Help! Husband drops glass door onto side of car!

TSXWench

TSXWench

New member
Prior to now I had been the proud owner of a pristine TSX with not a scratch on it - until my husband, while dismanteling a cabinet in the garage, dropped one of the glass doors which fell across the door of my car creating a three inch long scratch. I figured, well I can probably fix this myself, I have all the tools. Hmmm. I cleaned it with alcohol/water mix and started applying layers of touch up paint. When the paint was above the level of the scratch I began leveling it with 3000 grit wetsanding paper. I was having a tough time getting the paint level and I was afraid to keep sanding. I began rubbing the scratch with the compound that I had got from paintscratch.com and the scratch improved as the excess paint was removed. I also tried some sonus gray clay.

Unfortunately, now I seem to have a dark, hazy area surrounding the scratch and I think I have ruined my clearcoat.

I'm afraid to hit it with my PC and polish in case it gets worse, but I think now I will be taking it to the body shop to see what they can do.

I tried taking a picture but it really does not show up very well and the car is silver.

This has been a very sad day.
 
It's possible the compound by hand wasn't enough to remove the marring from the sandpaper. If you have clear coat failure you will likely need a repaint anyway, so if it were me I'd hit it with the PC and see how it goes. The reason I say this is that it sounds like you did not sand aggressively, so it is pretty unlikely you went through the clear. Just my $0.02. Good luck!
 
Thanks for the response. I did notice marring after the sanding and was able to remove it easily with the compound. The hazy dark area showed up after I hit the scratch with the compound by hand. Can hand rubbing with compound remove clearcoat? I would have not thought this possible. I will try hitting it with the PC since I have nothing to lose. Do you think the whole door will have to be repainted? I am so anal about my car that I want it to look like new. Sometimes I hate loving my car so much :cry: Oh, and in case you were wondering, I decided not to divorce my husband. :argue .....yet.
 
TSXwench,



Since you’re local here in OC Meguiar’s is in your backyard. They’ve been doing a thing they call “Wednesday Night Open Garage� over the summer. The idea is to give people an opportunity to try out detailing techniques (and Meg’s products) on their cars with the help of Meg’s staff.



The sessions are free and open to anyone who joins Meguiar’s online forum.



They haven’t announced one yet for this Wednesday but I’m guessing they probably will tomorrow. There isn’t much summer left and it’s likely they’ll only do one, maybe two more for the season so if they announce one it’s worth jumping in quick.





PC.
 
Is hazing the clearcoat irreversible? And in the event that I need the door repainted, refresh my memory, is it OK to apply sealant, just not wax for 90 days? I forgot what the rules are? I'm still in shock.
 
All you have to do to get rid of haze is hit the area with a lighter polish like Menzerna Final Polish II or Optimum Polish.
 
I guess I will try a 4 inch LC green pad with OP. I just wish I knew whether I'm making it worse or not. Everything was going OK until I used the compound by hand to smooth out the TU paint. Can you really rub through the clearcoat by hand? It would not think it possible. I thought only rotarys did bad things like this.
 
TSXwench said:
Thanks for the response. I did notice marring after the sanding and was able to remove it easily with the compound. The hazy dark area showed up after I hit the scratch with the compound by hand. Can hand rubbing with compound remove clearcoat? I would have not thought this possible. I will try hitting it with the PC since I have nothing to lose. Do you think the whole door will have to be repainted? I am so anal about my car that I want it to look like new. Sometimes I hate loving my car so much :cry: Oh, and in case you were wondering, I decided not to divorce my husband. :argue .....yet.
Click to expand...





If you decide to divorce him, Im ready to propose. You sound like a woman after my own heart :)
 
Yes, it’s possible to rub through clearcoat by hand eventually. Ordinarily I’d say it would be quite difficult and highly unlikely. But you were sanding on the finish before hand. If you sanded almost all the way thorough the clear then it wouldn’t take much compounding to finish it off.



But that’s the worst case. Since your were using #3000 paper I think that it’s more likely that either Picus is right, and you simply didn’t remove all the sanding scratch, or that the remaining hazing is from the compound or both.



Either way, as long as you have enough film build left you should be able to remove the residual marring.





PC.
 
TSXwench said:
.. is it OK to apply sealant, just not wax for 90 days? I forgot what the rules are? ...
Click to expand...
Avoid waxes and sealants. They’re designed to act as a barrier and will interfere with outgassing and curing.





PC.
 
TSXwench said:
I am so anal about my car that I want it to look like new. Sometimes I hate loving my car so much :cry:
Click to expand...

I hear ya on that. That is the reason why I'm selling my Honda... hit and runs in parking lots happen way too much to me, even when I park by myself it still happens! 3 times in the year I've had it and twice in the last two months... Time for me to get a POS at least until I go out on my own. That and car payments suck. lol
 
Thanks for all your responses. I think I'm going to drop it by the body shop and see what they say. I'm really leery about doing anything more to it. I couldn't even sleep last night. It's so ironic, I have been so careful about where I park, not driving behind trucks (although I have a clear bra), obsessively detailing, etc. and the first major insult happens in my own garage :hairpull: BTW, does anyone one know what a repaint on a TSX rear door runs?
 
I'd really give a light polish a try before repainting. If by some chance you're through the clear and need a repaint a little more polishing won't change that anyway. I really do think it is unlikely that 3000 grit used cautiously and some by hand rubbing compound got through the clear.



As for the repaint, a cheap one can go as low as $200, a good one as high as $600. Remember the questions you want to ask before you let them paint (if you go that route). Do they use a downdraft booth? Do they remove the panel or do a mask job? Do they bake?
 
I might suggest looking into the regional forum and having a more experienced autopian take a look at it before you try a body shop. I also find it hard to believe that you went all the way through the clear with just some 3000 grit and compound by hand.
 
I called one of the local Acura dealers to see which shop they send their customers to and they mentioned Tustin Body Works. Since I work in the area, I dropped by during my lunch hour and got an estimate. He took one look at it and said the door needed repainting. There is also a slight crease/dent where the scratch is that is very hard to see but may be why I was having so much trouble getting the TU paint leveled. Anyway the estimate came to $482. I told my husband to get ready to open his wallet. :bat

BTW, if I do go the repaint route, I will probably take it to Anaheim Hills Body shop, they are closer to me.
 
Ohh no...I still reccomend you just find a local autoian.



There is no way the damage is this bad too need a $482 repair. I recall Sean's thread a while back where a guys kid went at the hood with a steel shovel and sean was able to fix the hood. Im sure this is repairable by a *good* detailer. For some reason I have a feeling this repaint is not going to make you happy. :nixweiss
 
Well, you may need a repaint, but I wouldn't consider a body shop estimator telling you that to be conclusive evidence. I took a sideswipe mark from another car out of a friend's car in about 20 minutes...that was also about a $500 bodyshop estimate.
 
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