smooth off a scratch stopped halfway. There was no shot saying 'this is what it should look like after you've rubbed the scratch using the wet and dry'. It's not a serious omission but there are numerous warnings about sanding too much of the body work…..
I watched the video twice and then took the plunge. My scratches were of the type where you first had to sand the surrounding paintwork down so that the scratch could no longer be felt. This was a very daunting task - the car is virtually brand new and I was about to attack it with some wet and dry! I have to admit that I've never attempted anything like this before on a car and the thought of causing irrecoverable damage was always there. 10 minutes of careful rubbing later and my collection of scratches had turned in a collection of 3 or 4 grey patches (about the size of a 10p piece each) and yes, it definitely looked worse at this stage than if I'd not even bothered trying to repair it all. Had I not seen the video beforehand I would have definitely said that there's no way I could turn those rough dull patches back to nice shiny paintwork and I did indeed need shooting for being so trusting.
The next stage was to apply some of the special scratch remover cream (which can be bought separately for about £10) onto the power drill attachment (as an aside I couldn't make out what was so special about the cream and can't help but wonder if T-cut wouldn't serve the same purpose….). The attachment is made of foam and you're supposed to use it with the aid of the power drill to work in even motions across the scratched area. Checking every 2 or 3 passes you need to apply a spray of water when it seems the cream is running out.
After a few minutes work I checked the state of the door panel and was amazed to find that the sanded patches had gone and was left with near perfect doors as though it had just left the factory!! Recent closer inspection has revealed that the remains of some of the deeper scratches are still there though I think that this would have been resolved if I had been a bit more daring with my sanding. In addition, when viewed at certain angles you can tell that the paintwork is slightly different where it has been sanded by the way the light reflects off it - this is probably due to the area being 'flattened' down. Of course, these are very minor complaints and you would only notice them if you were a real stickler for detail that I am.
This kit can be used to repair various types of scratches from your basic scuff/swirl mark to a stone chip that has penetrated through to the metal work. For more basic scuffs and swirl marks you can just use the cream without any sanding. For deeper chips, you need to clean the area with the supplied brush and then fill in with touch up paint. After the paint has dried you then sand as I have described above. Note that it can't be used to repair dents to the body work.
Overall I thoroughly recommend this product. It's quick and easy to use and the results are very pleasing for a 'home' repair kit.
Pictures of Mer Scratch & Stone Chip Removal Kit
Before the repair
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Well that is one daedevil attempt with stuff you do not know at all. I would have gone for a Meguiar' s Unigrit sanding block, some polishing compound (Meguiar' s no.: 7 or alike) and some Meguiar's Final Inspection. (3M Finesse It is also equally superb)
And God sakes ! Even a detailing maniac like me would not have dared using that "powerdrill foam adapter" ! I' d say go buy a relatively chep Black and Decker eccentric sander for about 30 Quid or so and use that with a foam pad. Much much safer !
Clean and nice review... Good luck next time pal...
matsu65 08.09.2005 09:03
Great review!..Mike
krissiebea 07.09.2005 23:35
Funny - I managed to scrap my car the other day, hubby doesn't know yet maybe I need some quick. Krissie xx
very helpful by (100%):
