Cowboy pinstripe removal

[RedRob]

I don’t mind my Taco a little dirty, in fact I kinda like it. And a few little dings and scratches come with the territory. But the brush marks are getting a little out of hand.

It looks like “scratch remover” is made for little parking lot marks. “Rubbing compound” looks like it’s for old paint.

I don’t suppose anything is going replace elbow grease or money on a buffer, but I’m not even sure where to start. The kids at the auto parts stores have been helpful but have not inspired confidence. So I turn to you, my close family of complete strangers; please share your knowledge and experience with me.

Thanks

 

[phxdsrtrat]

Cowboy pinstripe? I usually hear it referred to as desert pinstriping because every damn plant (trees, shrubs, cacti, etc) in the desert has thorns that scratch your clear coat. I've found the best defense to be white paint. Otherwise it's a lot of buffing which of course removes the clear coat and/or paint eventually removing all protection.

-Curtiss

 

[Smileyshaun]

meguires ultimate compound followed by their ultimate polish and finished up with the ultimate wax . pick up a cheap orbital polisher and spend a day working that stuff in. the wax is spendy but really helps to keep the pinstriping to a minimum down the road plus all the products are very easy to work with and don't require a bunch of rubbing to remove after use .

 

[Mike G]

I like using the 3M Brand scratch remover myself. I found it works better then Mcguires.

 

[Lindenwood]

My wife pinstriped the hell outof her Quicksand TRDP, to the point she was genuinely crying by the time we got to the end of the trail :P . But, I put a heavy coat of wax on and buffed it out and easily 98% of completely gone.

As was said above, buffing only works so many times before you have gone theough the whole clearcoat. In my experience, it is best to us some substance to not only fill in the current scratches, but add a bit more protection for later on.

 

[Ben Cleveland]

First time I went offroad, I took my new to me tacoma on some "easy" trails in an offroad park. Turned out, the offroad park was mainly for rockcrawlers, which meant the easy trails never got used. They were basically overgrown ATV trails. I pinstriped the CRAP out of the truck. I was seriously stressed/upset when I got back home, to the point of saying I'd never go offroad again.

I polished out a couple of really bad scratches, halfway polished one door panel, and never finished the others. And ended up forgetting about the rest. Honestly, I've chosen to just take a bigger picture approach to my rig since. I don't want a brand new rig, and I don't care about it being perfect, scratch free, or gorgeously waxed and shiny. Sure that would be nice, but using the rig to get places is more important to me. So I try to keep it clean, and running smoothly, and I embrace the scratches.

As others have said, wax plus some scratch remover and a cheap polisher does help a lot. If you're taking your rig out regularly though, I honestly thing anything beyond that is just attempts in futility.

 

[madcratebuilder]

Brush stripes are a badge of honor. I buff my truck once a year, as lightly as possible. You know you are moving brush when the headlights and taillights have pin strips.