As some of you may have read... my car got keyed last night.. probably by some punkass kids trying to be cool or tough.. either way... i'd really like to know what my options are. the scratch is not THAT deep.. you can barely feel it when you run your finger over it. it looks like it's through the clear coat.. but that's about as far as it got.

it was keyed from the rear quarter, along the door accros the fender.... it was done basically along the body lin eof the car.. where it curves so it's somewhat difficult to see unless you are standing quite close..

i tried to use scratchX on it.. it's definately too deep for that (at least i know now)..

i really don't think i can bring myself to entirely repaint ALL THREE body panels... just imaginging the cost of that.. when the car i sonly 1 month old..

is it possible to only repaint the damaged areas?or does the entire panel have to be repainted?

I think i'm going to bring it to a detailer first to see if it is possible to color/wet sand it and then polish it out... i'm afraid it might be too deep for that too though. I don't really know what is considered deep though.. so it's hard for me to say.

I don't konw the first thing about body work so any advice would be appreciated..

 

i've also heard of one guy doing it himself.. i believe it was kyosho..


and i stumbled accross this post by kenchan..

i dont know how good that would turn out or if i would be bold enough to do that down the entire length of the car...

again.. any insight/advice would be GREATLY apprecaited.

Thanks in advance!

 

try the touch up paint you get with the car?

 

...if you haven't seen this FAQ/How-to take a look...

http://autopia-carcare.com/paintclinic.html <---oh and you gotta scroll down some to the paint chips section

...I would recommend you to try this only if your patient since if its your first time it might take you a few tries... or maybe you might have a knack for these kind of things... I had a scratch about, I guess 2 feet long down through the paint on my rear bumper... results weren't to my satisfaction till the 3rd try... you wouldn't even know I had that scratch now... (now if I could only have the ***** to try filling in that door ding that the paintless repair guys won't touch and then trying to blend in with the paint.. )

Anyways first just find the color code for your car and get the touch up paint from the dealer, or have a paint shop get you some.... then I found that using the hole punched pieces of sand paper super glued to the eraser on a #2 pencil a great way to do the sanding accurately. Otherwise from sanding... its not that hard..

....just take your time and try really really hard to get the sanding part down and the rest is easy... Good luck!!

 

wow.. i cannot imagine going through that process for the size of the scratch that i have... i don't think i would have that kind of patience to complete the entire task..

maybe i'll try it on a small area first and see how it turns out...

could a body shop do something similar like this for me??

 

i don't want to try touchup paint if it is not perfect.

the scratch is really fine.. i think they actually used a knife and not a key to do it..

and it's not that deep since i can hardly feel it when i rub my finger over it.. but my bigggest fear is that i'm going to screw it up if i try to put touch up paint.. especially since it's along the entire length of the car..

 

A body shop would surely do that for you, but it would probably cost you... say avg $36+/hr for say + supplies + prep work at $25+/hr maybe more maybe less just depends on the place you go. Maaco would fix it for $49.99 but then it would probably look like crap.

The touch up paint really depends on what color car you have... and since new paint might be a little off then the older paint. So its really just up to blending?

If its not past the paint then I think if you just use the scratch x or maybe some other polish then wax it might buff right out with a little work... guess it would help if you posted a picture? Oh well, my car's been through hell with people keying it and even kicking it ... damn disrespectful people....


...btw mod's shouldn't this be in the detail section?

 

Yeah.. i can't believe the amount of haters out there...

I tried scratch X already.. it's definately too deep for that it seems.. I imagine it would cost less for a body shop to fill it in for me than it would to repaint three entire panels.. and i would like to preserve as much of the original paint as possible to begin with though.. we all know repaint is never as good as factory paint.

the car is DG.. and it's only one month old.. I guess i'll just have to take it in to a shop to have them look at it and give me an estimate.

 

Here's something you can do. Get yourself some touch up paint, a really fine artist brush, some even use a piece of hair (yes your own will do), a few sheets of 2000 grit sandpaper (the really fine stuff), soft sanding block and or sponge, a good fine paint finishing compound (3M works best) and then a good polishing compound (once again 3M, ie; 3M hand glaze). Now what you want to do is very carefully fill in the scratches with the touch up paint. If you get a little outside on to the car, don't worry, but just try to keep it within the scratches to the best that you can. Let it dry fully! Do not rush it! If you can let it sit there a full 24Hrs, and if so possiblle in direct sunlight. Once dried, now get a bucket and fill it half way with water, adding one small drop of soap (for lubrication purposes). Mix it up a bit and drop the 2000 grit sand paper into it. Get your sanding block or sponge and take the wet sand paper and "wet sand" the surface of where the scratch is. You dont have to apply much pressure, but what you're looking to do is takke off the excess (infamous touch up bubble) touch up paint from the scratch and if any got on to the car. While doing so, be sure to dip the sand paper in and out of the bucket to keep it clean and the body surface wet. Once you feel the sctaches is "flat" and blends in with the factory paint, you can now dry off the area. Now don't be alarmed if you have this huge hazed up swirled area, its normal. You will now have to use your fine finishing compound to buff that away, and with some elbow work or even a wheel (not at high rpm though) you will able to buff the area smooth. In doing so be sure to avoid extreme pressure over where the scratch is. Once you get the haze away and it looks smooth, now its time to apply the glaze or polishing compound in the same manor either by hand or wheel. Once you get the whole area back to looking like new again, the scratch will still be there (outline) but depending on how well of a sanding and finishing job you did as well as how deep the scratch was to begin with, the end result could be 50 to 90% better! It wont ever be 100%, but it'll be much harder to see by the naked eye without someone pointing it out. I've used the technique many times and it works! Its easy, its cheap, and best of all you dont have to take your car anywhere and leave it with joe shmoe. Now, if you feel uncomfortable doing this (as it may not seem normal to sand your paint), then by all means leave it to a pro. If you're in the NYC tri-state area and would like help, I would be more than happy to give you a hand. Hope this helps...

 

You might try a detailer in your area. I had foot long scratch on my hood and they were able to wet sand it out perfectly. It was only $75 to fix. Yours may be more costly as yours spans three panels.

Sorry about your situation. Sucks.

 

thanks for all the advice.
I'm going to bring it to a detailer first to see what he can do

I think the scratch is all the way through the clearcoat though so i'm not sure if he's going to be able to work any magic there.. if he is unable to help, i'm gonna try to paint a small area myself.. and see how that turns out.. if it turns out good i'll try to do the entire area. if not i'll bring it to a shop worst case.

 

Anyone know a good detaler in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area experience with the wet-sanding procedure? I have a couple of 1" long scratches that are fairly deep.

eddie