A few months ago my car was vandalized and a word was etched into the hatch of my car next to the scion badge, not big but big enough to read if you were waiting behind me at a light. Recently my buddy that works with cars tried to buff it out. Only thing is, is that he went through the clear coat on a small area of the etch while wet sanding. He primarily wet sands on bmws, mercedes, audis, etc. where the clear coat is of good quality. He said that the toyota clear coat is almost non-existent.

Anyways, the etched word you can still see but you don't see any of the white anymore, you can just see it etched in but its all clear. Almost as if its imprinted into the clear coat. The area where he went through the clear is right beneath the etch. I have touch-up and clear coat that I bought at the dealership, not sure if the clear coat I bought will fix anything. So my question is...how can I get this fixed? Am I going to have to take it to a body shop to get it clear coated, if so, how much would that run me? Or is there a way I can get it fixed on my own? For the time being I have a sticker directly on top of the etched word and where my buddy went through the clear coat. Any suggestions would be great.

 

Try here:

http://autopia.org/

 

Since I won't be taking it to a body shop any time soon..i'm thinking to put on a decal over the top of the etch and where the lack of clear coat is at. Only thing is, i've heard that you should cover up the blemish so no rusting occurs, is this true? The decal i'm thinking to put on won't completely cover the spot where the lack of clear coat is and the etched part. At the moment I have a sticker on top of both.