Some jerk hit my wife's car . . .

B

ben54

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and left.



Before I go nuts and have the entire bumper cover repainted for this scratch, thought I would try to make it much less noticeable by using touch up paint. Just wondering what the process should be. Considering the following steps:



1. Prep with DACP

2. Apply paint

3. Wet sand

4. Polish to remove sanding marks

5. Apply sealant.



Never done this before so any advice is greatly welcomed. Not sure how long I need to wait before I can wet sand, and not sure what grit of sandpaper I should use.
 

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Hi ben54,



I'm sorry to hear about your wife's car. My wife's car was hit recently and it looked just like your pic. I am contemplating to have the whole bumper repainted or to just live with it. But knowing me, I will have it repainted.



I feel your pain. :sosad



With Aloha,

Ranney :)
 
If you decide to go the repaint route, I'd strongly encourage you to contact one of the spot area painters like Color-On-Parade, and not have the full bumper repainted. The small repairs are far less noticable then whole panel repaints are.
 
I've used Mother's scratch kit (Langka-based) on several cars, including my previous car. Definitely try the touch-up + Langka route before doing any sanding. Some tips:



1) Clean surface, and remove any polish/wax with 50/50 alcohol/water.

2) Apply touch-up paint with a toothpick or something similar

3) Let it dry for a while...30 min or so (other ppl may have different opinions)

4) level the blob with Langka, following the instructions

5) let it dry for a day or two

6) repeat steps 2-5 until the scratch is filled in.



Be patient, it can take a while if the scratch is deep. Btw, Langka works great on scuff marks too :)
 
ben54, sorry about your wife's car. Somebody hit me in a parking lot several months ago, left a note on my windshield that was pure 'scribble' (I guess they did that in case anyone was watching them). They also left a $1500 gash in my rear quarter panel...................

I have used Langka on much smaller scratches. It works pretty good.
 
gnahc79 said:
I've used Mother's scratch kit (Langka-based) on several cars, including my previous car. Definitely try the touch-up + Langka route before doing any sanding. Some tips:



1) Clean surface, and remove any polish/wax with 50/50 alcohol/water.

2) Apply touch-up paint with a toothpick or something similar

3) Let it dry for a while...30 min or so (other ppl may have different opinions)

4) level the blob with Langka, following the instructions

5) let it dry for a day or two

6) repeat steps 2-5 until the scratch is filled in.



Be patient, it can take a while if the scratch is deep. Btw, Langka works great on scuff marks too :)
Click to expand...



Sorry to question this, but if you are filling the scratch in with a toothpick why are you bothering to langka the paint. You can't level what's below the level of the other surface (presuming you do this in several thin layers). Only once the level of the repair is above the level of the other paint does the langka need to be used.



If you get what I mean.
 
Thanks for the ideas. I have a Color on Parade franchisee in my area so I may just give him a call. A friend used him on his car and said the guy did a good job. I may also get the Langka because it sounds interesting.
 
Mindflux, no biggie :).



Depending on the width of the scratch it's pretty tough to fill in the scratch so that no touch-up paint exists above the surface of the existing paint. I've tried to do this and always end up not filling in enough. To be sure the entire scratch is filled in I use a toothpick and apply more touch-up paint than I need. The purpose of the toothpick isn't to apply the least amount of touch-up paint. The toothpick allows the touch-up paint to flow into the scratch. A paintbrush can't accomplish this....well, unless it's as firm as a toothpick :).

Also, I level the paint inbetween applications so that each layer is flat.



hope that helps
 
But how do you level paint that's basically in a "canyon"





If this is your paint



----___------ the lower part representing the scratched surface.



and you fill in a little bit, and glide the langka card over the paint surface, the touch up is still below the 'normal' surface area.



That's like trying to pass your hand through water in a fish tank at the 10" mark, when the water is at the 7" mark.
 
I'm not filling in a little bit with the toothpick, here is the state of the scratch after the first application of touch-up paint with a toothpick



_____-------------_______



In theory if the scratch is deep enough you can apply a thin layer of touch-up paint and still have it exist below the surface of the existing paint. I've filled in a scratch that went to metal and wasn't able to fill it in below the exisiting paint.



btw, I'm just a crazed novice Autopian, so professionals may have a better method :).
 
I just called the Lexus dealer and the paint comes in two parts. One is the base coat, and the second is the pearl. Each bottle is $7. This is going to be more difficult that I thought. I shot pearl white on my motorcycle once after a crash. I couldn't get the "look" right. It came out all cloudy, not clear like the factory's paint. Luckily this scratch isn't too big, but I may just leave this up to the professionals to fix.
 
Earlier I posted that some jerk hit my wife's car in a shopping mall then left. Today I took her car in for an estimate to get the scratch fixed, and my wife took my car. Well, at her office, someone slammed their door against my car and left a huge dent. The dent is big and in a curved portion of the door, so it took substantial force to create the dent. Of course, no note. What else did I expect. I guess life just ain't fair.
 

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I just don't get door dingers. They may as well just urinate on your hood or put sugar in your gastank. It's showing the same amount of respect for your car. I can't believe how many times I've parked out in the middle of nowhere in a lot and I'll still get idiots parking right beside me when there are a million other spots around that are empty. :mad:
 
I guess the irony of it all was that I was hoping to sell the car this summer, and this was the last day that the car was going to be driven during the summer as I wanted to keep the miles down. Now, I need to sink yet more money into a car that I really do not want to keep.
 
Just to follow-up this thread, I found another PDR guy that took out the dent in my black G35. He was a referral. He charged me much less than the first estimate I got, he came to my house, and he did a great job IMO. Sorry the pics are not at the same angle, because I couldn't find where the dent was. I was impressed, and so was my neighbor to the point that my neighbor had two dents taken out of his truck after my car was finished. Much happier now, and once again things are right with the world.
 

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Here's another angle. Don't know when PDR became popular, but in the good ole days, we took our cars to the body shop to have the door repainted if there were dings or dents. This is way better and way more affordable.
 

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ben54 said:
Here's another angle. Don't know when PDR became popular, but in the good ole days, we took our cars to the body shop to have the door repainted if there were dings or dents. This is way better and way more affordable.
Click to expand...



Back in the "good old days" the metal on a car was as thick as boilerplate and couldn't be un-bent like aluminum foil so PDR wouldn't work.:D
 
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