Thanks Sigurd. If you're interested, I can post more pix of this Karma and other ones we have detailed.
Nice work. Thanks for posting the pictures. Kind of makes me want to detail my Karma.
Whenever we hit objects with our cars, there are two issues at hand to contend with. First thing to do is determine how much damage is really there and how much is transfer. Transfer is the material of the object you have hit that rubbed off onto the paint. If you hit a white wall, you can expect to find white paint on your car. Once that transfer is removed which can be done with clay, mild solvents, or even some polishing, the next step is to determine just how much the impact affected the clear coat.
I always recommend customers to stay away from rubbing compounds as they are not intended to be used with today's modern clearcoats. Some people confuse the term "rubbing compound" with "polishing compound".
Meguiar's Scratch-X is a hand applied polish that can remove very light clear coat scratches but the problem is most people don't know how to define what a scratch really is.
There are light clear coat scratches that can be buffed out and there are scratches that go clear through the paint that need to be painted. This is why the initial analysis is so important.
My goal is always to fix what can be fixed through subtractive methods. Clean, polish, compound as needed, wet sand if needed then add paint.
Here is an example of common damage on the Karmas that I repaired through a combination of polishing and applying factory touchup paint.
Based on your photo, I think it's going to need some paint but it's still hard to tell. One tip that I can pass on is that if you apply water or some media reducer to the damaged area and it turns black (the damage seems to disappear for a bit until the reducer evaporates) then you have a chance at polishing it out. If not, it's too deep to be polished and needs paint. I always find it interesting that people will suggest on forums to just use some wax or polish to fix something when the problem has not even been diagnosed yet.
As long as we have a detailing expert on the forum, I would like to ask a question. About a week ago, when I as backing my car into a tight parking spot, a wayward column jumped out from behind another column and caused me to make contact with it. Fortunately I was creeping at extremely slow speed at the time and there was no damage. But I did pick up some paint from the column, which ran off by the way. What I would like to do is safely, and without damaging the paint underneath, remove the paint I picked up from the hit-and-run column.
What's the safest way to do that? I tried using a wet paper towel, and it helped, but I am concerned about leaving scrape marks on the car's paint. Here is a picture so that you can see what I am talking about. Any advice would be appreciated.
