Pretty good scratches this weekend...

[Atticus]

So I ended up with a boo boo this weekend. Some pretty good scratches and a little dent. I already tried to use Nu Finish scratch removal. It got some of the tiny ones out, but as you can see there are a lot left... Granted I didn't use a buffer and was just rubbing like normal.

I would rather not have to take it to a body shop, but if I have to what kind of damage am I looking at? I'm also contemplating buying a buffer but I don't wanna eff the paint up more than it is.

Any suggestions??

Thanks in advance.

 

[THEDK]

Can you catch the scratches with your fingernail? If so, they are through the clear and a buffer won't help those particular ones.

If you do want to use a buffer, something like a porter cable 7424 with a medium pad (white) and Meguiars 105 followed by 205 is very gentle. I'd ROUGHLY guess, 50% reduction with that.

That's the combo I use for light correction on toyota paint.

You need to be careful with the paint near the edges though, very thin.

 

[Atticus]

What do you mean by 50% reduction?

 

[THEDK]

What do you mean by 50% reduction?

50% of those are probably shallow enough you can reduce the clearcoat to the point where they are practically invisible.

 

[Jeremy556]

Just add brush scratches to both sides :thumb3:

 

[jrandom]

Bet that dent will pop back out no problem (its is on the door right? kinda hard to tell from the angle/lighting) as long as the sheet metal isn't creased too bad. Try pushing it out by hand from the inside.

EDIT: or is it on the lower left just before the trim? You might not be able to get that from the inside.

 

[Atticus]

It's on the lower left before the trim. I can feel the scratches with my fingernail, but it doesn't really catch on them like a deeper scratch would.

 

[Titanpat57]

Wow...

Buff, buff, buff..

 

[THEDK]

It's on the lower left before the trim. I can feel the scratches with my fingernail, but it doesn't really catch on them like a deeper scratch would.

Probably through the clearcoat then. You can still reduce the appearance using a mild compound and a random orbital buffer like the combination I suggested above.

Even though you can't remove them entirely, the buffer will round the edges near the scratches and make them less likely to catch light.

 

[scanny]

When I got my first scratches form tree branches I manually buffed them off with Meguiar's Scratch X. Worked quite well, but involves some work. Judging by the picture Scratch X should work for you, at least it won't make it look worse.
But then I went to another trip and got some more pinstripping, was going to buff them off but another trips was coming.... In other words I don't bother anymore. Maybe I'll try to buff them off before winter.

 

[Atticus]

Well I took it to the body shop and got a quote. Said to fix it would be just over 1000. To get a door skin would be almost 1300. Opinions?

 

[Cheers!]

go get another quote from other body shops. If you were claiming insurance 1000 sounds about right.

Find a smaller family run body shop. Not a huge 10+ bay body shop.

 

[Atticus]

That's actually what this one was. Guy works by himself and pulled up his program with me standing there. But I will shop around too of course. Was pretty bummed they wouldn't buff out.