Hello fellow MINI owners. My MINI is about a week old now but I noticed this mysterious disappearing scratch the second day I got it. What happens is that in the direct sunlight, and I mean DIRECT. The passenger side door has a huge white gouge-like scratch mark on it that appears. This and a couple more smaller scratches along that door. Well I saw that and I walked closer to the door for a closer inspection but the mark vanishes! It only appears when looking at the door from an angle while the sun is starting to set so it directly shines on my door. This is very annoying because I can't do anything about it. If I keep my eye on the mark and start to walk around the car, the mark will simply vanish. This is a brand new car and I have never seen anything like this before. Should I be taking this back to the dealer? Could they fix it or would they just replace the side door? I have no idea what to do or what could happen.

Here is the picture of the mark when it is visible. Although you can't tell from the pic, the scratch mark is CLEARLY under the outer layer of paint and I can't touch it. It seems like the mark is inside the paint of the door.



but then as i walk to the other angle of it .....



that mark went away!

I' m so confused what should i do?

 

its a cover up... there's damage under the clear repaired at the port or dealership.

 

They look like alien spores to me. They are going to hatch and take over the world

You must quickly destroy your MINI

 

Well that's the exact same thing that my car came with. What you say? Dealer installed swirl marks. I had the local detail guru get rid of them for me. The car looks fabulous now. He said mine were caused by the car being buffed out by someone who didn't know how to use a buffer.

You might want to ask a moderator to move this to the Detailing 101 forum for you.

 

Do you think the dealer will acknowledge this? And what can they even do about it?

 

Was your car delivered to you at the dealership with a slight delay from the original delivery date promised? If the port or dealership had to fix over the scratch, then it should have been delayed... it takes time to repaint and to apply and "bake" the clear coats. However, I have a feeling this was a manufacturing defect (accident) that might have occured part-way through the painting process. And then the final coat(s) were applied over, and with no sun in doors no one caught the scratches and the car was ultimately shipped.

Or maybe your car is haunted. [There is a story in my part of town that cars driving through a certain neighborhood receive mysterious scratches on the paint, only to disappear a day or two later. It is said that a woman was struck by a car years ago in this area, dragged for a distance, and then died. Cars that pass through this area now receive scratches from her finger nails as she hung on for life. What a way to go... scratching up someone's beautiful paint job .]

In any case, take it in to your dealer. If it's under the paint or clear coat, it is obviously not put there by you. The dealership should acknowledge this much.

-

 

If its under the clear coat then they will fix it for you. Let them figure out how to fix it. It could be a factory defect or like Kenchan said fixed at the port. Either way they should take care of it. Oh by the way great color choice.

Keep us informed.

--R

 

i like effortless resolve. thanks rossii

 

What you are seeing are scratches in the clear coat not under it. They either got there from your car being washed with a dirty wash mitt. Dried with a dirty towel or more likely put in there with a buffer run by someone with little skill.

Should you make your dealer aware? Yes, but I wouldn't recommend letting them fix it. Tell them you want to use a detailer to fix it & have your dealer pay for it.

When I made my dealer aware of the scratches on my car he said, we never buff cars here. Then in the same breathe he said, we can buff those right out. I said they screwed it up enough & they weren't getting another chance at it. I met a detailer at a local MINI function & he said he'd be able to get those fine scratches out. He did, I'm happy & my car looks oh so fabulous now.

 

That is truly bizzare! However, if the mark is under the clear coat, it certainly wasn't put there by you and should absolutely be taken care of.

That really must be frustrating and I'm sure that MINI will make it right.

Curiously, I have a small (about 2" diameter) patch on my hatch which looks like a deranged person went wild with the wrong grade of sandpaper and then clear-coated over it which is also only visible from certain angles but I elected to treat it as a sort of "beauty-mark" and left it alone. This strange behavior on my part stems from always totaling new cars which were absolutely pristine from the factory while those with some type of flaw remain shunt and problem-free throughout their lives.

With that kind of karma, I'm not messing with it!

 

It really looks like a light scratch to me, especially when it is only visible from certain angles.
Get some Scratch-X and if it is what I think it will buff right out.
A lot easier to try that first than even deal with your dealer trying to "fix" it (and probably screwing things up even more)

 

There's really nothing mysterious about a scratch that disappears from different angles. Actually all scratches are like this, regardless whether they are clear coat or deep scratches. What's happening is the light is catching on an edge of the scratch and you see the scratch, actually the light catching the sharp edge. From 180deg opposite, it "seems" to disappear.

When I "remove" scratches through buffing or even wetsanding, I'm trying to minimize the scratch by rounding off the sharp edges that catch the light. Sometimes you can completely remove the scratch by removing enough clearcoat around the scratch to level it, and other times, you can just make it look better although it still exists.

I would be more concerned about the arrows in the photos below. Is this car clean? If so, these are buffer swirls and holograms left behind by whoever detailed the car last. You can most likely remove them with a PC and M80 or M83 if you follow the Meguiar's system since they don't appear to be too deep. Hollograms and buffer swirls are caused by use of a rotary buffer, often with a wool pad. Although you can also cause them with foam pads, and that's why it's essential to follow the rotary work with a PC.

 

I knew you'd know the answer.

 

Can I clarify what you mean by scratches? I always thought scratches were something that can be felt by the fingers when touching it. And even seen if you put your face really close to it. Yes the car is clean, I believe thats the second day after delivery. I really am a noob when it comes to detailing so I must take your word for the holograms and swirls. I don't have a rotary buffer either.

What is a pC? Gar... kind of dissappointed that the dealer's detail job is less than quality. Maybe I can get them to redo it or am i just asking for more?

I'm not sure scratch X would do anything, i've used scratch x on other scratches on other cars before. Like i said, even though it looks like a real scratch, it totally disappears from all senses, like touch.

 

Shoot, seems my long reply never got posted--was having wireless issues while in Canada.

Sure I can clarify scratches. They come in all depths. From Key scratches that goes through the primer to metal, to clear coat scratches that are on the surface of the clearcoat, to deep scratches that pierce the clearcoat and get into the base coat.

Remember that the clearcoat is just another layer (or several) of paint over the basecoat--it just happens to be clear.

If you run your fingernail perpendicular over a scratch and your nail catches it, it's too deep to be fixed by buffing. It can be minimized but not removed--it needs to be filled in with paint or repainted.

If your fingernail doesn't catch, then there's a good catch it can be repaired 100%.

Holograms and swirls. Look at these extreme examples of buffer swirls/holograms. They were put in by the body shop that painted this Mercedes.





I masked off the right side and polished out the left side and 15 minutes later, you can see the paint could be restored.



I had to use a rotary buffer for this repair due to the severity of the damage, and then I finished it with the PC.

The PC is the Porter Cable Dual Action Orbital Polisher. See my video in the NAM store for more info.
http://store.northamericanmotoring.c...t=0&bestseller

ScratchX will do wonders when used properly. Check out my teaser video on using ScratchX at my site
http://www.ShowCarGarage.com

If you don't have access to a PC, then ScratchX when used properly might remove those buffer swirls, but remember, if your fingers aren't hurting and cramping, if you aren't sweating, and you haven't done atleast 4 to 5 applications of ScratchX, then you aren't using it correctly. That's why a PC is much preferred for this kind of repair.

Richard