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Bumpers tend to get the brunt of scrapes and fender benders. Sometimes, the bumper can get dented, broken, cracked, or scratched. Out of all these types of damage, the easiest to remove is probably, scratches. I would also add that sometimes these “scratches” might actually be paint transfer, where paint has rubbed off of another vehicle onto yours. Paint transfer and light scratches are both easily removable with a machine polisher and compound/polish.

If you have scratches on your bumper, you will need to know if the scratches are considered light or deep. If the scratch has gone through the clear coat into the paint (deep scratch), then you won’t be able to polish out the scratch. If the scratch has scratched the clear coat and has not penetrated the paint, then this is considered a light scratch and can be polished out.

There is a simple test that you can do to check if the scratch is light or deep. Simply use your finger nail and scratch perpendicular across the scratch and see if you can feel the scratch. If you can feel the scratch, then it is a deep scratch and you cannot polish it out. If you don’t feel it, then the scratch is a light scratch and therefore can be polished out. Using this fingernail test can quickly give you an idea if you can polish the scratch(es) out or if you need to take a different approach for dealing with the deep scratch (e.g. touch-up paint.)

Technically for paint transfer, you could use paint thinner or nail polish remover as a way to remove the paint that is transferred onto your car’s bumper. Since the paint that you are removing is actually on top of your clear coat, it should only affect the paint that you want to remove and not your car’s paint which is protected under the clear coat. However, you never know what is happening on any one particular car, so it’s usually best to avoid using these types of chemicals which can possibly damage your car’s paint.

The best way to address most light scratches on your bumper and even paint transfer is to use a machine polisher along with a compound product that has the aggressiveness to polish out the scratches. If you use a dual-action machine polisher, it is mostly safe enough to use without damaging your car’s paint.

What you’re essentially doing with the polishing compound and machine polisher is rubbing away the sharp corners of the light scratch. The scratch is visible due to the light not reflecting back off that imperfect scratch. By rounding out the sharp corners of the scratch, we are making the damaged area flatter and more able to reflect light off, resulting in the eventual disappearance of the scratch.

Tools & Materials Used Dual Action (DA) Random Orbital Machine Polisher

Typical DA machine polishers will usually be adequate to handle most of the typical paint corrections, or in this case, removal of light scratches in the bumper. If you want some extra polishing power (meaning less time polishing and more effective results), you can opt for a long-throw machine polisher.

Chemical Guys TORQX Random Orbital Polisher
Chemical Guys Torq 15mm Long-Throw Random Orbital Polisher

Polishing Pads

General foam polishing pads work well (yellow pad for more aggressive cut, or orange medium aggressive cut), however if you want the most effective cut with your polishing compound, you’ll want to go with a microfiber pad.

Meguiar’s Microfiber Cutting Disc, 2 Pack: 6-inch / 5-inch

Polishing Compound

Meguiar’s M100 Pro Speed Compound

Microfiber Towels

Microfiber towels are a staple for people who clean and detail their cars. If you don’t have any already, you will need them here to wipe away the remaining dried compound after polishing.

Chemical Guys (6-Pack) / Zwipes (48-Pack) / AmazonBasics (24-Pack)

How to Remove Light Bumper Scratches Using a Machine Polisher

Below is the example that I will be demonstrating this process on. This Honda CR-V belongs to my mother in-law, who seems to believe her car is part of a destruction derby. I’m being facetious, but it’s common to find scratches and paint transfer all over her car. I’ll focus my fix on the two corners of her front bumper.

I won’t over-complicate things here. Using a machine polisher is fairly simple. You apply some compound to your pad to prime it (basically applying some compound to your pad) and apply some on your bumper. Then using both hands, run your machine polisher at a higher speed across the bumper area using light and uniform pressure. Make sure the pad is flat on the bumper surface and slowly move across the bumper.

I’ve drawn a picture below showing how you would run the polisher, which would be a hatch pattern. Make sure to move the polisher slowly as you move in one direction, overlapping passes just slightly, and then go in the opposite direction in the same way.

After making a couple of passes, grab a clean microfiber towel and wipe residual compound away. Check your work and see if the light scratches (or paint transfer) has been removed. If it has not disappeared or has gotten lighter, you can try polishing the area again with more polishing compound.

The reason why I recommend a product like Meguiar’s M100 Pro Speed Compound is because it acts like a one step product. Typically you would compound and it might leave a slightly hazy surface, which you would then need to follow up with a polish in order to restore the paint’s shine. However, this product is aggressive enough to remove light scratches, but doesn’t even need to be followed up with a polish.

As you can see below, I spent maybe about 5 minutes and made about 2-3 passes to get these kinds of results. It probably took more time to get the machine polisher, plug it in, put the pad on, and apply compound, than the actual polishing time itself. As you can see, just a simple machine polish can remove a whole lot of light scratching and paint transfer off of your car’s bumper.

On the opposite side, I did the same thing and the results were very good here as well.