squeak

Apologies for the delayed reply, and thanks to everyone who has replied... My car was in the shop getting a rear fender panel repainted (again) after a valet driver backed him into a cement pillar (thankfully I had a dash cam to prove it was the parking company's fault)... I've attached a photo of the sort of scratches I'm talking about. Please ignore the black arrows pointing to the two white stains. Those were for the benefit of the body shop that repainted the fender but created a few new problems for me, including those two white stains... nevermind the clearcoat they splashed and let dry on the panel above the one they painted so now it looks like dried nail polish, or the white spots of stuff that dried to the bumper... or the white stains they left on my black leather interior.. *sigh* Anyway, as far as these scratches go, I'm hoping I can get away with hand polish, but before I go anywhere near those panels with anything abrasive like polish, I wanted to check in with the experts here on the best course of action? I thought about PPFing them, but it's more than I want to spend right now (plus, aren't scratches in PPF noticeable, too?) if I can just easily polish them out every once in a while...

I've got some shiny black trim on my MX-5 RF on the roof and on the faux quarter windows that seem to get scratched if you even so much as look at the car. I'm guessing they are plastic. I had the entire car done with Opti-Coat Pro Plus when I first bought the car, but that hasn't helped keep these micro scratches from appearing out of nowhere. Any recommendations on how to deal with them? I maintain the car myself using only Adam's products and use proper technique (at least, I think I'm doing everything right--I watched all the videos a bunch of times), but that trim is just messing with me. Will Revive polish kill the Opti-Coat or make the scratches worse? I tried Brilliant Glaze to camouflage them but it didn't really seem to help. I'm a bit of a n00b so I haven't graduated to machine polishing yet. I'm also worried about overdoing it over time. At this point, I'm taking the car back to the detailer to ask them to deal with it with it since I need to take it back to get them to fix a couple of hot spots caused by the Opticoat anyway, but long term, I'd love to figure out a way to deal with these scratches myself. Thanks!

Nice!!! I'll just come borrow yours sometime! J/K! Alas, I've dropped close to 600 bucks on Adams products in just the past 2 weeks, so I'm afraid the SK and pads and polishes will have to wait for the day I absolutely can't live without them. So far, it has not been a good week for my Miata. My license plates showed up, and California requires the front plate (got ticketed 3 times on my old 2008 before I finally gave in). It ruins the aesthetics. Then, to add insult to injury, my stupid fitness bands scratched the trunk when I shut it yesterday. I'm usually so careful, too! I'm hoping my detailer can buff it out, but I have a feeling it went through to the paint. I'm taking it back to him this weekend because I noticed a couple of hot spots from the Opticoat. Keeping this car pristine feels like a losing battle.

Alas, I don't have any of the fancy machine polishers, and I can't justify buying one since I'm not a detailer. Besides, I'm not sure I can be trusted with that kind of power. That, and Dad's car barely has 6K miles on it after a year--it mostly sits in the garage. Apparently, he got talked into PermaPlate at the dealer when he bought the car, but from everything I've read, it's just a glorified liquid sealant that needs to be reapplied anyway. Unfortunately, he doesn't really take care of the car, and I doubt it ever got a proper wash before I started going down the Adam's rabbit hole and decided to start taking care of it myself. Last time I washed it, I noticed minor contamination on the hood, and it bugged me enough that I decided it was time to do something about it. I chatted with one of the fine fellas at Adam's, and he said clay and Revive should be just fine, under the circumstances.

I just had to clear out half of one of my closets to store all my new Adam's products! I regret having Opticoat Pro put on my Miata because I can't really do a whole lot to it myself now. Now I'm going to drive up to my dad's so I can get my detailing fix on his car instead (Strip Wash, Visco Clay, Revive, and Paint Sealant). Pretty sure AA really stands for Adam's Anonymous. The addiction is real.

Another newbie from the SF Bay Area. I stumbled onto Adams products quite recently in my quest to keep my new dark gray Miata RF looking halfway presentable. Somehow I've managed to turn it into quite the obsession, so much so that I find myself having to resist the urge to wash my neighbors' dirty cars as long as I've got the wash bucket out anyway. My friends think I'm certifiable, but whatcha gonna do...