Yes the hard rubbing compound is great. Worked well on the 14year old paint on our old Chevy nova, and just make sure you do circles (i believe) so you don't get a heavy grain in any direction in the paint. They have multiple levels of grit, and strength, try out a lower one, and that will do for some nice small things and tiny hairline type scratches/skids. If it doesn't do the job just try a higher one. It really gets the paint nice, and smooths it down like you wouldn'tt believe. But dont do it too much, you can go through the paint (i did once on a section i had just painted a stripe over. I was using the compound to smooth out the height difference between the new color i applied and it went a lil too much i a spot!

Thanks for the tip...can't wait to try it.

3M brand Fine Cut Rubbing Compound.

Excellent stuff. It basically takes out surface scratches or 'swirl' marks. Anything 1500 (or 1000) grit or finer. Any scratch deep enough to feel a groove in the paint may not come out with it. But using touch up paint, sanding to even the surface, and rubbing compound will fix it up.

Well, I'll try the compound first, but I do think it may be too deep. It doesn't look that bad because it is a very thin line, but it runs the entire length of the front passenger door and onto the rear door. I've tried touch up paint before on my old car, and I can't say the result was good...we took our time (and I'm an artist, so you'd think I could do it ), and the painting and sanding went fine, but the clearcoat ruined it (it went on lumpy and thick).
We'll see, maybe I can avoid painting it
Someday we'll probably just go ahead and get the whole car repainted anyway.

Hailey, you said you're an artist. What do you do? I graduated from SU in illustration. Plus I do comp. graphics (P-shop, Illustrator...) Sorry to get off topic guys.

BTW, some new touch up paint should be nice and thin. It does get lumpy and thick after a while though :? I tried touching up a long scratch on mine and it'* hard to keep your hand steady. But when they fixed my car from the accident they had to blend the paint on the door so I got a new paint job and so it fixed the scratch!

I'll stay off topic for just a sec...I'm not professional, but I was an avid painter in high school and painted one commercial piece, a mural on a storefront. I don't do all that much now (the mural killed my desire :? ), but I plan to get back to it someday.

Sorry, back on topic.

Must have been one of those things you didn't want to do? Or a PITA?

I know how that goes.