I was given a 93 sc400 for a graduation gift and i love it! I washed and waxed it yesterday, with the paint so clear i noticed alot more imperfections in the paint. Here are some pics, any advice to fix them?

On this one is a real big scratch on my hood, i figure the only way im going to fix it is getting it repainted.

Here i cant tell if there little dinks in the paint or some kind of debris stuck to it.

There are a couple of these smuges that havent come off after three washes and waxing it.

Believe it or not it look much better than before. It had marks all over it from someone who didnt know how to buff. but the waxing took all of that off

OK, no disrespect but...

STOP! Before you ruin your paint. I CAN SEE the contaminants on your paint. You NEED to clay. Do a search for the info on how to clay, it is right here in this very forum. It will fix alot of your issues. Use the following process:

Wash
Clay
Wash
Polish
Glaze
Wax/Sealant

If you really want your paint to pop, I suggest Swilx or scratchX2.0 by meguiars. But for you, you NEED to get a Porter Cable 7424 DA Polisher or Meguiars G110 and some fairly aggressive paint correction pads. Believe it or not, you may have just done more harm than good by waxing over all of that crap. When you waxed, it felr like you were dragging the applicator over sandpaper didnt it?

Make sure when you clay, you dont use the quick detailer they supply you with...its garbage for clay lube...warm water with a little bit of plain old dawn dishwashing soap works WORLDS better.

OH yeah, and Someone's butt is on your hood.

RULE #1 of Lexus/Nice car ownership: DONT LET ANYONE TOUCH YOUR CAR!

again, not meaning to be an ass, just trying to help you. Wanted to make sure I got your attention

He didn't hurt anything by waxing over that stuff...

I think you would really benefit by investing in a machine like a Porter Cable as Josh mentioned. Your paint looks pretty good to me for a 16 year old car. Lexus black is single stage, which means it doesn't have a clearcoat. The bad thing is its really easy to scratch, but the good thing is it comes out looking great once its polished and sealed.

Look around on here, read some of the threads that have been posted here and on www.autopia.org.

You do want to clay the paint (plenty of writeups here). You won't be able to remove any scratches or marring by hand (your buffer trails are just hidden by the wax, they will come back). if you want to do as good a job as you can by hand I would reccomend the following:

Clay (Meguiars makes a good clay so does Mothers, so does Clay Magic)
A good one step wax product like Meguiars NXT 2.0, it will hide a lot of imperfections.

If you want to really make the paint look as good as you can you need to invest in a machine...

A note to the guys that get a machine: you should have no problem using the current ones on the market; steer clear of the ones that were common several years in the detail shops. You know, the ones that look like a 24 inch weedcutter. They will do an awesome job if know how to use one and if you don't, your paint will be toast. So, if gramps has one in the garage from "the old days" and wants you to have it, tell him you have a bad back and need something lighter. NEVER hurt your grand dads feelings.

What you're talking about is the difference between a rotary and an orbital polisher. They still make rotary polishers and I agree a novice should stick to an orbital, but simply buying a new one vs an old one isn't enough pre-planning.