Car scratch repair

BuyersRemorse

I clumsily scratched my car in a parking lot and got quoted over £900 to get it fixed! I think it's because there's a few scratches across multiple panels and there's also a scuff on the doorhandle. See photo below. 

The car is about 10 years old (we're the second or third owner), and nothing special, so we aren't too bothered about a bit of cosmetic damage. I suppose it might affect resale value, but I doubt it would reduce it by more than the £900 cost of the repair. Does anyone have any experience with DIY repair - would we be able to fix the worst of it with some T-cut and a paint pen? The scratches don't look that deep to me. 

Isthisforreal99

Who quoted you that?

Have you asked a local 'SMART' repairer?

BuyersRemorse

Isthisforreal99 said:

Who quoted you that?

Have you asked a local 'SMART' repairer?

This was ChipsAway. I've requested a few other quotes as well but not heard back yet. One of them call themselves 'SMART'

MyRealNameToo

BuyersRemorse said:

I clumsily scratched my car in a parking lot and got quoted over £900 to get it fixed! I think it's because there's a few scratches across multiple panels and there's also a scuff on the doorhandle. See photo below. 

The car is about 10 years old (we're the second or third owner), and nothing special, so we aren't too bothered about a bit of cosmetic damage. I suppose it might affect resale value, but I doubt it would reduce it by more than the £900 cost of the repair. Does anyone have any experience with DIY repair - would we be able to fix the worst of it with some T-cut and a paint pen? The scratches don't look that deep to me. 

Cost of repairs is almost always more than the impact on resale because people underestimate the effort.

You should be able to a mobile smart repairers to quote less, quality won't be that of a proper respray but notably better than DIY

Mildly_Miffed

Most of that will clean off - and then I just wouldn't bother doing anything about what's left.

If you were THAT bothered about minor cosmetics, you'd have replaced the centre cap on the rear wheel...

Desmond_Hume

Difficult to tell if there are dents and scores but, most of that will probably buff out. Get a local detailer to quote a machine polish. But if you really don’t care, why do anything at all. 

BuyersRemorse

Mildly_Miffed said:

If you were THAT bothered about minor cosmetics, you'd have replaced the centre cap on the rear wheel...

Fair point. Certainly not bothered enough to pay £900, but willing to have a go myself with £15 worth of scratch remover and paint pen. 

nakie999

If the scratches aren’t too deep, a T-cut and touch-up paint pen can make them much less noticeable. £900 sounds like a full respray, which might be overkill for a 10-year-old car.

UnsureAboutthis

looks like soiid paint, so it should be easy with a t-cut type of cream

If it were my car, I'd try to cut on bit, by bit approach but have a look at a video first.

I do not have a machine to polish something like that, and videos will always use a machine, so try hand buffing
Let me know how you got on and IMO, it should look miles better.

sheslookinhot

nakie999 said:

If the scratches aren’t too deep, a T-cut and touch-up paint pen can make them much less noticeable. £900 sounds like a full respray, which might be overkill for a 10-year-old car.

£900 is nothing like the cost of a full respray, unless it’s a brush and a tin of Dulux.

BuyersRemorse

UnsureAboutthis said:

looks like soiid paint, so it should be easy with a t-cut type of cream

If it were my car, I'd try to cut on bit, by bit approach but have a look at a video first.

I do not have a machine to polish something like that, and videos will always use a machine, so try hand buffing
Let me know how you got on and IMO, it should look miles better.

Thanks! I will try this after Christmas and let you know