Can car wash scratches be fixed?

How car washes scratch cars

You pull out of the wash, the car is shiny, and then the light hits it and you see lines that weren't there before. Or something in the tunnel came loose and landed on the hood.

Robert has fixed many cars with exactly this kind of damage. Most of it is cosmetic, and much of it is fixable in your driveway.

Brush scratches: often lighter than they look

Brush damage tends to show up as fine lines or swirls, often over a wide area, and it's most visible on dark paint in direct sun. It can look alarming because there's so much of it.

The good news is that brush marks often sit in the clear coat, the transparent top layer of paint. Scratches that only mark the clear coat can usually be buffed out, which removes a very thin layer of clear to level the surface.

Use the fingernail test

To get a sense of depth, clean the spot and run a fingernail gently across a scratch. If your nail glides over it, it's likely shallow enough to buff. If it catches, nine times out of ten it won't buff out, and the fix is a touch-up that hides it instead.

The full explanation, including what hidden really means, is in Will that scratch buff out?

When something falls on the car

Damage from equipment or debris falling on the car is more varied. It might leave a scuff, a gouge, a chip or a short deep scratch.

• Scuffs and scrapes on a bumper are standard bumper repair.
• Chips can be filled and touched up as paint chip repair.
• Deep scratches can be touched up so they're hidden.
• A small dent in a plastic bumper cover can often be pushed out.
• A dent in a metal panel like the hood, roof or a door isn't something Robert repairs. He doesn't do paintless dent repair on metal.

What's beyond a mobile fix

If the scratching is deep enough to catch your nail across most of a panel, the right fix is sanding and painting the whole panel, the same as a key scratch. That's too big for mobile service and belongs at a body shop.

Robert will tell you from the photos which side of that line your car is on.

Fixing car wash scratches at home

Robert comes to you, so there's no need to take the car anywhere else. He quotes from your photos, usually within minutes during business hours, and is typically out within 2–3 days. Most repairs are finished in under three hours, in your driveway.

Buffing and touch-ups are among his smaller jobs, so if the wash also left a chip or a scuffed bumper corner, mention it in the same text and he can quote it all together.

What to photograph for a car wash scratch quote

Brush scratches are notoriously hard to photograph, so a little care helps:

• Let the car dry fully. Water hides fine scratches.
• Shoot in daylight, at an angle where you can see the lines reflecting. Straight-on photos often show nothing.
• Take one wider shot of the whole panel so the extent is clear, then one closer.
• For anything that fell on the car, include a close-up of each mark and say in the text what it was, if you know.
• A short video walking slowly along the side of the car works well for widespread marks.