while working on my 81 firebird this winter and foudn my paint has been used as a table to sort x- mas stuff on. the hood and trunk are now covered in light white scratches it had a brad new paint job 2 mo ago, is bandit brown. should i buff it by hand , orbital buffer, or take it back to the pros? does anyone know how much will buff out?
cover your new paint


thanks for any help

If the scratches are not all the way down to the primer, Get a variable speed buffer and set on 1500 rpm. Use Maguires #2 and a Maguires cutting pad. The color of the pad is maroon.
Then Buff with the Maguires #9 soft pad. The color of the pad is white. This will take out the swirls. It should fix it as long as the scratches are not down into the primer.
If it a base coat/clear coat paint job, you can use Maguires 2000 grit wet paper with plenty of water and sand out the scatches carefully, then buff as I stated above.

If you have not used a power buffer before be careful. You can rub through the paint easily near the edges and high areas. Try rubbing the scratches out by hand first, if that does not work then ask the Christmas stuff sorter for a cash X-mas present to have someone buff the car.

If the scratches are white and its a brown car then it is clear coated. My advice as a autobody tech would be to take your fingernail very lightly perpendicular to the surface of the hood and run it across the scratches. Do not push hard just let it make contact! If your fingernail wants to grab or stop in the scratchs then bring it back to the shop, and have them try a wetsand and buff. If your nail does not grab or very slightly grabs then try a very light duty finishing glaze with a air or electric buffer without wetsanding. Fresh paint usually scratches easy and buffs easy so my advice is if the scratchs seem fairly deep have pro fix it, you had a pro paint it right.