[CITADELGRAD87]

I hit a metal bar on the freeway yesterday, didn't see it until I ran it over. After a Jan 1, 2005 pickup date, this was the longest I have owned a new car without a single scratch. The streak is now over.

Anyway, there are several scratches, all about 3 inches long, ranging from what look like clearcoat depth to one where the undercoat can be seen, can't tell if it's down to bare metal. They are very narrow, though, like what a knifle blade would do.

Will any/all of this come out/buff out/etc?

What's the best aproach?
Touch up?
Thanks.

 

[marlinspike]

If it's down to the base coat, it won't buff out (buffing a clearcoat paint never works well anyways though, but it won't work at all if down to the base coat). What part did you scratch?

 

[grinner]

run your fingernail over the scratches. The onse you can't feel will buff out. The ones you can wont. There are several wax products that are the same color as your car that come close to hising these. Make em less evil, anyway.
Do this first, then do the buff thang. Like heading to a big show, you may wanna have the car color sanded with 2k grit then professionally buffed after that. At the very least, use a clay bar to wax afterwards.
I don't buff mine myself anymore. Got too many burns and overall dammage from my noviceness and have found letting the pros do it allows piece of mind that is more than worth the coupls houndred bucks to have it done right.

 

[CITADELGRAD87]

What part did you scratch?

The driver's door, about halfway between the trim and the bottom of the door.

Natch.

 

[HEMEEE]

Sooo Sorry!!

The driver's door, about halfway between the trim and the bottom of the door.

Natch.

Aw man, this is NOT good!! I have 2 very small chips on each front fender (half the size of this spot> ) and I got an estimate from the dealer yesterday, since they already had my car... $756. HA!

I have the name of a guy that does auto paint repair and comes to you. I got this guy's name from my sister, who knows squat about cars, but she said he did a great job on her repair. I have a friend with a body shop that I'm getting an estimate from and, depending on his figures, I may give the traveling guy a call. PM me If you'd like his info, he's out my way and I don't know how far he'll travel but it's worth a call and he may network with others in your area.

 

[marlinspike]

To repaint a door should run $350.

 

[dynodon]

Bummer, I wish people would cover their loads and watch what falls off their vehicles better.

Work with a fine glaze or polish (Don't use anything that says the word "compound" because those usually take off all shine and require massive amounts of work to get the shine back). Work right on top of the fine scratches first, and keep working out so you don't make grooves in the paint or make that area look different from the rest of the door.

For the deep ones, if it is just in the clearcoat, get some clear touch-up paint and fill the scratch with a toothpick or very fine brush one layer at a time till you fill in just above the surface. Then when fully dry, use a tiny bit of 2000 grit sandpaper (glue some to a little wooden block) to sand down the filled in paint only to the surface of the rest of the paint. You will probably dull the paint near the scratch, but then work with your glaze again to bring that back.

For scratches in the primer, you need to put in some color coat and finish as above with clearcoat.

Unless they are REALLY bad, I usually prefer to live with a scratch rather than repaint a panel. Even a very good body shop will have a hard time matching the paint exactly. Sometimes a repaired panel will look OK in one light, but totally different in another light. Sometimes the texture of the paint will differ. But rare is the shop that can make it look 100% like it never happened.

Try filling them in, and live with it for a while before deciding to repaint. You might consider consulting with your insurance company if you have comprehensive, it might be covered if you decide to repaint or have a shop do the touch-up. If you have a shop that can do it right, then go for it if you can't handle the repaired look.

Try not to let a shop take a high speed buffer to the panel to try to fix it, the panel will wind up looking different from the rest of the car and if they aren't very good, they could do more damage. You can do what you need right now by hand.

 

[turbomangt]

Is there any way you can post some pics for me to take a look at closer? Gary

 

[C-Man]

I've used my random orbital (RO) Porter Cable 7336 with Edge 2000 pads especially made for paint to remove minor scratches that my son puts on my car as he moves his bike in and out of the garage. I used PoorBoys SSR2.5 and followed it up with Poorboys SSR1 and it removed the scratches that cannot be felt with the fingernail.

A RO polisher is a wonderful tool for the novice (which was me before I got the C). You can't really damage the paint unless you drop it on the car. It's not like a rotory that will burn the paint if you are not careful.

 

[II kings 9:20]

FWIW I really like GS27 for scratches that are not deep. I have used the same tube for years on several cars with very good results.

 

[marlinspike]

Interesting that you say that Kings. I used GS27 and it did so little (in fact absolutely nothing) that I went through the hassle of returning (which they made it a serious hassle). When I told them that their product was so worthless I will never buy another product made by their company for the rest of my life they seemed genuinely surprised. I wonder if I just got a bad tube.

 

[turbomangt]

I have not heard of gs27 but I assume it is similar to Meguiars scratch X. These types of products will only cover up scratches, not remove them. The only exception might be if it is an extremely light mark, which I would call more of a blemish rather than a scratch. The only way to truley remove it, and again I must emphasize that like others have said if it goes through the clear coat, its too deep, you need the heat of a high speed buffer,or at the least a Dewalt 443 or cyclo. These are differant from the Porter cable in that the motors are much stronger and won't bog down under pressure. The compounds are designed to "level" the walls of the scratch to blend it in making it less noticable. If you need more on this PM me here or my web site, and I will be glad to help further. Gary

 

[moddog]

I had a dent on the passenger side door about 12" back from the side mirror. It was right on body line about 1" long. Had a guy that dose paint-less dent repairs fix it , you can not tell it every had a dent. This guy is really good and at $75 it was a lot cheaper then the body shop.

 

[II kings 9:20]

The paintless dent guys work wonders. I can not say for sure how the GS27 works,for most superficial scratches it works great and where I have used it the scratch does not come back leading me to believe it's more than a cover up filler. There are certainly several scratches it has not worked on , most recently the 05 Odyssey right front lower valence that my wife has no idea how it got there

 

[dynodon]

Gary,

I am familiar with GS27, it is pretty much a scam product hawked on the infomercials on Cable TV. Most of the "scratches" they take out are made by coins which you and I both know are like most marks made by bare metal objects, a very thin deposit of metal on the top of the paint, and not really a scratch at all. Easily removed by about any cleaner/glaze/polish.

The same thing goes for "color" waxes. They really just don't work.

My favorite TV product for scam effect is the wax that prevents a lazer from burning paint. They burn a black door from a junkyard, then they wax a white car from an "audience" member, and the lazer won't burn that car. Of course the lazer is light and white reflects it while black absorbs it. If that audience car had been black, it would have been burned no matter what they used on the paint short of a mirror.

 

[bmitch]

dynodon, earlier in the post you mentioned you don't like to repaint? Does that for the dealer as well, shouldn't they have the exact match of the paint job you have. I'm having my bumber repainted at the chrysler body shop here in sa, so i was just wondering.

 

[jjs]

dynodon, earlier in the post you mentioned you don't like to repaint? Does that for the dealer as well, shouldn't they have the exact match of the paint job you have. I'm having my bumber repainted at the chrysler body shop here in sa, so i was just wondering.

I have had several parts of the car repainted due to situations I don't want to go into (damn drivers)...I went to a good body shop and the match is perfect.

 

[bmitch]

dynodon, earlier in the post you mentioned you don't like to repaint? Does that for the dealer as well, shouldn't they have the exact match of the paint job you have. I'm having my bumber repainted at the chrysler body shop here in sa, so i was just wondering.

yeah i had a the panel in the rear over the rear tire painted by chrysler and it came out very nice. $350 because some a$$ wanted to hit me and leave :AR15firin .

 

[marlinspike]

I had the driver's front fender, hood, and front half of the driver's door painted on my 20 year old metallic blue car (and all the other paint is original). The shop matched it perfectly (well, the passenger door is SERIOUSLY crazed, but even that you can't tell the match is off until you are about 6 inches away. The driver's side looks exactly the same no matter how close you get.

 

[itm69]

Regreting the "Brilliant" black

My first blk car & I've never had this many problems w/ paint b4. Picked up my 300c on Nov. 16, two weeks later I take my daughter to see Spongebob at the theater, parked away from the heavy traffic (walking) area and got a corner spot. Movie finishes, drive home, go to open the pass. door 4 my daughter and there it was...... a feakin key mark bout 15" long in the shape of a figure 8 down 2 the primer. I wanted 2 go back and beat the crap out of the first :AR15firin punk I saw. Tried everything, have 2 repaint, $350. Also got so many rock chips (like 8, but on black it shows more) on the hood, & I keep away from trucks big or small. Then I park my car inside my shop, leave 4 buisness and come back 2 find 3 more scratches on it, while it was parked. My 98 ws6 doesn't have that many scratches on it. What the heck is chrysler cutting corners on the paint or what? Starting 2 regret getting "brilliant" black.

Just wanted to share, thanx.