I don't know what to do

[excess]

The other day I redded out my tail lights and covered most of the car but got some light fumes on my paint. You could barely see them but the paint was ruff there so I got some rubbing compound and took it all off but now the paint looks a little dull and scrathy by where I passed the rubbing compund. I am planning on waxing it with zaino this week, do you think this will take that away? I don't think that I have messed up my paint and all it is is left over rubbing compund or can I be wrong and have damaged my car. What do you guys think I should do?

[MDC Type-R]

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure...

I'm sure that's the last thing you want to hear right now, but your post should serve as a warning to others that you need to be really really careful when redding out your lights, or doing anything else that could leave imperfections on your finish. I would have taped off the light, then cut a template out of a large cardboard box, so any overspray wouldn't have been carried away from the lights and onto the finish, but contained in the box. (But that's just me...)

As for your poor unfortunate finish: Rubbing compound was probably a bad idea. Sorry to bring it up, but what you did was remove probably most of the clearcoat and potentially some of the paint, as well. You should get a 3-step polish, like the Meguiars, and use it to try and get your finish back. The first step is a body shampoo to get up any residual dust/grit/etc. The second step is a true non-abrasive polish, which should bring the shine back, and then you want to wax it, wax it, wax it. As many coats as your arm can stand. Without the clearcoat, or with a damaged clearcoat finish, your car is no longer impervious to finish-spoiling acid rain, bug splats, road tar, stuff like that. You'll need to keep a good layer of wax on it if you want to keep it shiny.

I think I would have used some nail polish remover or finish-friendly paint thinner and a Q-tip to take the overspray off, as I think rubbing compound is overkill in your case, unless you really laid a layer of spraypaint down... It seems like a pretty bad spot to be in overall...

Good luck with it,
--Matt