Help! Can this be...hell, can this be saved?

[MrFalcon]

Can anyone give me any guidance on what I can do here? My neighbors, nice as they are, opened their car door into my MINI

They've kind of dodged around the "do you have insurance" question, and are willing to pay what they can to get this replaced, but I'm willing to guess they aren't ready to fork up to get the whole panel repainted. It looks like its down to primer/metal in a few spots...think the rest can be buffed out? What, and how, should I do?

I've seen a lot of bad touch up paint jobs on other cars,with big glops, and I don't really want that...are there detailers that do touch up paint too? Should I just get vinyl decals on both sides? lol

Help!!!

[OctaneGuy]

Ouch, this is OT, but very nicely focused image with lots of detail, thank you!

They don't by chance have a white car do they??

That looks pretty bad and considering you have a metallic paint, you won't want to touch it up because you will always see the repair. The metallic flakes won't blend in properly. The best scenario is a repaint on that rear quarter panel. Probably cost less then $500 to respray it, just a guess.

I was asking if they had a white car, because if those white scratches are paint transfer, then your chances of a more acceptable solution are greater and claying would the the first step to try. You might contact a professional detailer to see if they can do scratch repair. If it looks better after claying, then wetsanding and polishing may improve it, but no guarantees.

Richard

Originally Posted by MrFalcon

Can anyone give me any guidance on what I can do here? My neighbors, nice as they are, opened their car door into my MINI

They've kind of dodged around the "do you have insurance" question, and are willing to pay what they can to get this replaced, but I'm willing to guess they aren't ready to fork up to get the whole panel repainted. It looks like its down to primer/metal in a few spots...think the rest can be buffed out? What, and how, should I do?

I've seen a lot of bad touch up paint jobs on other cars,with big glops, and I don't really want that...are there detailers that do touch up paint too? Should I just get vinyl decals on both sides? lol

Help!!!

[Picus]

Well, I will just be realistic. For a detailer to fix that 100% is going to be very, very, very difficult. I've done hundreds of key mark touchups and I would decline to work on that mark unless the owner was aware that it would be better, but not perfect. The damage isn't consistent in depth, and a lot of it is not straight lines, both of which make the job harder. There is just too much going on to add paint uniformly, sand it down and not get divots, then compound and have the flake/color all lineup right.

Now you could have it blown in, but again, with metallic paint it's going to be extremely hard to match the metallic flake correctly, as well as the orange peel on the panel.

Others may have different options, but aside from a re-spray or vinyl, I think it will be almost impossible to fix that to your satisfaction. If you do do a vinyl touch it up beforehand to make sure there is no exposed metal. Personally, as much as I like my neighbors I would ask for them to pay to re-spray the panel.

Edit: looks like Octane Guy and I responded at the same time. I agree entirely with him.

[Modnar]

Ouch. If they're going to pay for it I'd get it done right and get the panel repainted. Though there might not be much chance of that actually happening. Here's hoping that's just some paint from their door.

How'd they manage to pull this off? Are you in an apartment complex w/ a parking lot?

[ajakeski]

By looking at it, if you brought it to me it would be about $750. First fix the dent. Prime the panel and then paint it. The paint would have to be blent out so you don't end up with a dead edge match issue. Then the whole quarter panel would be clear coated. All the trim would be removed and re-installed also.
Body work is time consuming and materials are expensive.
Like anything, you get what you pay for.

[MrFalcon]

Thanks for all the info and suggestions guys. Sorry if this was OT, but I figured if there was a place on the boards that could tell me if I could clean this up and find salvation, it would be the Detailing Board

It **is** from a white car, so I'm hoping that might make a difference somehow...but I think I'm resigned to getting the whole panel done...maybe?

[OctaneGuy]

This is why I asked if it was a white car. Those scrapes you see are paint transfer--from the white door. It makes the scrape look dramatically worse that it is. Here's a repair I did at one of my Saturday classes.



After claying, it looked much better


Starting to wetsand


Ok, and after buffing, this is what it looked like. Not perfect, but much improved. The deepest grooves are still visible. The owner was happy. No paint was applied--these were completely using paint removal techniques. Will you be satisfied? I doubt it. But you can see the type of improvement.



Here is another repair example



Clayed


Wet sanded & Polished


Good luck.

Richard

Originally Posted by MrFalcon

Thanks for all the info and suggestions guys. Sorry if this was OT, but I figured if there was a place on the boards that could tell me if I could clean this up and find salvation, it would be the Detailing Board

It **is** from a white car, so I'm hoping that might make a difference somehow...but I think I'm resigned to getting the whole panel done...maybe?

[Yucca Patrol]

Considering that it is in an area of the car that driver's look at the least, and hoping that there is more white paint transfer than gouged paint, you might get good results from a detailing approach. It won't be perfect but it might not really be all that noticeable.

I would follow the best advice of the detailing folks here and clean it up the best you can. Maybe you can get by with detailing and just a little touch up paint? Worth a shot before spending a lot of your neighbor's $$$

I have two dings on the passenger door. If they were on my door, I'd probably have fixed them 2 years ago, but my time and sanity are worth more to me than two little dings.

But if you are the type that demands it must be perfect, then it will be an expensive fix.

Maybe it depends on how you personally balance how much you like your neighbors with how much you want your car to look perfect.

[Yucca Patrol]

Very nice work, Richard!

[kenchan]

my legacy's rear bumper got bumped while my wife was using it
and looked pretty bad. like a softball sized circle on corner.

as richard, i used polish and some light wet sand to get most of the
scratches out, then pointed my high wattage light at the bumper to
expose the deep scratches. took some touch up paint and carefully
filled the exposed primer line by line.

i got it to the point i can't tell there was a scratch on the bumper
in the sun. unless i was right up against the bumper
looking for it. not bad for $10.

[MLPearson79]

I had white paint transfer on my old black car. Clay took a lot of it off and the rest polished out and it looked good as new. Took maybe two hours and $3 worth of detailing product.

[lotsie]

Richard, you do great work Ken, you let us all know we can do-it-yourself

Mark

[davavd]

In the above references to wet-sanding, what grits are you guys using? I've done plenty of wet-sanding, but never on cars.

[OctaneGuy]

thanks Lotsie for the kind words.

re: sanding grits
Depending on the severity of the scratches and depth of the clearcoat, i might use 2000 or 2500 Unigrit. Then I will finish with 3000 before polishing.

Wetsanding paint is not hard but the risks are high because the amount of paint to work with is thinner than a sheet of paper and the difference between one stroke too many is the difference between success and failure.

[Picus]

Originally Posted by davavd

In the above references to wet-sanding, what grits are you guys using? I've done plenty of wet-sanding, but never on cars.

Same as Richard - 2000/2500 to sand, and 3000 to finish. Sometimes I go right to 3000. The Meg's unigrit blocks are invaluable.