Old tip for black paint

[Steve]

Something that PC said in his post on hand polishing just jogged my memory on something. I heard of an old chauffeur's trick a few years ago, although it only applies to black cars.

Often, you get fine scratches around the door handles that catch wax and show up white. Short of constantly buffing out the scratches there really is not much that you can do, but a little application of black shoe polish, buffed well, not only fills in the deeper scratches but also covers the white of the wax.

 

[aerog]

That works, but there are a bunch of products on the market that don't leave a white chalky residue and still "fill" the scratches. Many of the newer Maguire's products I've been using seem to be relatively residue-free, and there's always something like Maguires #7 that is full of oils that will make the scratches tend to go away (and will also remove some of the left-over residue you mentioned).

My MGB is a dark red and the Miata is a dark green - I've had no trouble with residue. We use Zaino on the black Corvette and that's been a non-issue.