My new STI was vandalized, need advice

T

Tarik

New member
This is what happened to my 1 month old Subaru STI. I have scheduled to drop off the car on Monday to a reputable auto/body shop to have the fender repaired. This, unfortunately, involves spraying parts of the door, hood and front bumper to properly blend the new paint color.

Because I am extremely particular about my cars, and because I believe this repainting will yield good results but at the expense of the original "condition" of the car, I am posing the question to the professionals here if a minimally invasive method could fix this.

I believe the marks are extremely deep, some of them. The paint has been completely removed on some lines, but I've been told that an incredible detailer might be able to use touch up and detailing techniques to fix this.

I am not happy about having to repaint part of the car, and since this is isolated to one fender only, maybe someone here can help me restore this panel without having to involve other panels/traditional auto painting.

Thank you.

Tarik



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I don't have any experience in fixing panels/touch up work...



But, I'm sorry for what happened to you. That would really piss me off. The things that jealous people do...
 
Repaint. Sorry bro - but that'd be the best result. Sorry to see such cruelty happen to such a wonderful car. Good luck with repairs
 
Thanks guys.

It is so disheartening to have something like this happen. I'm so particular/careful with my vehicles-it just makes this even more painful.
 
Try and see if they will shoot just the fender and take there time getting the best possible color match. Blending the door and hood would be the best way but someone good enough could prolly make painting just the fender work out.
 
Jarreds said:
Try and see if they will shoot just the fender and take there time getting the best possible color match.
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I asked about doing that - he said it's impossible. Even if the car is so new, it's been in the sun and has been waxed, etc which makes factory color matching near impossible. Trust me, I'd rather just shoot the fender, but every body shop I talked to had the same solution, to blend it in to the rest of the car. Bummer.
 
Tarik said:
I asked about doing that - he said it's impossible. Even if the car is so new, it's been in the sun and has been waxed, etc which makes factory color matching near impossible. Trust me, I'd rather just shoot the fender, but every body shop I talked to had the same solution, to blend it in to the rest of the car. Bummer.
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thats utter ********, working in the autobody industry i can tell you right now you can easily blend that to match using the correct paint.
 
Spawne32 said:
thats utter ********, working in the autobody industry i can tell you right now you can easily blend that to match using the correct paint.
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Isn't that sort of a contradiction in terms? I mean, the whole point to a blend is to help hide any color mis-match.
 
If the color match is decent, just blending into the door would be best.

Forget the bumper; the color should be off from the rest of the car anyway.
 
Spawne32 said:
thats utter ********, working in the autobody industry i can tell you right now you can easily blend that to match using the correct paint.
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Yep, this can be done. I'd visit some more body shops. Even if it isn't a 100% match, its better than a blend, especially over a hood....
 
Sorry to see that, some people today are just crazy.... I have a silver metallic color similar to yours and the fender and drivers door were repainted with good results... So find a good body shop and bring the car in clean and nice and talk to the owner him self and I think they will do a good job..

That worked for me at least..
 
I can't tell by the year car you have, but have you considered looking for a fender at the junkyard? You may have some good luck, with a car that rear ended, and could be the same colour as your car. Might be a bit of a long shot, but I think the paint would be very close.
 
Unless Stevie Wonder is painting, I don't see a need to blend into the hood. Avoid it like the plague. A repainted hood will be prone to tons of rock chips.



If they blend the bumper on this side, then it won't match the other. Sounds like this shops is trying to milk you unneeded cash!
 
B20teg said:
I can't tell by the year car you have, but have you considered looking for a fender at the junkyard? You may have some good luck, with a car that rear ended, and could be the same color as your car. Might be a bit of a long shot, but I think the paint would be very close.
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Worth looking, but the time (and money) is better spent towards repaint.



I have tried to touch up where someone keyed my mother's car, and it didn't come out very well. I had done some gouges on her bumper that came out good, considering you have to point it out now, but something about the the doors just didn't work for me.



If you do find an experienced detailer, it may not come out the way you want it (and will have spent some considerable amounts of money trying to get results you can easily get with repaint).



I would let the shop repaint, they are already doing something else, as you had mentioned earlier. You will be happier and not have to worry about the repair quality.
 
I hate repaints. Usually the quality and durability is not as good as the factory paint. I would hate the thought of having paint sprayed all over on top of perfectly good factory paint. Because if you blend then you'll have the hood, fender, and door repainted, because while they blend the color, they re clear the whole panel. Then you have to hope they do a damn good job or you'll be pissed.



Heres what I would do. Take the fender off the car and take just the fender to the best body shop in your area. By taking in just the fender you...reduce the cost, prevent overspray onto the rest of your car, eliminate the bodyshop from marring your paint when they mask it off and prevent possible damage to the rest of the car including the interior. I don't know about you but I am paranoid about leaving my car with someone else.



I think a good painter can get the paint to match good without blending into other panels. You'll have a gap between panels anyway. Or he can maybe just respray part of the fender with the color and blend within the fender and just reclear the whole thing.
 
I agree with the general consensus here. I don't get the point in blending other panels. Even if the paint is slightly off from the factory color, there's a panel gap to help the transition. Also the STI is only a month old. Factory color match should be very close if not perfect. I also hate the idea of painting over original factory paint. I'll talk to the shop again. It's Ultimate Coachworks in Culver City CA. They're known for work on exotics and the owner was extremely confident and knowledgable, but the process he proposed is not making me happy. I'll talk to him again about the one panel repaint. It's a new car. It shouldn't be so complicated.
 
The door NEEDS to be blended into. Make NO mistake about that.



Join here and get solid advice about painting: Auto Body Repair



If you want quality work that will last, you'll pay a lot more than the number

you might have in your head.



Apparently, there's lots of bad advice about painting on this forum; just as there

is bad advice about polishing on auto body forums...



*1 quart of color can be anywhere from $20 - $200+

*1 gallon of clear can be anywhere from $60 - $600+



Painting is a lot more involved than you know.
 
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