help!! I scratched the whole roof!!

[aliborden]

So I just got my mini a month ago and LOVE it but I drove it out of my
garage this morning and the iron gate closed on the top, scraping the
length of the black roof--I could have died. I am so depressed I can't
believe it. Here I was, going to all the detaling sites and trying to
get all the right cloths and car wash stuff so as notto even put swirls
in the paint and now I have gouges.... is it ruined forever?

this is horrible!

I have never cared about a car before so I don't know much about this
but would guess that some of it will be able to be buffed out (is that
a good idea or will that just grind down the paint?) There are also
three gouges that have created a groove and clearly pushed below the
black paint color to the white underneath--it looks like a pretty deep
keying job--I can see a bit of what is probably fiberglass... Anyway,
I have no idea what to do or who to turn to or how much something like
this might cost. Do I go to the dealer and have them sand the whole
thing down and repaint the whole roof? (are we talking thousands of
dollars here?) Is there anyone else who I could trust to do it (I
live in LA)? The antenna also cracked off--looks like the chip will
need to be replaced and certainly the housing....

any help would be appreciated...
ali