well, I went off-roading the other day, got stuck, then found myself being winched through a thicket, with a tree going all the way down the side of my truck. got the dents popped out the best I could, now im left with pretty deep scratches. tried the meguires scratch x, barely touched it. So then I got the grand idea to take touch up paint, place on an applicator pad and rub in, worked great no more scratches, you can now just see where the touch up paid is, its not as shiny up close. any thing to fix this? tried cleaner wax. next im thinking rubbing compound. any ideas?

 

clay bar should get it off of the clear coat, might take it out of the scratches though so your back to square one...

 

Well, it's a losing game: either give up offroading, or figure to spend all your spare time detailing your truck.

 

yea, Im not gonna give the offroading up. But still being in college, and the truck title in my dad's name still, just trying to keep his attitudes down to a minimum.

 

haha good call man! i got some scratches on my truck from offroading, but nothing major. it doesn't really bother me that much. there were scratches and stuff on the truck when i bought it. its all good! i always find myself going back into the woods....

 

lol! I understand though. My truck used to be a "street rod" and when I first went offroading I was a bit conflicted. Some guys give up altogether because their love goes to how their truck looks over the idea of offroading -- nothing wrong with that, I just can't do it.

Then sometimes when the truck gets a bit more beat, they take it offroad.

I mean, if you had infinite time to burn you could do both and just keep fixing it up. Probably when it gets too bad you need to do something to keep it from rusting and so forth.

Maybe some people are so skilled with auto body stuff they can keep up with it -- I'm not. CrazzyEarl once watched a guy complaining about his finish when we were offroading some narrow trails in Wharton and said to him, "Do you want me to get out my body repair kit -- I always keep it with me."

The guy said, "Sure!"

Earl went and got something from his truck and walked up with it half hid behind him and said "Here", and handed it to the guy.

It was a can of flat black paint and a can of spray-on undercoating, lol.

It was a priceless moment. (Even funnier if you've seen Earl's black truck, lol...)

 

thats awesome. redneck repair kit! good stuff man

 

ya, I wouldnt necessarily be all that concerned about the truck, I like keeping it clean, but more often its dirty, only when I go on dates. however, when I take it home, thats when I get a little concerned about what my dads going to say. When we first got the truck, he claimed it as his, and he could drive it whenever, haha, after I put my few mods on it, it wont step foot in it. I asked him the other weekend, he was needing to go get some wood, I told him he could take my truck, he said the hell I am, and took the xterra pulling the trailer, but still I try not to make em mad that often. I kinda covered my a$$ on the tree damage by telling him someone hit me in the parking lot, must of been a hit in run. beleive me, he will take the truck from me and sell it, hes threatened before.

 

Hmmm...well as a Dad I guess I have to say this: if he owns and/or pays for the truck, or if it's in his name, you should probably respect his wishes for it.

So, if he doesn't want you offroading it, you would be better off if you didn't. Eventually you could do some damage you can't lie your way out of -- although that's really not good to do with your dad anyway if you think about it.

Not trying to be combative here or anything -- just offering a "view from the other side", lol.

 

no no, I see where your coming from. I asked him when I first got it, with it being 4x4 if I could take it offroad, and he replied thats why I got you a 4x4. and the whole lying about where the dent came from, my dad is one of those guys, who its best not to tell him what happened to keep it off his mind, hes already got a lot of stuff from work and home on his mind worrying about. not trying to make excuses for myself, just explaining the unknown. he would be less worried about another car hitting me then me hitting a tree. Ive been in 5 wrecks already, none being my fault, so wrecks for me and that truck is just like, cant think of an analogie.

 

Okay, not judging you or anything, just making sure you're trying to keep perspective.

Either way, I have little to contribute to deep scratch repair -- but good luck in keeping the truck up as well as you need to.

 

ya, Im keeping the view all around, I can see his side of things, always have been.

 

Well. I dont know how deep the scratches are...but I had some BAD ones on my truck and before I sold it, I took it to Ford and had it detailed. When I got it back, it looked like it was just off the lot!

It was kinda expensive, but it will get out all the scratches. You might want to wait to take it there until you have to show your dad the truck or something.

Here is a pic of what it looked like before



dang I miss that truck...

 

First off NEVER do anything that you would lie to your parents. If I caught my children, the truck would be gone in a heart beat and all four know this. I don't lie to them and they are not to lie to me.
My suggestion would be if dad has a lot on his mind try to persaude him to go 4x4 with you. It's worth a try. Maybe he would enjoy it and would better understand what's going on. You could also remind him in a nice way that he said it was for offroading when he bought it for you and simply point out what happens when you do go. Maybe he just forgot the conversation. My children remind me all the time. :-)
Go to NAPA and you can get some 3M scratch remover. It will help if you have a rotary orbital sander (woodworking) then buy a foam pad that will attach to it. My sander has hook and loop and I bought a cheap foam pad and just cut it to fit my sanding pad. Follow the directions and you should get most of the scratchs out.

 

If you can feel them with your finger nail, they arent coming out easily. You can wetsand the out, then buff the wetsand marks out, but that takes a while.

 

sadly. I have tried many times to get him to come offroading. I beleive his perception of offroading is entirly off. We were talking the other day, and he said that the truck was not supposed to be offroaded in mud and on rocks. Which puzzled me, because what is left. He the truck was meant to go down dirt roads and only when it snows. Hes one to put it in 4wd on a gravel or dirt road. So his perception has changed since Ive had the truck. He told me it was okay to ride trails, just no mud and no rocks. But with no mud and no rocks, why would I need 4wd. So all is confusing. To solve all of it, Im buying an XJ. Build it up, and keep the ranger as my DD.

 

here are some pics at the last uwharrie meet. Mines the red 98 model.clicky
Heres with the tires.





enjoy

 

my dads the same way but I did get him to go to uharrie with me for a zuk meet.(i got a tracker)

to the scratches..I hit a mailbox and im in the porcess of fixing the scratches i was told to touch up paint and over fill the scratch then wet sand (2000 grit) the touch up paint down. after that wax it with a nice wax (any meguires product)

 

try meguires #83 it works fawkin great on scratches and paint marks. its amazing i was wordless

 

Ya i ran into the smae problem with my dad. See, ford didnt wanna gimme a $18,000 loan at 24yrs old, so dad co signed under me - even tho i pay for it. he considers it as my truck, but being the way he is, the first time i took it off roading i got one real major *** chewing over that..... but then hes like, 'the next time u go, i wanna tag along' so, in that respect its cool. we havent gone yet, he just wants to go cause this way he can tell me what i can and cant do... parents!

my first few scratches were from when i got into this real muddy area with no way out and had to turn around, i had to litterally back over a bush and a small (say SMALL) pine tree to urn around. that got my tail gate and oem tails pretty good... i was pretty pist. after i got home and inspected the damage, i have quite a few small 103in scratches in the paint that wont come out... and my oem tails were pretty bad as well... so i bought chrome tails to put on... cleaned my tail gate with that 3m rubbing compound and got most of it out. u wont notice unless ur looking for it, but being as it is my baby i notice it constantly...

since this is my most expensive thing i have ever bought ($9,000 invested) I try my best to take care of it... and yes i want it to look GREAT. I wax it 3-6x a year, and keep it pretty damn near spot less, ask D, hes seen it dirty ONCE. I prolly wash it 3-5x a week, with a real sponge, and a really good brush. I baby my truck, but i also like to play in the mud. my idea of offroading is not making my own path thru the woods like ne3lz does. more like, wide trails... I have had body long scrathces before and buffed em out by hand..... tho the idea for me is, while it does have 4wd, and full skid plates (more for bragging rights - tho the front plate keeps my engine clean - still loks new after 35K) i dont plan to, nor want to beat the crap out of it offroad. tho if/when i get the itch, i have the capability to go offroading, but with as little to no damage as possible, cause after all, its a really nice looking truck that i have ALOT of money invested in.