installed my new tail lights - however i ended up scratching the bumper a bit in the process.

 

video is set to private but rule of thumb with scratches are if you can feel the scratch with your hand you cant buff it out.

 

oops! Ok its visible now. hoping it will be ok in spring when i get another detail where they wash wax buff, etc.

also i gotta fix some hail dents but i dont have money :'(

 

The first set of scratches I see in the video look like they might be...but the other (2) look like stress cracks in the paint??

If they're not stress cracks, then what wardNM05 said above is correct....if you can feel them ("carefully" run your fingernail across them)...you won't be able to buff them out.

 

Won't buff out...
Even if it did, due to heavy wet sanding, you wouldn't have enough clear left to withstand the element.

The rule is: if you can feel the scratch, it's a repaint.

 

stress crack? so do you think they were there before or did it happen from tail light scraping?

and btw when i run my finger nail over i can't feel them...surface feels smooth so hoping it will be ok. I buffed my car earlier spring 2014 so I will wait til spring 2015 to buff again because I hear too much buffing can be bad as well.

 

Interesting......that too much buffing can be bad as well. I guess you can buff the clear coat right off if you use too much pressure, wrong pad and too many times a year.

Pascal what do you say about this?

 

The curved or rounded "scratches" are actually stress cracks. It means something or someone leaned up against the bumper hard enough to deform the plastic bumper cover and cracked the paint when the bumper deformed. Those you cannot buff out.

The first scratch in the video looks like it's down to the base coat (no clearcoat left to buff). So IMO, all the damage would need a repaint to repair it.

 

Buffing is abrasive at a micro level so sure, you can wear out the clear if you were to keep it up for hours but you'll burn the clear way before that. The heat will be too much.
What kills a paint job is too much wet sanding due to deep scratches.

Typically, the factory uses 2 medium coats of clear on our cars and wet sanding with paper coarser than 1200 grit will take off one coat of clear at least. Bad news.
Here in FL, you paint job won't last past two summers in such a case, unless your car never sees the sun but it's unlikely...

 

I've only had my car buffed once in its life and I went to a very reputable detail shop that knows mustangs and they always buff real lightly. I went by them yesterday and they said it should buff out, but I'm gonna wait til spring to get it done.

what is a stress crack exactly? did I get the stress crack from laying the tail light on the bumper and the weight of the tail light made it crack? Or did i have that crack before?

but yes, the scratches do not catch my nail at all and with my finger they feel as smooth as rest of the car.