Pinstriping Woes

If you don’t wash it you won’t be able to see the scratches

 

Polishing takes off microlayers of clear. You're fine unless you're buffing every week. I buff once a year. Most trail pinstriping is just deposits from tree branches that come off very easily. A "true" scratch is if you run your finger nail across the paint and it catches on the scratch.

 

Before:



After:



https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/how-to-remove-trail-pinstriping.504693/

 

Chock that one up as a whoops.

 

It's not that it's thin, it's just softer. It's like using cheap kiwi knives versus carbon steel knives. The softer kiwi knives get dull fast, but are super easy to sharpen. Opposite with the harder steel knives.

 

In WA, most of our trails are super narrow (no full size) and plants grow like crazy here in the spring so you're bound to get pinstripes. Winter time I like to snow wheel in more open FS roads where there's less of a chance of sliding into a tree or falling off the side of a mountain lol. So usually I don't get any pinstriping during the winter.

 

They help, but the trails will just find other places to scratch. Ask me how I know....

I have a black truck, too. And it's taken it's hits on the trails. First, Toyota paint is soft and thin. It's horrible. I dropped a very small, rotted tree stump that BARELY hit the truck and it left a pretty ugly mark. The paint is so soft that I've used Sonax scratch remover to get stuff out (it's not necessarily meant for this kind of fix).

Anyway, what other people said. Do a little polishing and it'll either fade to almost nothing, or all the way. Adam's polishes just came out with a one step polish and pad. I decided to give it a shot and was very surprised. It got rid of most of my issues. You can find a cheap, but good machine like Porter-Cable or Griot's. Those two are pretty fool-proof, and there are others.

 

OP, don’t listen to all these home remedies. Don’t put toothpaste on your truck. Geez. Some people just need some car care 101. Lol these don’t look bad at all in the pic. I have buffed out far worse. I’d recommend taking it to a good professional detail shop and have them buff them out. I generally charge about $150 for a full buff job. If you want to protect your paint from this happening again, you can get a true ceramic coating ($1000-2000) or even better than that is Xpel superior paint protection film. It’s self healing so if you scratch it, the product heals itself. Not cheap by any means but worth it. Check it out

https://youtu.be/T6oEgfdwUU0

https://youtu.be/tqxMv9MjRnQ

 

Wear those pinstripes with honor. And hat's off for "just doing it". I like your style.
On the flipside, get a white Taco when you trade that in for your 4x4. Learned this lesson a very long time ago. And sooooo much cooler in the summer. Black looks great...until you actually use it and/or wax it.

 

Compound and then if you want really shiney paint hit it with some polish. Those scratches are nothing, I would have them all out in 10 mins or less. Hardest part would be running the extension cord to my flex polisher. I've had huge scratches that I could feel with my nail and I cut and polished them out and youd never know. I like my truck to look good but still have fun at the same time. Those are literally nothing to worry about.

 

I’ve had motorized buffers leave burn/fade marks from pushing too hard. I suppose anything could do it if you push to hard

 

I've got a set of the goat armor and it has definitely helped limit pinstripes compared to what the truck got before I started using the. Plus he's got some really cool patterns available now too.

 

Ah, rotary buffers can definitely burn your paint. Modern DA buffer are almost impossible to burn your paint with proper paint.

 

I live this life. I've removed badges decals and stickers to make buffing and waxing as simple as possible. Pinstripes are a sign you are doing things right.

 

Are they different? Both have a spinning circular head that creates friction.

 

very different. Rotary is much much more aggressive

 

DA buffers have a clutch. If you press hard enough the head stops spinning. I mark a line on my backing plate on my buffer so I can see that the pad isn't spinning or spinning fast enough if I'm pressing too hard.

Rotary buffers don't have this. I'd only use one if I was painting and was sanding. I would not use them for paint correction.

 

Not all polishers have a clutch. I bought a Flex, its gear driven and it doesn't matter how hard you press it wont stop spinning. I've tried both and much prefer the forced rotation of the Flex, especially on edges and surfaces where the pad doesn't make 100 contact on the panel.

 

I've used this stuff before on my old 2013, worked wonders to get things cleaned up, had some water spots I couldn't get rid of and a light application of this did the trick. Give it a shot OP!

 

That's true. But most people who don't detail or are super anal about paint correction aren't going spend the cash on a flex. I believe even higher end rupes still uses a clutch.