Scratched car paint problem

mitac

Hi
My car has justed been keyed by some lovely person leaving a 1m scratch acroos rear of car?

does anybody know of any thing that can reduce the scrtach cheaply?


mitac:mad:

C_Ronaldo

theres some real **** around, i did buy a paint kit from halfords and you could use it to mask over any scratches, there were different colours, try there

Nytehawk

This has recently happened to me and it p*** me off. Mer have a package called Scratch and chip repair kit. I was a bit sceptical at first but I have to hold my hands up and say it works. It comes in a complete package for doing the whole job. The video within the package is very specific and guides you through every move that you make to make the repair right. YOU HAVE TO FOLLOWIT TO THE LETTER. Lokk on https://www.merproducts.com for the info but I bought mine in Halfords (had a good look at it first) for just £19.99. It worked for me otherwise I would say different. Good luck

rfeenie

Buy the touch up paint from halfords ( £7 if non metallic, £10 if metallic paint).
Apply a few thin layers over your scratch and leave it to dry for 2 weeks.
Then get some fine wet and dry grit paper and sand down the touch up paint. once you have that level apply some 't-cut'

you can get both the wet and dry and the 't-cut' ( called paint restorer) from Poundland.

vansboy

Find a local body repair garage & ask if it can be polished out (they'll use a machine polisher & cutting compound, so better results than doing by hand)

It'll be £20 well spent & hopefully avoid the damage you'll more than likely do, by touching up, yourself!

VB

the_devil_made_me_do_it

Here is a great website. Gives you excellent tips on what to do/how best to repair scratches, stone chips ect..

It strongly advises against buying a Halfords scratch repair kit. It says the brushes are too wide. It recommends using a size 1 brush, not using primer if the scratch isn't down to the metal and if you choose a spray can of paint, spraying a small amount into a plastic cup, and accessing the paint from there.

I've tried their methods and they work!! Also, it recommends using a coloured wax if you have a lot of stone chips. This way, you don't end up with a messy paint job, and the chips are hidden and protected by the wax.

I think chip away, or body repair centre can charge a fortune. Just recently, my mam's partner had a scratch repair on his car, and it cost him £200. I bought the paint, the brush and the wax from ebay, and it cost me around £10, and a little bit of my own time.

https://www.clean-image.co.uk click on articles on the left hand side, and scroll down the page until you come to stone chip and scratch repair advice. There is some other great articles on that webby too. Hope it helps

mitac

Hi
many thanks for the advice, saw product in sunday newspaper sent off for it will let you know,


once agian many thanks to all that replied

mitac:beer: :beer:

Clean_Image

Hello chaps,

I'm Danny the web stig and I wrote the afore mentioned article over at clean-image.co.uk

I'm glad you liked the article, it seems to be one of the most popular, so key scratches are obviously a very common problem... so it's something I have been doing a lot of work on over the last few months, and trying new stonechip systems -- So I hope to have some good news and will be able to update the article soon.

Anyway, first reason I signed up here to post here is to make a slight correction: I wouldn't advise against Halfords touch up kit, it's just that the brushes on most kits can be a bit of a struggle, either too thick or too thin. And I don't recommend touching in everyday small stone chips with primer, then with paint, then with lacquer... you'll end up in a terrible mess... if you have one big stone chip, then yes, but if you are trying to do several dozen tiny ones it's just not practical. Nor is trying to scrub them out with the wire brush they supply. Otherwise Halfords are great!

However, this particular forum thread is not about stone chips, it's about key scratches which is a whole other kettle of fish I'm afraid, and my advice about them may go against the grain. You see, most people expect a few stone chips, its normal wear and tear no matter how you drive, 'Death, taxes and stone chips', and it makes no difference if they are touched in by an expert or by yourselves as long as it's done, it helps prevent rust and stops them standing out so much. But nobody is going to go to view a car and think that a metre long key scratch is normal wear and tear. So the result is that this damage will seriously effect the resale value of the car.

I'll give you three examples of key scratches I have seen this week.
Today I saw a customer who had a 5 year old Audi, he was going to sell it but found that they really aren't worth much second hand, and as it was a good car he had decided to "Hang on to it until he had run it into the ground", but still he wanted the car tidied up as it was his company car and wanted to portray the right corporate image. This had a key scratch all down one side, I advised that we could buff much of it out, and touch the rest in.
I should add that this scratch was fairly low down and not right in your eye view. And it was a dark coloured car, if it had been silver, forget it.

Yesterday I saw a 6 year old Mercedes sports car, which we are actually having independantly valued before and after to ensure the customer gets his money's worth. It had three scratches on the roof. I advised having the whole roof repainted (and refered the customer to a local bodyshop). That may seem drastic, but being a 2 seater the roof was a fairly small area, the colour of the car meant it showed really badly, and most of all, it was just worth doing! The scratch would devalue the car by at least £500, a new paint job would be a lot less, and the car will be easier to sell in pristine condition.

The third car I saw this week (Ford Focus) was going back to the lease company. The key scratch was longer than allowed under the 'fair wear and tear' agreement, touching it in would not be 'an acceptable repair' under that agreement, and having the panel repainted would be cheaper than the penalty recharge.

So you see, the options for dealing with a key scratch are very much dependant on curcumstance... but I'm sure you will agree, in each case I advised the customers with a view to saving money in the long run.

If you are lucky, the scratch isn't deep and a valeting company that does paintwork correction will be able to buff it out. The next best thing is if it is area that will take a S.M.A.R.T repair (Small Medium Area Repair Technique) which you can probably have done for under £100.
But I'm afraid to say that in most cases, key scratches are on the larger area panels and will require a bodyshop repair. This will involve painting the whole panel, and in many cases, fading the paintwork out on the panel either side (this means that if you have a scratch on the drivers door, you would end up having the whole side of the car re-painted). Yes, this is a bit drastic, and no, it isn't cheap... but worth doing on the majority of cars brought to us. To do otherwise is false ecconomy.

Which just begs the question, how do you find a bodyshop which will carry out an acceptable level of repair at a reasonable price? Well... I have written an article about that on our website too if you care to look (I don't know if I'm allowed to link).

gazhawkins

cheapest solution is a wax crayon (preferably the same colour as the car).

Don't go down this route if the scratch is down to the bare metal.