Brand new van - scratches.

G

GrayandAli

Joined
May 2, 2021
Posts
41
Likes collected
125
Location
Scarborough, North Yorkshire
Funster No
80,837
MH
AdriaTwin SGX640 60Y
Exp
Newbie
Hi all,
Well it had to happen didn't it.............
Probably something im going to have to get used to, but we came round a tight corner on a narrow road and an oncoming vehicle came round the corner, leaving nowhere to go, but scrape along the overgrown overhanging branches.
Parked up and had a look to find scratches all the way down, absolutely gutted.
Got home and gave it a clean and a buff up, thankfully the paint work scratches buffed straight out, but the decals and plastic windows are proving harder to shift, ive tried buffing in some Diamond brite ceramic glaze that came as part of the ceramic coating pack, and they look slightly better, but they are still there when you look down the side of the van in the sunlight.
Can anyone recommend a product for the windows and decals? I can't feel anything with my fingernails on the decals, but a very slight scratch on the windows can be felt with a fingernail.

Cheers.
 
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Just back from 3 months in West Africa with a lot of scratches and the best for windows is Autoglym Super Resin polish, you can still see some very light if you look very closely but
just wish I had some 'before' photos they were very bad, bushes, branches even a few deep scores from a rogue Mauritanian lorry drivers wing mirror! 🤣
54437.jpg
54435.jpg
 
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I share your pain.

Regrettably I don’t know of any way to take scratches out of decals, only option is to replace or live with them.

That said if there’s a way I’d be interested
 
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CaptainPaul said:
Just back from 3 months in West Africa with a lot of scratches and the best for windows is Autoglym Super Resin polish, you can still see some very light if you look very closely but
just wish I had some 'before' photos they were very bad, bushes, branches even a few deep scores from a rogue Mauritanian lorry drivers wing mirror! 🤣View attachment 1193236View attachment 1193237
Click to expand...
Moroccan clash of mirrors, tried buffing but it’s not working!!



IMG_1746.jpeg

3B7C25DB-A4F6-4A5C-84B3-2DEFA74D3893.jpeg
 
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Pledge furniture polish( or something with beeswax in) on a microfibre cloth, rub along the scratch till it starts to get warm and then repeat with a quick spray and wipe,

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royandsharont said:
If you try to rub out the scratches on the decals with such as G3 I’m pretty sure you will make the decals look worse from the compound, it did on my black ones ☹️
Click to expand...
For decals we used baby oil which does do a great job and no harm but its always only a temporary fix of a few weeks then they come back
 
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I’ve no first hand experience but those specialist high end mobile car valeters are very experienced at getting scratches out of expensive cars - worth a try?
 
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MJB1 said:
I’ve no first hand experience but those specialist high end mobile car valeters are very experienced at getting scratches out of expensive cars - worth a try?
Click to expand...
That’s what we did. Went to a high end body shop and they used a light compound with a polisher on windows. Looks great again.
 
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Whenever we've been faced with a similar situation, if at all possible we actually stop the motorhome and let the other vehicle pass on the belief that it's easier for a vehicle to negotiate past a static object rather than one which is also moving.
Even if we have 'right of way', it's often simpler to stop and wait if the other driver is pushing their luck!!
 
Upvote 1
I feel your pain. Unfortunately, once decals are scratched there is no way to repair. It has been a constant headache for years of Morelo ownership with large black decals. Don’t get me started on the very difficult to maintain “carbon fibre” ones, gave up on those after one van ownership. They can be replaced fairly cheaply, it becomes more expensive as your van gets older as labour costs increase as the decal deteriorates and becomes more labour intensive to remove. Unfortunately, no way to protect it happening again so if they are not too bad you might just want to live with them.

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Apologies for semi hijacking your post but on the subject of damage - I have a deep scratch as a result of a mirror clash on the side of the Adria. Deep enough to require a filler but I don’t want to respray the whole side. It is an area of about 50mm x 25mm. Not horrendous but visible and not essential to repair - not cracked or getting any worse - just a cosmetic thing.

Are there any white fillers out there that anyone recommends for such a job? Something that I can sand and polish to soften the visual impact?
 
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Anything that polishes scratches out is mildly abrasive. I'd try and live with them and see how much they bother you. There will be others along soon!
It's the same with small dings on the car experience tells me if I get them done there will be another soon if I don't magically there won't be any more !
 
Upvote 1
royandsharont said:
If you try to rub out the scratches on the decals with such as G3 I’m pretty sure you will make the decals look worse from the compound, it did on my black ones ☹️
Click to expand...
You are supposed to use G3 with water ..... If used properly it does not leave swirl marks
 
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stewartwebr said:
I feel your pain. Unfortunately, once decals are scratched there is no way to repair. It has been a constant headache for years of Morelo ownership with large black decals. Don’t get me started on the very difficult to maintain “carbon fibre” ones, gave up on those after one van ownership. They can be replaced fairly cheaply, it becomes more expensive as your van gets older as labour costs increase as the decal deteriorates and becomes more labour intensive to remove. Unfortunately, no way to protect it happening again so if they are not too bad you might just want to live with them.
Click to expand...
You can’t win, we have the Empire glass which is pretty robust. However, some of the black coating has come off the inside, only tiny teardrop shapes but still visible. Fortunately good old Morelo are replacing it all without a quibble.
 
Upvote 1
NR said:
You can’t win, we have the Empire glass which is pretty robust. However, some of the black coating has come off the inside, only tiny teardrop shapes but still visible. Fortunately good old Morelo are replacing it all without a quibble.
Click to expand...
You are correct, we had the same issue with the last Empire Liner that’s why I didn’t go for glass planking on the current van as 3 planks were replaced when we had the last one. The current van has had the decals replaced with gloss black self healing car bra wrap. It was not cheap, but has been very very good. Even in low sun when the decals look worst they look great. Morelo assure me the issue with the bubbles on the planking has been resolved so have gone back to it on the new S Way. Then again they keep telling me the front double glazed window vacuum loss issue has been resolved, but every Morelo I have had has had them replaced, some of them twice!
The carbon fibre is by far the worst, it goes grey very quickly and never looks black, very difficult to maintain.
 
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GrayandAli said:
Hi all,
Well it had to happen didn't it.............
Probably something im going to have to get used to, but we came round a tight corner on a narrow road and an oncoming vehicle came round the corner, leaving nowhere to go, but scrape along the overgrown overhanging branches.
Parked up and had a look to find scratches all the way down, absolutely gutted.
Got home and gave it a clean and a buff up, thankfully the paint work scratches buffed straight out, but the decals and plastic windows are proving harder to shift, ive tried buffing in some Diamond brite ceramic glaze that came as part of the ceramic coating pack, and they look slightly better, but they are still there when you look down the side of the van in the sunlight.
Can anyone recommend a product for the windows and decals? I can't feel anything with my fingernails on the decals, but a very slight scratch on the windows can be felt with a fingernail.

Cheers.
Click to expand...
I feel your pain. I recommend this stuff:

Meguiar'S G190200Eu Scratch Removal Kit To Remove Light Car Scratches, Blemishes And Swirls​


It's for paint scratches, but actually it works wonderfully on acrylic windows too! Needs a bit of elbow grease, but deeper scratches come up looking great.

Subscribers  do not see these advertisements

 
Upvote 0
stewartwebr said:
You are correct, we had the same issue with the last Empire Liner that’s why I didn’t go for glass planking on the current van as 3 planks were replaced when we had the last one. The current van has had the decals replaced with gloss black self healing car bra wrap. It was not cheap, but has been very very good. Even in low sun when the decals look worst they look great. Morelo assure me the issue with the bubbles on the planking has been resolved so have gone back to it on the new S Way. Then again they keep telling me the front double glazed window vacuum loss issue has been resolved, but every Morelo I have had has had them replaced, some of them twice!
The carbon fibre is by far the worst, it goes grey very quickly and never looks black, very difficult to maintain.
Click to expand...
I’ll be very interested to see what you think of the S Way as we are considering one as our next van.
 
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