I have seen many ads for bikes that say the paint has a few scratches and paint chips but they should easily buff out. So, I have what I think should be an easy question: What is the process/steps to buff out paint scratches and chips so that it turns out better than when you started?

If the scratch doesnt go all the way to the primer or to the metal, light scratches can be sanded with 2000 grit wet sand paper and then polished up using some paint polisher. If its a deep scratch u have to use a paint to fill up the gap, then sand and then polish.

I call a scratch something that if I drag my finger nail over it the nail catches on the "trench" of the scratch where material was significantly removed.

A "scuff" is when there's a mark but a fingernail dragged over it may feel the scuff but it doesn't catch.

For an actual scratch I go with filling the area with the same color paint and then wet sand down the worst of it with 600 used with care to only sand the "crown" of the paint patch. Then go to 2000 to blend and remove the 600 scratches. Finally some automotive polishing compound followed by a "cleaning" car wax that has a light super fine polishing compound in it. Another product that I got recently that I still need to try on some scuffs on my truck is ScratchX. It's got lots of good online reviews as a scuff buffer outer.

For a simple scuff I'd suggest the same ScratchX product. Or if you have it try some Mother's Mag Wheel polish. Or one of the milky white "Cleans and Restores While It Waxes" car wax products.

I don't know, but I think the question should be -- if they were easily buffed out, wouldn't the seller have done that, rather than list an negative in the ad? You'd think that a seller would do the easy little things to make the item the most presentable, wouldn't you?

Anyway, maybe I'm just an eternal pessimist.

That's what I think too.

This is one of those things that sometimes sounds easier in the talking than it is in the doing. If you are doing it for the first time you may find yourself overcooking it and actually making it worse.

If it really is just a scuff, you can buff it out by rubbing it with tartar-control toothpaste.

Wow, crazy cool idea, and keeps your bike minty-fresh I'd imagine. Like.

Of all the products sold used the ones I'd look at with the most doubt when the seller ads on "will buff right out" is a bicycle. A lot of bike owners have really funny ideas of what buffing means. Frankly I'd assume that if they say "some light scratches that will buff right out" I'd take it as actually meaning that there's gouges that are at or nearly at the metal... or maybe INTO the metal. If it turns out that they really are just minor surface scuffs then count it down as one of the luckier days you've had.

+1 That's my assumption as well. Its not like the seller thinks it will sell for MORE with scratches and scrapes. I look for ads with the exact opposite approach, ones where the seller thinks the bike is ruined or will be expensive to fix (often it is not). My last buy had white paint rattlecanned all over a beautiful paint job. Looked like total crap.

For the typical scrapes I see, I start with polishing compound and rubbing compound if the polishing compound does not work. Note both will remove some paint as well, and rubbing compound is more aggressive, so be careful.

I discount any and all claims by bike sellers. Some common claims are: "easy fix", "rare", "collectible", "fast" and more.