MINI COOPER :: North American Motoring

muggy · #1 07-14-2006, 01:47 PM

So recently someone apparently tried to steal both my front and back MINI emblems, and left small scratch marks, down to thru the paint, each scratch is roughly a centimeter or less in length.

Anyone know the best way to deal with these? The proper way to touch these up? Any and all advice is greatly appreciated.

**OctaneGuy** · #2 07-14-2006, 11:58 PM

Yeah if you've got metallic paint, and the scratches go through the clear, then hire a pro. Not me--I can't drive to Sunnyvale to fix some scratches. LOL.

Maybe you should take some pix and post them so we can see the extent of the damage.

Richard

Quote:

Originally Posted by muggy

So recently someone apparently tried to steal both my front and back MINI emblems, and left small scratch marks, down to thru the paint, each scratch is roughly a centimeter or less in length.

Anyone know the best way to deal with these? The proper way to touch these up? Any and all advice is greatly appreciated.

OCDGarage · #3 07-18-2006, 03:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by muggy

So recently someone apparently tried to steal both my front and back MINI emblems, and left small scratch marks, down to thru the paint, each scratch is roughly a centimeter or less in length.

Anyone know the best way to deal with these? The proper way to touch these up? Any and all advice is greatly appreciated.

If you post a good pic I can have a better idea of what the damage looks like. If you do that, I will be more than happy to write up a set of instructions on scratch removal and touch-up.

Brett @ OCD

muggy · #4 08-26-2006, 07:47 PM

but here they are.

All the scratches are like the first one, they cut thru everything until this manilla-yellowish layer.

It's almost rainy season! Save me OctaneGuy!

kenchan · #5 08-26-2006, 07:56 PM

^^ you sure they were going after your emblem???

they
missed completely...

muggy · #6 08-26-2006, 08:21 PM

Seriously, I know right?

It doesn't make sense any other way though, the scratches are only around the emblems. I wouldn't even have minded so much if they took them without scratching my car, but I guess some people don't have any idea what the hell they're doing.

**OctaneGuy** · #7 08-26-2006, 11:45 PM

I'm not sure what to make of it. They appear to be gouges in the paint. Not sure what the yellow part is. From the pix, they look like glue marks. Thief must have been high or something to have missed that many times. Have you been able to "clean" the marks at all?

Once the yellow stuff is removed--I doubt they use yellow primer--then you can proceed to use touch up paint. I haven't tried this product, but it's gotten some interesting feedback.

http://Touchup123.com

Another possibility is this
http://drcolorchip.com/touchup-paint.html

I haven't tried either product we've had some discussion on this over at my SCG site
http://www.showcargarage.com/forums/...read.php?t=410

muggy · #8 08-27-2006, 01:24 PM

They're definitely gouges, the scratches are a few mm's thick, the yellow just seems to be the undercoat or something, it was always yellow and after washing it looks the same. Perhaps my car was meant to be a LY...

Any advantage to using these products over MINI touch up? I figured I was gonna use the MINI touch up and scratch X it after.

Should I use this method or one of the other products?

**OctaneGuy** · #9 08-27-2006, 01:45 PM

These methods were developed to solve some of the shortcomings of touch up paint. When fixing lots of spots instead of getting evenly fixed paint, you get this measles looking fix especially with metallic paints which don't fix well due to the metallic flakes not distributing evenly. Often on dark metallics, you get these even darker touch up spots.

I haven't tried these products yet but I plan to test them soon.

Richard

Quote:

Originally Posted by muggy

Any advantage to using these products over MINI touch up? I figured I was gonna use the MINI touch up and scratch X it after.

Should I use this method or one of the other products?

**Detailers Paradise** · #10 08-30-2006, 12:10 PM

We've had good results with a touchup "pen" company called Autovisuals:

http://www.autovisuals.com/

In all of our testing, the color matches have been better than any others we've seen. Also, it tends to layer nicely. They also carry a clearcoat pen.

After using this touchup pen or any other styles/brands in a layering fashion, I recommend following with a light abrasive- gently and slowly.

We've had some great results with this product and process. Also, their customer service has been helpful (especially when we couldn't find a paint code in one case!).

-Heather