No matter how cautiously you drive or carefully you pull into parking spots, dings and scratches are simply an unfortunate part of car ownership. And while the superficial marks that build up on your bumper and doors over time may not affect how your vehicle performs, a trip to the body shop to get your car looking new again can get pretty costly very quickly. Fortunately, according to a savvy social media user, there’s an easy hack that makes getting rid of scratches on your car super easy.
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In a recently posted video, TikTok user and self-described “hack guy” @daddybrownn explains how to buff out some of those pesky marks on your vehicle. Surprisingly, the special trick only requires three household items: baking soda, water, and cotton rounds, cotton balls, or a soft cloth.
To start, he says to mix equal parts baking soda and water together to create a paste. In most cases, about a quarter cup of each should be enough.
“If the 50 percent water and 50 percent baking soda isn’t perfect, you can go ahead and add more baking soda or more water to make it a paste consistency,” he tells viewers.
Then, use the cotton round or soft cloth to apply the paste to the scratch on your car. Work the paste in a circular motion until the scratch disappears or at least gets better. Once your done, you just have to wipe the paste away with a clean cotton round or cloth. He clarifies that while this might not fix all scratches, it “definitely works” for most scuffs.
And it’s not just scratches you can fix yourself: In another video, @daddybrownn says you can take care of foggy headlights without shelling out for an expensive restoration kit.
“You can literally use stuff from the dollar store to do the same thing,” he says in the video.
For this process, he says you’ll again need baking soda and cotton rounds or a soft brush, as well as some glass cleaner. He then says to start by cleaning the headlights using the glass cleaner before making an equal part mixture of baking soda and water.
Then, apply some of the paste to the headlight and use the same circular motion. “You’re going to feel the baking soda is kind of gritty, but that’s what you want,” he says. “Baking soda is abrasive enough to remove the dirt and fog, but it’s not going to damage the surface.”
Simply let it sit for a minute or two, then take a rag and wipe off the excess, and finally, use a hose to lightly sprinkle off your headlights. The results on his video show formerly foggy headlights looking practically brand new.
Users filled the comments section with thank-yous for how effective the simple hack was for them. “Just tried this, and it worked so well!” one wrote in response to the scratch video.
But while it might be effective, others pointed out that this isn’t a foolproof solution. “[This] works only if the scratch is not profound and has not penetrated the inner paint level,” one user wrote.