Video: Removing Paint Scratches on Our 2025 Toyota 4Runner

Through all of our highway road trip miles, daily driver family hauling duties, and also a bit of offroading, we've managed to wear off our 4Runner's showroom-fresh feeling. Black and other dark paint colors are pretty unforgiving when it comes to showing scratches and other surface imperfections, and we've picked up a few of those along the way. These scratches on the driver's side rear door, they're very slight, we acquired those during our off-road adventures, and we've also noticed some blemishes on the hood as well, maybe from some bird droppings that didn't get cleaned up right away. So we wanted to use one of the new ceramic paint care products on the market to see if we could address these issues. We're gonna start by tackling these scratches in the door. I've picked up some ceramic paint correction product from Mothers. The instructions say to apply it with a microfiber applicator and then wipe it off before it dries with a microfiber towel. So let's get to it, see how it works. Most car care products marketed as ceramic contain silicon dioxide, which has a number of desirable properties when it comes to paint care. It has a hydrophobic effect, so it repels water and other liquids. It forms a durable, glossy, protective layer, and it can be used as a mild abrasive, as with this paint correction product. So what's the verdict? Mostly successful on the rear door scratches. I'm not gonna call it 100% a home run here. If I step away, the product minimized the scratches, so they're all but invisible, but if I get up close, kind of run up and down, I can see that they're still there, but very minimized by the paint correction product. We might try to go back with a power buffing pad and see if we can get better results that way. We did have great results on the hood. Now, those weren't scratches per se. Those were just blemishes, and the paint correction product did a great job of taking those out. It was fairly simple to use applicator pad, following it up with the microfiber towel, and it took the blemishes out like they weren't even there. I can't really even tell where they were. So a great success on the hood. So we did end up circling back with an orbital polisher the second time around on those scratches. This time, we got them virtually gone. So even with all the work we've done, the 4Runner's finish is not what I would call glass smooth. There's a slight texture to the finish. They call this orange peel. And again, black finishes really show these imperfections more readily than lighter colors. And with all this up-close examination, we noticed as we got further down the vehicle, that orange peel texture gets even heavier right about here where the rocker panels start. That's actually not a defect. Toyota applies a PVC coating at the factory for extra protection against rock chips and what have you, so some ways it looks a little unsightly, but you're really not gonna see it down low. And it's just a nice feature in that it's evidence that the 4Runner is a true off-road vehicle. For more on all the testing we're doing with our long-term Toyota 4Runner, be sure to check out cars.com/news. (upbeat music)