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Yay! My Mini is here! But HELP my hubbie scratched it!
I finally got it after 6 1/2 months. It's beautiful! I love it, had an awesome drive home even though it was 150 miles in the dark and rain on the interstate.
But, once home in the garage, my husband used this squeegee thing he saw on a car care show to dry off the rain drops. Didn't read the back that said it will not itself cause scrathes but dirt will. So, all the dried mud form the semis on the interstate that we couldn't see because it was wet got drug along the surface of the paint, and now has dozens and dozens of very shallow scratch marks.
He says it is just in the clearcoat, not in the paint. I very much hope so. You can't feel any scratches, just see them. They won't rub out with our fingers, so I don't know if it's just surface or not.
We plan to wash it tomorrow with the Mini Autowash we bought, and then maybe buff or wax it, but with it being so new, we don't know what to do.
Anyone have suggestion? Please help - I've waited so long for my car and I've been so excited all day, I don't want to go to sleep sad about it. Please tell me my beautiful BRG paint is not ruined.
Oh, and I'll post pics as soon as I can get them loaded onto my computer.
I think the rule here is that Hubbie gets it fixed or he is out on the curb. Clear coats can be polished or filled to hide scratches up to a limit, but you should get an opinion at a detailing shop.
Cooper S Red/White/White, Air, Computer, Cloth, DSC, Cold Weather. August build.
Give the car a really good wash, and then leather off.
You'll have a clear view of the light surface scratches then.
Polish with a nice soft cloth, I know some people like cotton diaper material, and just make sure the cloth is slightly damp before you start as that helps.
I use AURI for this, but if you can't get that locally then look for another polymer polish product.
You'll find that the only reason you could see the scratches was the way they caught the light against the dark green background.
Polish twice, and I bet they've all gone
You may need to pay a little more attention to the scratched area, but if it's not down to the colour coat, and you can't feel the scratches, you can polish them out for sure
That's one good thing about the MINI Vs ordinary cars, even the non metallic colours have a clear coat to protect them.
My X put her purse with chain strap onto the roof of my Golf GTi as she opened the drivers door, then dragged it off into the car as she got in
Of course this left a trail of surface damage, and it was a green car like yours and it looked terrible
Hit it with the AURI and the polish cloths and all of the damage just polished away
And she's my X now, but not just because she kept trashing my car
Are you sure you're not just panicking though? My MINI has always appeared to be thoroughly scratched when viewed under artificial light.
2 weeks after I bought it, I was part of a show and the paintwork, when looked at too closely, appeared to be scratched.
The dark-almost-black paint, the clearcoat, and the effect of an artifical lightbul or strange sunlight just makes it look like this. I wouldn't worry about it.
Also, although your car is new, it is presumably a couple of months since it was built so you can treat the paint as for any other car I'd have thought. Handbook says this too.
Solution:
Allow hubby to graciously buy and apply every Zaino product to your beautiful MCS. In particular: Zaino Z5.
On second thought, allow hubby to buy but apply together, while you continually point out how clean and grit-free the cotton towels you're using are!
Thanks everybody! Crisis is over. We went to the auto store in town (my small town has pretty limited selection). After the staff and customers got done wowing over my car, the guy helped us pick some stuff out. We got some Meguire (sp?) srcratch remove stuff, my husband already had some Zymol cleaning wax he'd gotten, and we got some Meguire step 3 polish stuff. Hubbie washed it thoroughly, to the amusement of my parents and neighbors in 36 degree weather under cloudy skies, we pulled in in the heated garage, and he did all three steps. At least a 90% improvement! It looks beautiful. My dad gave us some of his fancy expensive chrome stuff and we shined up the chrome bits.
We're getting ready to take it out for some motoring and photos. All is forgiven - but thanks for your kind fellow motorer offers!
Glad your panic is over... two notes of caution now that it's fixed.
Be careful with a heated garage. If there's any salt on the roads, parking a wet salty car in a heated garage will speed up corrosion. The heat is not enough to dry the car quickly, but does activate the salt....
Secondly, when washing the car use a hose without a nozzle to rinse off. That way a lot more water 'sheets' off the car and there's less to dry. Hopefully the squeegee thing has been consigned to the trash. Use either a high quality chamois leather or 100% cotton towels (not washed in fabric conditioner). Make sure they never touch the ground and only dry off a really clean car.
My own squeegee horror story - when I first got my Jeep I pulled into a gas station on a horrible night going up north on a ski trip. I cleaned the front windshield with the squeegee, didn't even press hard but managed to scratch all over the *glass* in short horizontal scratches... They're still there 3 years later - at least clear coat responds to polishing...!
Religion is like a huge dog. If it's yours it's very friendly and comforting, but it scares the heck out of everyone else.
Thanks for the info - we haven't had snow in over a week, and rain washed away all the salt. It won't normally be heated in there, we just have this huge heat blower thing we turned on to warm it up in there. We share a 3 car garage with my dad's motorcycle and boat, so he likes to work in there in the winter.
My husband did the actual washing, I don't know if he used a nozzle or just sheeted the water. I'll ask him. He used to have a 69 Mustang convertible he was pretty meticulous about, so he normally knows quite a bit about detailing. Just one major boo-boo in this case!
See if you can find a product called "Micro Mesh" small box filled with various grades of sandpaper from 1500 grit to 6000+ grit, lube goop and a sanding block. Used to polish glass on aircraft, time consuming but it will fix your windshield.
Just looked at Micro Mesh's web site and can't find anything connected to a glass repair kit. Everything points to the acrylic or polycarbonate, so you might be right obehave. I'll have to check on monday when i go back to work.
Oh BTW I referenced the grit wrong it goes to 12000 grit
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Please tell me my beautiful BRG paint is not ruined.
Get yourself a good synthetic polish.. 
replaced a 2001 BRG/White Cooper 
