Toothpaste - Scratch Repair Tip

Due to an incident earlier today I ended up receiving ingrained bright green paint into my Montego Blue.

I suddenly remembered as I was about to post for help here that toothpaste is a mild cutting compound/polish and though the paint looked too deep into the surface (since I could feel no surface difference between it and the surrounding paint) I figured it was worth trying.

So, I rubbed in toothpaste, first using a soft nail brush which allowed it to spread out and dry just like normal car polish, and then a slightly firmer nail brush which took out the last of the green paint.

Result, no green paint and thankfully no dents or scratches down to metal as far as I could see :slight_smile:

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Plus, now your car is minty fresh! :grin:
Thanks for the tip :+1:

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" You’ll wonder where the green paint went when you brush your 5 with PepsoDent."

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Here’s a little tip for getting rid of unsightly scratches or stone chips, Get a piece of cardboard and cut out a little hole slightly bigger than the stone chip. Place it over the stone chip and give plenty of the appropriate pain layers until the stone chip is filled with the (appropriate) paint,
Then next day ( after it has dried completely ). Gently compound any Small overspray off the Immediate area using T- Cut Etc…This little stone chip should then be given a coat of lacquer by putting the cardboard back over the hole and giving it a coat or two, it’s as good as you are going to get short of a respray of the entire area. It’s a rewarding little job. If done correctly You will be hard pressed to spot the place where the glaring stone chip once stood ! And remember that you will be looking at it with critical knowledge of its once existence … Same applies to a scratch. Same method … in all cases using this technique You have to make plenty of layers until the paint becomes slightly proud of the hole that it is filling ( the chip ) etc.

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And even today adverts still last way too long :slight_smile:

I resisted the urge to put that on the post myself :smiley: But not only minty fresh, I used Colgate Total so that means that area is now protected for 24 hours against decay ! :wink:

Great information. The reason I thought of toothpaste is that I didn’t want to use something as harsh as T-Cut.

The last time I used T-Cut it actually damaged the paintwork quite severely on my other car (which has since been resprayed), so now I avoid it in favour of Auto-Glym products which I’ve never had any issues with (except when I accidentally kicked a litre bottle of polish over with the cap open…).

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Was it an old “classic” car ? The reason I ask is because many old cars did not have lacquered finish. When you used T-Cut on them you were going directly onto the top layer of paint Once that is smoothed down with any rubbing down compound. The area rubbed down will look different to the paint around it that had not been rubbed down. Perhaps this is what happened in your case on your older car ? Just trying to be helpful Best regards from Ray in Essex… you shouldn’t cause any serious problems with modern cars because when you rub down with products like T-Cut You are only rubbing on the clear coat lacquer which is several coats above the pain layer … you would have to cut right through the lacquer Layers to damage the paint layer Just saying…

You’re quite correct, it is a classic car (1960s), also it was the entire car I did since the paint looked a tad worn, 45~ years old at the time, (looked even more worn afterwards! :D), but thanks for the information about modern paint/lacquer.

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