Fixing scratches, cracks, and dents

So this is my first Tundra, and it’s a 2010 “grade” model. It started life as a work truck, then was used as a work truck again, and now it’s my daily driver.

Any tips on taking care of scratches in the paint? There are quite a few. Some are deep individual cuts, and in other places there are sprays of rock scratches like this.

 

@War Machine Hopefully Jason will chime in.

 

You’ll have to invest in a DA polisher to fix it yourself. The Griots G9 is going to be the best bang for your buck. Very nice machine, and will run around $150.00. I like their Boss line of correcting creams, and their pads also. Uro-Fiber and Lake Country also have great pads, and there are some one-step polishing products that work well also.
Ultimately it’s a choice of whether you want to buy the stuff and do it yourself, and have the capability to do it again in the future or if you’d rather pay a detailer to do it. Probably about $300.00 all in to get the equipment, or you could spend I’d guess 300-500 to have it done by a pro. Just a matter of which has more value to you personally.

@briarpatch and @Ckatz53 are really more experienced than I am in this area and may offer better advice. @Pudge has also done great work using Carpro’s line of products.

 

Great advice from War Machine as it pertains to the Griots Garage line of products, as well as the Buff and Shine Uro-Fiber and Lake County pads. I downloaded the pic, and blew it up a little. Some of what you have there looks like it could be corrected and/or improved, but those clusters of rock chips will likely need a repaint. In that case, you're faced with repainting the entire panel anyway. My advice would be to take it to a local detailer and ask their opinion. I suspect they will only offer something along the lines of 'improvement'.....unless they have a very gifted touch up person. I have seen some pretty amazing saves with scratches and touch up paint.....so it's worth having a local pro take a look at it.

 

Sorry just now seeing this. I second what @briarpatch said. Potmarking like that is impossible to correct conventionally because of how those marks were created (rocks just blasting your panels). They appear to be down to the panel through the paint. Someone could potentially use touch up/clear, wet sand, compound, then polish it....but they'd have to be super experienced to get it right enough to pass and it would likely cost you an arm and potentially a leg.

@War Machine 's advice on Griots and anything Lake Country is spot on. If you're just looking for a "quick" fix and dont want to spend all that much and dont mind using your hands, Meguiar's Scratch X is actually super user friendly for removing light scratches and helping out the worse off ones. It has lubricating oils in it that allow it to work by hand, so I suggest a good IPA wipe off after a few passes to see what all you've done since a byproduct of those oils is it does have a "filler" effect. Some microfiber pads from any auto parts store and Scratch X 2.0 is a quick fix to improve it.

Of course if you want a better end result, you'll have to drop the money on a DA and pads.

 

Quarantine has given me some time to make a list of what I want to fix. The smoke from the local fires has kept me inside away from fixing it. This truck had some character before I ever got possession of it, and I think it was the deer hit right before the sale that cracked the grill and possibly that piece below the bumper.

Easy to replace? Recommend OEM versus any subs?