**The Toothpaste Method: A DIY Paint Correction Hack**

I've been watching YouTube videos where some people go through this and show you how to do it, so I've been watching 'em to make sure that we give this a fair shake, 'cause who knows? What if it works? That could be cool. All right, so it seems like from watching these videos, there are really two processes for the toothpaste method that are prevalent online.

One is just buffing with the toothpaste, kinda like what we've been doing with our products so far, and the other is to smear the toothpaste on, let it dry, and then buff it off. Let's do it. So I guess we'll try the buffer method. So we're gonna add a pretty good amount of water to the pad, and just do some pea-size drops, baby. See how it taps out (laughs). This is gonna be a mess.

(buffer whirring) It does smell good. Once you get the water mixture right, it actually works pretty well with the buffer and feels okay. We'll wash off a little better, and then we'll give it another crack. (buffer grinding) Makes a lot of noise. It's definitely not doing nothing. I mean, it's fixin' some scratches for sure.

The proof is in the paste, let's keep goin'. All right, so before we move on to the bumper, one of the videos about toothpaste said that you have to apply the toothpaste and then let it sit for about five or 10 minutes, and then you work it. There's a pretty good scratch right here. I'm gonna put some toothpaste on it, smear it in, and let it sit while I do the bumper, and then we'll check the scratch, see if we can make it any better with that method.

(buffer whirring) Okay, so after giving the toothpaste the best shot we could manage to give it, it doesn't seem like it did a whole lot. I would say overall, it does look a little bit cleaner and a little shinier at a glance, but you know, I think if we put pretty much anything on a buffer and buffed it like that we would get that effect. When you look closely, it really didn't do much for the light scratches, which is where I thought it might actually be able to work, and it didn't do much.

It literally did nothing for the bumper, and also didn't do anything for water etching, so in my opinion, the toothpaste thing. That is kinda myth-busted. (punches slamming) (rhythmic keyboard music)

So what have we learned today? Well, in my opinion, if you wanna correct your paint, there's nothing better than the tried and true method. With the $20 product from Amazon, honestly, it didn't do bad. It did better than I expected. It did a pretty dang good job on scratches. It did pretty well on the oxidation, and the fact is, it cost a fraction of this. It cost 20 bucks for this bottle, and I think this was the best to work in terms of actually buffing.

It also claims to be a wax amongst the other things it claims to be, and we tested how well it left a wax-protected coating on just by pouring some water onto the paint, and it didn't bead up very well with this, where obviously with our paste wax, this section is very well protected. Now the toothpaste, on the other hand, just didn't do anything, and that's kind of what I was expecting.

I think toothpaste is meant for your mouth, and honestly, per ounce, not that much cheaper than this. If you wanna save some money and some time, then this really isn't a bad method, but if you wanna get the best looking paint you can and you don't mind spending a whole day buffing your car, then I gotta recommend the tried-and-true compound, polish, and wax.

And that's what I'm gonna do to the rest of the Miata to get the rest of it looking this good so you guys can quit hating on my terrible-looking bumper, and then maybe one of these days we'll fix that fender. Thanks for watching, guys. If you wanna see a video on how to get your paint ready for paint correction, then go check out my video on detailing.

Lemme know in the comments below what else you wanna see us do to the Miata, and lemme know if there's any other DIY hacks or tricks that you wanna see us try out, 'cause well I don't wanna do anything else with toothpaste, but I'll do some other stuff. Follow me on Instagram, @zachjobe, and Donut, @donutmedia. Thank you guys, we'll see ya next week.

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en- The Miata's paintclearly looks like doo doo,so the question is, can I fix it?And can I fix it using toothpaste?Oh, this is gonna be a mess, dude.I doubt it.(thunder crashes)(rhythmic music)(thunder crashes)So, detailing your car can only do so muchin terms of making your paint look good,but I know a lot of youguys are looking forcheaper and quicker methodsfor this kinda stuff,so that's what we're here to do today.We're gonna try three different methodsof paint correction on the Miata,and we're gonna seewhat pans out the best.We're gonna look at mytried and true methodfor paint correction: a standardcompound, polish, and wax.Then we're gonna go with a much cheaper,much quicker all-in-one method,and then we're gonna gowith the bootleg hackof all bootleg hacks.We're gonna rub sometoothpaste on the Miataand see if that does anythingfor the state of the paint.All right, so what do I meanwhen I say paint correction?Well, I basically mean the processof removing surfaceimperfections from your paint,the top three of thosebeing surface scratchesand swirl marks that happen over the yearsfrom poor wash practicesand all sorts of things.Then we've got wateretching, like right herefrom water being on thecar, and drying in the sun,and leaving some hard mineral, you know,deposits in the paint,and then we've got oxidation,which you can see hereon the front bumper.Oxidized, not oxidized.So hopefully today atleast one of those methodswill fix all three of these problems.We've got the hood divided into thirdsso we can compare ourproducts nice and easilynext to each other.I gave it a thorough washand a clay bar last nightto get rid of any of thesurface contaminants,any stuff stuck in the paint.I think this'll do something,I think this'll do pretty dang good.I don't think this is gonna do anythingexcept rub toothpaste on my car.All right, let's take a deep diveinto that first kit andsee how many scratches,swirls, and oxidation we can remove.(lively drum music)(cash register dings)Okay, so in this kitwe've got what I believeto be a pretty good setup.It's very commonly available.You can get this stuffpretty much anywhere.It's a Meguiar's 105.This is our cutting compound,and then we've got the Meguiar's 205,which is their finishing polish.And then once we gothrough those two steps,we'll finish off with a nice paste wax,which should give us abeautiful, protected shinethat should last a long time.So I'm expecting great results outta this.I don't see it going any other way.All right, so let's get startedwith the cutting compound.So we're just gonna use aboutfour pea sized drops here.The easiest thing todo with this, I think,is use too much product.I'm gonna add a little water to the pad,keep it lubed up.Tap it out.Kinda get it spreadaround, get it started.And we'll put it on the lowspeed, get it started out.(lively keyboard music)So after just a quick pass,this does look a lot better.Now one of the hallmarks ofgood paint correction productsis how easily it comesoff when you're done,how easily it wipes off, and honestly,that's one of my biggest gripeswith the Meguiar's stuff,is it gets a little gummy sometimesand hard to wipe away, so we'll see.Maybe the toothpaste will be better.Okay, now we're movin'on to our polish pad.Basically this is justa little bit softer,a little less aggressive of a foam,with some pea-sized drops.(lively keyboard music)Now we've got a nice, flatsurface from the compound.The polish is gonna bring that shineand really make it look good.Just keep it moving, not too fast,not too slow.All right, so now thatwe've finished the polish,we're ready to put on a wax.Well, waxing is one of the only timesthat you're allowed to usecircular motions on your paint,and that's really becauseit's such a soft thing,and your paint should be very cleanwhen you get to this pointthat you're not gonnaput any scratches in itdoing it this way.So it doesn't take too much,doesn't take any pressure.You just wanna get a nice,even coating on the whole car.Let it dry, and then buff it off.Overall, it looks so much better.The reflection, my reflection in the paintis like almost night and day, I would say,and I'm pretty pleased withhow this front bumperturned out in this section.That was a lot of oxidation,and we pretty well reversed most of it,if not all of it.Those surface scratches and swirl marksare all but gone.Maybe some of the deepest ones remain.Overall, the water etchinghas gone down considerably.We've still got a few spots, though,that I can see.(punches slamming)(rhythmic digital music)All right, so now thatwe've seen what is possiblewith a very thoroughpaint correction method,let's move on to thecheaper and quicker methodand see if we can return the same results.Be kinda cool if we could.Cheaper, quicker, what more do you want?(rhythmic island music)(cash register dings)Okay, let's get this stuff.Is this stuff open?Let's see how it smells.It smells pretty good.God, detailing stuff justsmells the best sometimes.Come give her a whiff.- Smells like grapes.- Mm hm.(rhythmic island music)Tap it out, yeah.(buffer grinding)So, after using this for a minute,it's actually pretty easy to work with.It doesn't gum up atall like the 3M stuff,which is very cool becausethat is my biggest gripewith the 3M stuff.It does splatter a lot, so I mean,I think it's a pretty thin product.It does kinda fling, which, you know,I can kinda try to mitigate,but only so much.As far as the hood goes forswirl marks and scratches,now we haven't really inspected it yet,but it seemed to do a decentjob for just one step.I don't think it's gonnado as good on the oxidationon the bumper, though.I'll do a couple, I'llgive it as good a chanceas she could ever have, 'causeI want it to work, you know.This is easier for sure.(rhythmic island music)Whoo, it might be in competition.Let's see, let's keep goin'.(rhythmic island music)(buffer grinding)(rhythmic island music)(buffer grinding)All right, so the second one,our $20 compound, polish, and wax in oneactually did pretty good.It was easy to work with, withreally long working times.It seemed to do a pretty goodjob on surface scratches.All the light scratching seemsto be pretty well worked out,but I will say I don'tthink it went quite as deep,didn't cut quite as deep,and didn't really zamboni as wellas the compound on the first one.It didn't do nearly asgood on the water etching,and it did pretty good onthe oxidation on the bumper.Maybe not quite as good,but honestly, for $20, andfor how much quicker that wasthan this, especially if your paintis in a little bit better shapeto start with than this, not a bad option.I'm honestly pretty impressed with it.(punches slamming)(rhythmic keyboard music)Now it's time to jump down theold rabbit hole of internetand put some toothpaste on the hood,and see what that does.I got some whitening Colgate,and we're ready to try it out.If it works, I'm a toothpaste believer.(modern digital music)(cash register dings)Time for toothpaste.All right, when it comesto the toothpaste trick,I wanna make sure we're doin' this right,and honestly, this is kind of news to methat this supposedly works.So I've been made awareof some YouTube videoswhere some people go through thisand show you how to do it,so I've been watching 'emto make sure that wegive this a fair shake,'cause who knows?What if it works?That could be cool.All right, so it seems likefrom watching these videos,there are really two processesfor the toothpaste methodthat are prevalent online.One is just buffing with the toothpaste,kinda like what we've beendoing with our products so far,and the other is tosmear the toothpaste on,let it dry, and then buff it off.Let's do it.So I guess we'll try the buffer method.So we're gonna add a prettygood amound of water to the pad,and just do some pea-size drops, baby.See how it taps out (laughs).This is gonna be a mess.(buffer whirring)It does smell good.Once you get the water mixture right,it actually works prettywell with the bufferand feels okay.We'll wash off a little better,and then we'll give it another crack.(buffer grinding)Makes a lot of noise.It's definitely not doing nothing.I mean, it's fixin'some scratches for sure.The proof is in thepaste, let's keep goin'.All right, so before wemove on to the bumper,one of the videos about toothpastesaid that you have to apply the toothpasteand then let it sit forabout five or 10 minutes,and then you work it.There's a pretty good scratch right here.I'm gonna put some toothpasteon it, smear it in,and let it sit while I do the bumper,and then we'll check the scratch,see if we can make it anybetter with that method.(lively horn music)(buffer whirring)Okay, so after giving the toothpastethe best shot we could manage to give it,it doesn't seem like it did a whole lot.I would say overall, it doeslook a little bit cleanerand a little shinier at a glance,but you know, I think ifwe put pretty much anythingon a buffer and buffed it like thatwe would get that effect.When you look closely,it really didn't do muchfor the light scratches,which is where I thought it might actuallybe able to work, and it didn't do much.It lilterally did nothing for the bumper,and also didn't doanything for water etching,so in my opinion, the toothpaste thing.That is kinda myth-busted.(punches slamming)(rhythmic keyboard music)So what have we learned today?Well in my opinion,if you wanna correct your paint,there's nothin' better thanthe tried and true method.With the $20 product from Amazon,honestly, it didn't do bad.It did better than I expected.It did a pretty danggood job on scratches.It did pretty well on the oxidation,and the fact is, itcost a fraction of this.It cost 20 bucks for this bottle,and I think this was the best to work within terms of actually buffing.It also claims to be a waxamongst the other thingsit claims to be, and we tested how wellit left a wax-protected coating onjust by pouring some water onto the paint,and it didn't bead up very well with this,where obviously with our paste wax,this section is very well protected.Now the toothpaste, on the other hand,just didn't do anything,and that's kind of what I was expecting.I think toothpaste ismeant for your mouth,and honestly, per ounce, notthat much cheaper than this.If you wanna save somemoney and some time,then this really isn't a bad method,but if you wanna get thebest looking paint you canand you don't mind spendinga whole day buffing your car,then I gotta recommend thetried-and-true compound,polish, and wax.And that's what I'm gonnado to the rest of the Miatato get the rest of it looking this goodso you guys can quit hatingon my terrible-looking bumper,and then maybe one of these dayswe'll fix that fender.Thanks for watching, guys.If you wanna see a videoon how to get your paintready for paint correction,then go check out my video on detailing.Lemme know in the comments belowwhat else you wannasee us do to the Miata,and lemme know if there'sany other DIY hacksor tricks that you wanna see us try out,'cause, well I don't wanna doanything else with toothpaste,but I'll do some other stuff.Follow me on Instagram, @zachjobe,and Donut, @donutmedia.Thank you guys, we'll see ya next week.