there is no secret rubbing compound at the dealer.

If the scratch did not go all the way down to the primer, it can most likely be wet sanded and polished out. My experience with Keyed cars however, tells me you will need to have the tailgate repainted. If you want to save some money, remove the tailgate yourself and remove the handle and any decals on it so all they have to do is sand and paint.

 

if it is light, like stated, it mostlikely can be polished out. depending on the depth of the cut will depend on the products used. of course, if it is down to the metal, it will need repainted. i know some people might suggest to get a very high grit and lightly wetsand, but i wouldnt touch my truck with sandpaper. there are high firction "wax or polish cutters" specifically made for this. and no you cant go to walmart and get "scratchX" and expect it to work in a case like this. you can use these cutters with a porter cable to get these marks out. start with a more course and then use medium and then fine and then polish however, this takes practice (both using cutters and porter cables in general), and you can burn your paint and make matters worse if you dont know what your doing. if you dont have experience with this, which i would assume you dont, before you go to get an estimate at the body shop for a respary of paint, head down to a detail shop and see if they can work it out

 

K update i talked to a friend that paints cars and he said that i would need to get painted he said for 50 bucks and a six pack he would paint it for me

 

Hrmmmmm...

Give him 50 bucks and at least a 12 pack....

He's saving you major cash...

And in turn needs a good tip!

 

thats a great deal. i have a friend that needed to have his repainted. they charged him around 300 (he did have a custom 1 tone paint job with a crap load of metallic in it) though...50 bucks is great.

 

That's an awesome deal. Make sure you buy him some good beer!

 

that is good, I was going to suggest wetsanding like I just did. got all my scraches out. only a few did I use a touchup pen then wetsand and buff. after he gets done painting it wait 2-3 weeks then clay bar it. when my bed was repained after a flatbed trailer landing on it I needed to clay bar it to get out imperfections.

 

k i dont know anyting about car paint so what is a clay bar

 

mothers (and a few others) make a kit with a clay bar in it. the mothers one comes with a spray detail, wash the truck good, dry it, then take the spray detail and the clay bar, do small spots at a time and wet the spot on the truck with the detail and rub the clay bar on the truck,make sure you keep it wet with the detail. once done with eather just the tailgate or the whole truck (whichever you want to do) wax the whole truck. you will notice a difference.

 

you see, clay bars take out all the small debris out of the paint, even stuff we cannot see. when done, all this debris is out, and you will notice a huge differance in how good your paint looks. a trick when claybaring, to get an even amount of debris out is to feel for how much debris is there after you do a section. the thing is, you cant feel it with your naked hand. the area should already be quite moist from doing the section, now, take a plastic bag, put your hand in it, and run your hand across the wet section. you will be able to feel just how much debris is in your paint. now you can decide whether you should keep working that area or move on to the next