Clear Coat Repair

Found a small section of my front bumper all scuffed up over the weekend. I think what ended up happening was an unattended child went to town on my front bumper with some chalk. The white powdery stuff (which I’m guessing is chalk) was easy enough to remove with a microfiber towel. However the clear coat is pretty scuffed up and dull looking. Luckily there are no dents and it does not appear that it wore into the paint. There are also a little bit of dark scuff marks which I’m assuming is just crap from the chalk. How should I best approach this? My plan was to clay bar the area and remove any debris and then apply some car polish to buff out the rest of scuffed up clear coat. Thoughts?

That's exactly what you should do.

Replace the bumper.

But seriously, clay/polish/seal.

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If you have a lower deductible I would first check with your insurance what they can do to help you repair it. Take a few pictures.

Then proceed to polish. You can try ScratchX on a foam pad (not a MF towel not a terry towel. soft foam pad) and some elbow grease. If the scuff comes off after 5-6 attempts, more to you. If your polish goes through the clearcoat after 5-10 additional attemps, then take it to a body shop. At least you already discussed with your insurance to have it repaired. GL

I just bought a used 2017 in black. Immediately when I saw it I could see bad swirl marks. There was also residue from what looked like a hasty wax job. So I thought the swirls were wax residue. I got the car home and washed it and the damage was finally obvious. Someone had obviously screwed up a polish job. You can see the pattern the machine left. My only saving thought was that you can only really tell when the car was clean and in direct sunlight. But I like my car clean and shiny. So I went and got turtle wax scratch remover. I have to say I really like their products. I used my store bought polishing machine and did the hood. I was thrilled the swirls were gone. Next day in direct sunlight I looked closer at the car. I could see machine swirls all over it. Every panel. Except for the hood... so I did the whole car. Now you really can only do about 2 square feet at a time. Once you're done wipe it off. Don't cheat and do a large area or alternate between polishing and wiping different areas. Polish a small area and wipe clean. Otherwise you won't be able to get the polish off. I made this mistake and found the only way to fix it was to polish again with the machine and then wipe it off. This is of course the way the instructions say to do it but I thought I could cut corners. Don't it's just more work. It's not like wax. Speaking of... the next day I went to wax it but needed the bright sun to make sure the swirls were gone. I'd say for a used black car it's as good as it will get. A few spots to touch up with a quick hand polish and then wax. Big mistake. The hand polishing scratched the clearcoat. I had to break out the machine to get out my own swirls this time. So be careful polishing. And do it right. Follow instructions.
Also, my real point to this is to ask if anyone else thinks the clearcoat on these cars is soft or maybe it's just me or my car but anyone else been lead to believe this? Also, is there anything you can do to in effect harden the clear?

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MyGTI812 said:

Also, is there anything you can do to in effect harden the clear?

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Yes, ceramic coating. I personally opted for the cheaper route of HydroSilex. No regrets so far.