Hit & Run Scuff Mark Repair: 2008 Honda Civic - Alabaster Silver Metallic

Marc08EX

Marc08EX

New member
Equipment:
Meguiar's G110v2
Meguiar's W67DA Backing Plate
Meguiar's M105 / LC Orange Pads
Meguiar's Ultimate Quik Detailer
Automotive 1000/2000 grit sand paper
IPA
OEM Honda Touch-up Paint
Toothpick


My good friend unfortunately got involved in a hit and run accident. He had to go to downtown for work during the week it happened. He chose to park in a car park building for safety purposes. When he left work to go home, he was greeted with this:

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It was actually worse at the time of the accident. The right side of the rear bumper was hanging down. Luckily, he was able to re-attached his rear bumper. The edge of his rear tail lights were damaged as well. I couldn't believe that someone would hit a car that bad and not even have the conscience to leave a note... I mean you hit someone's car and leave such damage?!?! That's just ridiculous. Sorry to sound so rude but I hope karma haunts him down and kicks his/her a$$!!! I hate people who have no respect for other people's property. Especially on something you truly care about.

Anyway enough about my rant. It's not even my car and this thread is not about the accident but on how the car was brought back to life. :)

I recently read this thread: Key Repair-Step by Step Procedure (Thanks for the guide Richy!!!)

Given how my friend's car got hit, I was inspired by the thread. I told my friend that i think I can repair the damage and I told him to come over.

When the car arrived, it was just a little dusty. I used Meguiar's Ultimate Quik Detailer to wipe off the dirt and grime from the paint. I saw that the damage had some paint transfer involved so I tried to remove that first. I used my G110v2 and M105 to remove the paint transfer damage and i was left with this:

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At this point, my friend was already ecstatic because there was some improvement made. The damage wasn't as bad as it was originally.

The next step was to try and apply the touch up paint. I used IPA to properly prep and clean the paint surface so that the paint can adhere to the bumper properly. What I did was to use a toothpick to apply the paint to the bumper scuffs. I made sure to try and apply the paint and leave it higher than the surrounding OEM paint. We left the car outside to let the paint cure for 4 hours. When we came back and inspected the touch up paint application, I was shocked to see the paint's level drop. The paint seems to have sunken into the bumper leaving us with a lower level to work with. At this point, I told my friend that we could apply another layer to the damaged areas and let it cure for another 4-5 hours. He didn't have time to do that and he was already satisfied with what he's seeing. Since I was given a go ahead, what I did was to wetsand the areas where the paint was applied and some scuff marks which M105 didn't take out. I wetsanded it first with 1000 grit followed by 2000 grit. After this, I polished the paint with M105 via my G110v2. Here are the results:

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Close-up of the touch up repair:

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I know it's not a perfect fix like the one Richy did but the owner was extremely satisfied with the outcome. He said he can live with that and now he doesn't really have to spend $700-800 to get his bumper fixed. I'm also happy with the outcome.

What do you guys think?
 
Great work. Much better than I would have thought you could do without replacing the bumper cover. Wow!
 
Yeah hit and run driver's are the worst. Sadly people like this exist everywhere! I think it looks like you did a great job!
 
that's a pretty good repair. much more subtle and doesn't draw attention. nice job. i also noticed when i use touch up paint that it "sink" into the paint.
 
Looks a lot better than before for sure. Looks like the offender was maybe driving a black vehicle seems a lot of what looked like scratches came off with the 105.
 
BTW next time you talk to your friend let him know that it's nornally a few day process to build up the paint. So over a period of a few visits you can build it up and do a better fix in the future.
 
BTW X2 if the tail lights weren't broke just scuffed you can polish those also with the 105.

BTW two messages sent here!!!! edit works too.
 
Thanks for the compliments everyone!!! I really appreciate the kind words.

@rzatch, the tailight actually cracked on the corner. You can see it in the 3rd picture posted. The owner just glued it in place to fix it temporarily.
 
Now i see it, that sucks they are quite pricy from the dealer. Maybe look for a second hand one from the the junk yard.
 
Great job! I've had my share of hit and runs on my personal vehicles.....sucks.
I have found for me, that it's better to do a quick fix like this. I replaced a full bumper cover at a hefty cost just to have it happen again. Sadly, I have a $500 deductible. As far as my customers, I do just the same as you did to the best of my abilities. I explain to them that it's only cosmetic and "Murphy's Law" will work against them again sometime down the road.
 
You did a nice job fixing most of the damage. If you had more time I'm sure you could have made it disappear.

I hate hit and run drivers. I've had it happen to me once or twice. A lady I work with hit a car at a party our company had and didn't feel bad about driving off. If I had heard when it happened or know who she hit insure would have turned her in. It's just wrong and inconsiderate
 
That's a great job! I scuffed my front driver side fender ever so lightly on a pole last year when I was parking. Wasn't as deep but took off paint nevertheless. Used the touch up paint but only used cleaner wax (hand applied) to try to level it down. Wish I had seen these types of threads before hand, but I don't know if I have the guts to wet sand :-P These types of threads give me hope though!
 
This is really well done and one of the few threads here that just invovlves using an orbital and touch up paint - very easy to follow and I'm going to post it with a link to here on a few of the Honda sites - very valuable thread!
 
Over on AG Richy did a very good write up on scratch repair. He has pretty much perfected it and explains the all the steps.
 
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