delete

 

Just wanted to say not to stress. Deal with your Finals. That's your future. Your MINI will get fixed sooner or later. Don't let the idiots get you down.

 

Joanie is absolutely right. It's a car, and nothing more. Get your schooling straight, and all else will fall into place.

 

Wow... What low lifes.

I'm a Bruin too! Just curious, where did this happen?

 

Yep you've been keyed. Fortunately you are in luck. You're a short distance from me in Anaheim Hills and I can make this better without you having to fork over much dough. Keying normally requires repainting panels which is expensive, but I have a method that will result in a very good repair.

Give me a buzz when things settle down for you, and we should be able to get this fixed up for less than a Benjamin.

Richard

 

Richard does fantastic work, so certainly take him up on the offer!

That being said, as others have mentioned, just focus on the finals and then work on the car. Also, you can contact the security company for footage, so send an email to make sure you get it documented in a timely fashion, then drop it until the finals are over so that you don't drive yourself nuts.

It's sad people will actually do things like this. Best of luck with the finals and hope it works out.

 

I feel your pain. Some jerk hit my car in my school's parking lot the week before I took the first part of the CPA exam. So for the past two weeks, I've been dealing with insurance and the repair shop. Thankfully my deductible was only $250 but I also have very limited funds so I know exactly what you're going through. I just graduated from graduate school and I had not included a $250 deductible in my budget for this summer before I start work. The good news is that it doesn't look like it went through the paint, like mine did, so Richard should be able to help you. I've heard great things about his work on this forum. Good luck with the repair and with your finals!

 

You are so lucky that Richard is close by.
To reiterate what others have said, concentrate on school, then the car.
Go to Richard!

And be grateful that you aren't such a sad soul that would stoop to such nastiness.
Who acts like this and destroys others' valuable property?
Must suck to be like that.
Wouldn't want to live in that head all day and night.
Pitiful.

It's going to be fine.
It's fixable.

 

^^^^^ What Little Wing said!

 

It looks like the jerk didn't press hard enough to get down to base metal... at least that's a good thing.

Richard (Octane Guy) knows his stuff. Take care of your finals, work an extra shift and go see him. Don't wait too long (do it before winter) as this type of thing can promote rust.

 

What everyone else said, and, call your insurance agent and talk to them. Sometimes there are different deductibles for different types of damage, like vandalism. Does not hurt to ask. Also tell them you are looking at having it taken care of on the less expensive side by going to a reputable auto detailing business. They might be reasonable and help you out, or not and do nothing, but if you make the call and nothing pans out you are only out the time it took to make the call. Good luck on your finals.

 

Hey OctaneGuy,
I too today had some jerk scratch my car. It happened while driving. He was driving like crazy and decided that it was okay to get on the yellow lined center divider and pass me. He threw some wood chips and fortunately only one wood chip caused damage. It left two deep but small scratches on the rear driver's side panel near the wheel arch. I'm wondering if you could please help me out with getting it fixed. Thanks.
Kavin

 

Sorry to hear that. I'm at the shop Tues to Saturday. Give me a call so I can evaluate the problem.

Richard

 

how about some b4 and after pics

You say you can fix these

but how do we know?

and why don't you mention the amount charged too . . .

 

Hey guys
Thanks for responding. Just yesterday I noticed while looking at the damage that the underside of one of the driver's side bolsters is cracked. So today I took the Mini in to get the seat fixed, also a few other issues. I'll post pictures as soon as I get it back. Thinking about it I'm grateful the damage is really nothing major. Mknawabi's situation is unfortunate and unfair in comparison. It drives me mad when people vandalize other people's property. Thanks for all the support, I'll keep you all posted.
Kavin

 

As soon as the poster brings me their car, I can take pix and show you, but that hasn't happened for either one yet. Since you are questioning my ability to repair paint, I guess I'll show you some pix of other jobs.

Prices charged are always based on the amount of work needed but most of the time touchups are between $25-$75, and sometimes its even for free in certain cases.

Touchup is an art though few view it that way. If a white primered or metal baring chip is colored in and not visible from a few feet away, that's good enough for most people, especially when you compare that to the cost of repainting the panel. Repairing key scratches is even more difficult, especially on metallics. But the Applied Colors method enables the impossible to be achieved.

I make it perfectly clear what the customer can expect and that it won't be as good as respraying but it will likely be close enough. I did many repairs at AMVIV, and everyone was pleased, but I know I can do even better. I have an even better method to match paint now that would have been useful at AMVIV but the extreme heat 110+ degree dry weather made mixing paint difficult, even with reducers.

My latest method involves the use of lasers...but that will remain a secret.

Ok here are some pix from the last several months. There was a chip on the crease line in the center of this M3. From this distance it's pretty much invisible.


Looking closer it's still hard to see


Do you see it yet?


How about now?


Ok it's plain as day from this distance


Here is another repair on silver paint, one of the most difficult due to the metallic flakes. The job was acceptable and otherwise made an impossible repair doable for $50.



Filled in with putty (necessary on the deepest of scratches)


Excess putty removed


Paint applied and from a similar distance as the first picture, the scratch is very hard to see.




These results are pretty good and they are getting better all the time with new techniques I've developed..pushing the envelope farther than anyone cares to.

Richard

 

Richard is seriously one of the best guys I've dealt with so far. He really takes care of his customers. Offers really good advice and knows what he's doing. Really sorry about the scratch dude. Get it to Richard when you have the funds available.

 

Revisiting this thread again. My friend's MINI got keyed this morning. The scratch is pretty deep and it's pretty bad. Is there any other recommended solutions other than driving the car from Boston to West Coast to see Richard?

 

Thanks for the kind words!!! I took care of another customer today with his MINI. I met him from MTTS and they were from NorCal. He had many small rock chips on his BRG MCS and on his roof. I took care of them and gave it a thorough wash plus a little polish on the bonnet to remove some water spots. He was VERY pleased! Pix coming.

Send an email to the Applied Colors and see if he has any customers near you. This is really the best method for repairing scratches next to respraying.

Richard

 

Had this 2006 BRG MCS in the shop yesterday. The owner knows me from AMVIV 2012 and MTTS 2012. The paint looks great but the owner was greatly bothered by many chips and wasn't sure if respraying was the only solution.



The first thing to do was give it a thorough bath.


While I was at it, I removed wax residue using Pre-Wow.


Also used Sonax to clean the wheels...remember the car was in for some touchup repair...not for a makeover, lol.


After the bath, the chips were inspected and cleaned with a Wax & Grease remover.

Here are some of the chips


Closer up













Posting pictures of touchup repair is sort of pointless. The point of touchup is to make it invisible from a distance. In the first pictures, you can't see the chips. After the repairs, you couldn't see the touchedup areas. In fact, the roof had two chips which I repaired and the owner could not find them to point them out to me. I tried to point them out, but also couldn't find them, but when I did find it, I quickly lost it again, lol.

Instead here is a work in progress chip on the front bumper/trim. Although this was being replaced with an aerokit bumper, I went ahead and did some tests on it for color matching. The upper half is being repaired.



The process was use the color chip index to find the closest color match, and mix it until it matches. Each chip was cleaned with a wax & grease remover. The paint was mixed with a clearcoat as well. Using a microbrush, the paint was applied several times to cover up each chip. After about 15 minutes, the excess paint was leveled and removed leaving just the filled in chips. From both a color standpoint and reflective standpoint, the chips were invisible. If you view the paint from inches away, the chips can still be seen however. Coloring the chips in is easy, but keeping the blobs from being seen on a highly reflective surface is the hard part. Any amount of paint will be seen as a dot of paint. The picture below includes all of the painted/retouched areas. Hard to see any chips which is good because you don't want to be able to see them. =)

 

My car is the 2006 BRG / W MINI that is featured above.
So the answer to your question is yes, he can fix chips and other imperfections.

The amount charged was, in all honesty, not enough for the work that was done.
Richard gave me a break in pricing, $95.00 total, as he said it wasn't quite perfect.

You could have fooled me!