3M Scratch Removal System, 39071, 1 Kit

I've used the 3M headlight restoration kit many times in the past and SWEAR BY that product -- this is very very similar. I had a clear coat scuff/scratch in my black acura mdx, and hand polishing with rubbing compound didn't take care of it. I bought this product and first used the 3000 grit square and that turned the scratch into a wide non-reflective haze. Next I used my wired drill with the rubbing compound: beware -- do what they tell you to do and smear the stuff on the pad and then wipe the pad around on the car surface to avoid splatter -- the spatter will travel 40 to 50 feet and end up everywhere!! I then used medium speed on the drill and light pressure to go back and forth over the scratch. You have to be careful here to keep the drill perpendicular to the surface, if you don't it'll dig into the surface and take you for a ride. It's something you may want to practice first before doing -- perhaps on a piece of plexiglass or something similar.. Once you finish this step, it looks like a less hazy haze... and now of course you have a much wider area of mild haze because the pad is about 4 inches in diameter. I then took that pad off and put on the polishing pad and applied in similar fashion the scratch remover and buffed out this haze in about 5 or 6 passes. I had to repeat this part twice as it didn't seem effective the first time. You need lots of angles of light -- I like my very bright $10 led flashlight as it is light and someone can hold it for you while you polish to make sure you're at the right spot. Finally after the polishing, I wiped the excess off with a microfiber rag and at extremely close view it looked like the scratch was down to only a swirl's wirth of depth -- definitely not visible anymore from beyond 2 to 3 inches with the naked eye. Initially my scratch was noticeable from 10 feet or more. I then applied a thick carnuba wax heavily onto the area treated and then buffed that out, applied another layer of wax, buffed it out, and it looks amazing. Not bad for $30. I'll admit I was a bit nervous about doing this at first, and i can see how someone can really screw up their car with this product. Having used their headlight restoration kit, I had an idea of the quirks involved. If you really care about your car and have no experience with this -- don't do it, pay someone $100 to buff out a wax professionally and you'll never kick yourself for it. because if you screw this up, you'll be very upset. Good luck! Be careful with the one star reviews -- they Offer no before and after pics and seem to have a heavy hand with the first stage, the sanding process

I bought a new red Bolt EV and within the first week a clay rock hit the hood and put a 1" by 3" tan scar on it. I tried the dumb toothpaste and q-tip trick and it made things worse. The scar was smaller but the clear coat was heavily scratched. I was looking at a new or repainted hood so I didn't have much to lose; so I bought this. I will admit during the sandpaper part I was insanely nervous. You have to use a lot of water as you do it and do it *lightly*. I imagine the people complaining it made things worse must've used too much pressure. I had to stop/start 5 times (they recommend lots of water as you use it, for 10 seconds at a time, then wipe and check). After that, it looked pretty bad. The tan scar was mostly gone but the clear coat looked awful. I did the compound phase and my worries started to disappear. Compounding brought back 80% of the shine and the tan scar was gone entirely. The polish part took me longer than the instructions said. I had to do it 5 times, the last of which was done an hour later as I thought it could be improved. The end result is... Dead on you cannot see the scratch anymore. The clay rock did go further and slightly damage the paint, but it's only visible if you know where to look and get a light reflection on it. For the cost and effort, I'm absolutely happy with the result. I have no regrets having bought this product. I can be honest and say this is a legit review. I paid for the product and was never solicited for a review. Just... Do the sanding lightly and know that this product isn't generally for deep scratches. Maybe I just got lucky, but I'm not complaining.

A while back I was backing into a parking space and, due to the unusually tight quarters, ended up scraping the rear driver-side fender of my '05 Subaru Outback against a the rusting pole of a basketball hoop. Nothing seriously damaged, but looked like hell, a big whitish-grey arc of abrasions. All of it was plastic, no metal was harmed, and everything at the ridge of the fender was down to the black plastic, so I knew I wouldn't clean it up completely, but I wanted to help make it less noticeable. 3M is generally a reputable brand, so I purchased this kit. I used a battery-powered drill at high speed to apply it, and made several passes over the affected area, following the instructions closely. It was a fairly cool, clear day, with some cloud cover. The result was that almost all the swirls and scratches are gone - or if not gone, then only visible in the right light. Basically, I have the paint, I have a few narrow bits of black plastic where the paint was totally removed, but you'd only notice it if you were looking right at the fender. Not great if I wanted it to look like new, but I'm the third owner of a car that is more than fifteen years old and even though this is my first significant scratch, it's only the latest of many. Also, I used the rubbing compound to polish up my headlights, and it worked perfectly - though without a UV protector, they fogged up again in about a year. So it worked as described. The only complaint I have is that the packets of polishing compound they give you are small, and more importantly, impossible to re-seal. I would have preferred a standard squeeze-bottle or paste-tube with a screw-cap, as when I returned to the kit many months later, the paste was mostly dry even though I tried to seal the slit shut with tape. Nevertheless, would recommend.

I had a scuff mark the full length of my outback. One kit was more than enough for the job. To be honest, I was a little leery of the claims. I followed the directions in the package. I used the sandpaper supplied in the kit I wet it with water and LIGHTLY rubbed the scuffed area. Ten minutes was sufficient. It left a dell matte finish which concerned me. I wasn't sure it would polish out. Step 2 was a purle hook and loop sponge that was chucked in a portable drill. I ran it at about 500 rpm with light to medium pressure. It refined the finish very nicely bringing back about 75% of the gloss. I did the same process with the black sponge and polishing compound and brought the scuffed area back to original gloss. One thing they don't elaborate on the instructions is maintaining lubricity during the finishing process. If the sponge squeaks it is not getting sufficient lubrication and the finish suffers As soon as you hear the squeak, stop and put a drop of water near the center of the sponge. I kept a glass of water close by. When the sponge squeaked I stopped, dipped my finger in the water ans touched my finger to the sponge. It worked great, lubricated the sponge and didn't wash away the abrasive. There is no evidence of a scuff on the car now. I highly recommend this system. Best $20 I've spent in a long time.

I purchased this kit to try to buff some scratches out of my granite composite kitchen sink. I'll spare you the details, but let's just say it was NOT a good idea. I ended up spending hours scrubbing the surface with steel wool and Goo-Off to get the sink back to its original color. Anyhoo, I decided that since I had the kit, I might as well give the car a try. It's a lease, so it's not my problem in another year anyway, amirite? (KIDDING!) I decided to attack a very large scuffed area on the front bumper. I followed all the instructions, and holy cow! I had a body shop guy tell me that no amount of buffing would make that look better, but a good patient 20 minutes with this and it is a huge improvement. The pros: - The kit contains every last thing you need, except for water and a power drill/driver. - The instructions are very easy to follow. - there is plenty of the different compounds to cover a pretty considerable surface area. Cons: - I only have a battery-operated drill (Ryobi 18V Li-ion) and the process chewed through 2 batteries pretty quick, so have a charger handy and/or use a plug-in drill (which is what 3M recommends, BTW). - Patience is a virtue. This is not the kind of thing you can rush if you want good results. It took me about 1/2 hour on the car. The sink debacle was another story. - Your arms will get tired, as will your trigger finger. Either suck it up, or wrap electrical tape around the trigger. Worked great.

I have not used the 3m kit yet.

I had 8 massive scratches on my hood. They were deep enough to see from a distance and looked like crooked pinstripes. Now It looks brand new. Here's what I did. 1. Wash the panel 2. Use the tiny "sandpaper" square and water to wet sand the scratches. Should look soapy. 3. Wipe clean to check every 5 seconds to see if it was gone. 4. Once gone repeat 2+3 on every scratch 5. Put rubbing compound on purple sponge and spread it 6. "Stamp" the sponge on the sanded areas of the panel. 7. Put a little more rubbing compound on the sponge. 8. Mount to drill and polish the sanded areas. Do not stay still and move the drill fairly quickly over the dull areas with light pressure. 9. Once you've made one pass over every dull spot let the panel cool for a few seconds then hit it again. 10. After 3-4 passes the dull spots should become almost as shiny as new. At this point the panel should be scratch-less but a little dull. 11. Put the scratch remover compound on the black sponge and stamp then reapply just like you did with the other compound. 12. Polish in the same manner as before untill desired shine is reached. 2-3 passes for newer cars. 1-2 passes for older ones to get the shine to match. 13. Re wash/ wax the panel. 14. Show off your amazing restoration work. It seems like a lot of steps but it went quick. Took me an hour and that was with me stopping to re-read the instructions every few minutes. I work at a paint and body shop and even my very skeptical boss was impressed. Even with the deep discount I still would have paid double what this cost to fix it at the shop and it would have taken much longer. For clear coat damage you can't beat this. Here's a tip run your fingernail along the panel. If you feel the scratch but don't get stuck in it you can fix it with this. If you can't get your nail out without lifting it or forcing it then you can only partially remove it.

I watched a video first before using the scratch removal product. A car door had hit my wife's car, and made a dent and scratch. The scratch was removed and it makes the dent really hard to see. It was so well I used it on my car to remove some of the swirl marks left from car washes. It works surprisingly well on surface level scratches.

I'd accidentally scratched my 3 month old CX5 by trying to remove some glue-like bird droppings with a twig - bad idea. The scratches were very obvious and really annoyed me every time I got in the car. I called three 'professional' scratch removers in my area, and when I sent this photo they all said I'd need to get the whole panel resprayed...! I saw this 3M product on a product review channel on YouTube - it came out the best one but also the most expensive. I thought I'd give it a try - even if it didn't fix it it'd probably be better, or I'd need to get the whole panel resprayed anyway. For $60AUD it's worth a go. I've just spent about 30 minutes using it - and the scratches are totally gone - it looks like new. If you look at very specific angles in the right light you can just about see some very slight indentations where a few scratches were - but they edges are very softened and there's no colour difference. Basically you can't see them anymore. I'm sure if I spent a bit more time on it then it would be flawless. I did an area about 30cm x 15cm overall and there's plenty of the two rubbing/polishing compounds left over. The instructions are very clear and easy to follow - all you need is a power drill which can run at low speed, some water and a few paper towels. Great products - saved be a lot of money.

Makes easy work of removing scratches with the proper compound! Just wish they made a 5” or 6” pad for a polisher.

Removed the scratches of my motorcycle tank would recommend

Funciona en rayones superficiales. Lógicamente en los que se pierde mucha pintura, no funcionan.

OMG I never believed it would have work that great! I succeed to remove a serious surface scratch! But beware, if the scratch is too deep like to the metal it won't work. But for clear scratch like the one on the picture it did magic! I cannot even found were the scratch was now. THANKS 3M!