It works good for clearcoat scratches, as it says on the label. Deep scratches in the paint, which unfortunately due to our small clearcoat are a good chunk of our sctaches, you can't take out without wetsanding/touchup paint.

 

Everybody has an angle...the assistant manager is looking out for what makes HIM money. If he doesn't see some profit in it for himself, he won't endorse it. Pose the same question to a reputable body shop, someone who does good custom paint work, and see what they have to say.

 

how would a $1500 job that he would have sold me not make him or the shop any money? it's not like he was 'doing it for paint only' or something?

they are a reputable shop, recommended by a friend of mine (who up until recently ran a highly reputable shop--he had to turn business away because he was too busy right up until he closed, he's been doing it all his life and wanted to move on, it was his dad's shop) as he knows the owner's son.

he said they do a good job and another friend of mine that worked for the first friend of mine (confused yet?) commented on the paint job the shop did on my door and said it was very high quality (no 'islands', consistent paint pigment direction, a few other more technical things that those bodyshop guys know about).

and to be technical, our cars have a relatively 'hard' clearcoat. so that's why it chips easily. european cars have a 'softer' clearcoat to absorb impacts better. at least that's what i read somewhere. but i don't paint cars for a living so if i am totally getting misinformation let me know and i shall stop spewing it.

 

I had a pretty bad scratch that was 3 feet long on my hood from someone keying my car..
I took my car to the dealership for warranty work and they put two new scratches in the side of my car, but touch up paint would fix at least one of them... Anyways, he wanted to make things right, so he sent me across the street to their body shop and the guy wet-sanded out the scratch and I cant even see it anymore.. Scratch-X had absolutely no effect but this was beautiful. I recommend getting that done.

Not sure how much it costs since the dealership did it for me free.

 

That sucks, but thanks for reminding me once again not to be a lazy bastard and always hand wash the car myself, no matter how busy I am.

 

I got qouted $25 for a local body guy to remove the scratch someone put on my passenger door, he said he would use a fine fine wet sand paper to remove the scratch and polish it back up? I dont know but the word SAND PAPER on my tC made me sick...so i opted to just live with the scratch....he he

 

On a metallic finish paint? He must have been on crack... which is what you'd have to be on to be happy with the end result.

The sandpaper trick works only on non-metallic finishes, and even then is a really dicey proposition.

 

He said something like that...i just was like ehh...and walked away...i thought it sounded wierd...i was like NOOOOOOO i would rather deal with the scratch anyday...O WELL!!!

 

Actually, I just had my car wet sanded for the big 3 foot long deep scratch that was keyed into my car... the hood looks as good as new, it's really quite amazing.

Edit: I have Flint Mica, so it's a metallic finish and it worked fine.

 

Depending on the depth of the scratch, ultra fine wet dry
sand followed by a polish is a perfectly common repair.

Depending on the depth of the scratch, it might be necessary.

 

The part being sanded is the clear top coat and is not an issue. The sanding should never go beyond the clear coat. All high end paint jobs involve multiple stages of sanding of the clear top coats...it's really not a big deal.

 

^^^

Then it all comes down to how deep this scratch is... I was guessing it was in the actual paint.

Besides, if there are as many flying rocks on his roads as there are on mine, his hood will be chipped and dinged up in no time anyway...

 

With regards to a complete re-clear of the car... I spoke with my Fiance (he is a manager of a body shop), to re-clear the car the right way would involve the entire disassembly of the entire car, repaint and reinstall of all components. Now you have taken a perfectly good car apart and put it back together... the cost for this would be thousands due to the labor time, not to mention all the creeks and rattles you will now have bcus the car has been taken apart... Any way that is why that is not such a great option.

Best advice, try to have the scratches buffed out. If not there is always the comp coverage under your insurance, that is what it is there for, that is a good reason for a low deductible on comp coverage, for stuff like this.

Good luck!

 

so $1500 was probably just to have them tape off the car and clear it, not take it fully apart like you mentioned. i guess he knew if he quoted me $3000+ then there would be no way anyone in their right mind would pay that and then have the creaks/rattles to rub salt in that wound afterwards ;)

 

Yesti, sounds like it to me, the problem with tape off is you can get peeling of the clear which will just make matters worse in the long run. I seriously thought about it, bcus of my fiance it would not be a problem but I don't want a perfectly good brand new car disassembled right out of the gate. I will just fix the little imperfections as they come up, and they will, as I drive through the desert to go to my river house every other week... so I am sure I will be b%tch%ng about my paint in my own good time as well.

 

i have the clearshield paint protection film, maybe that'll help a little for you. not sure about long term effects though but the way this car is it probably won't matter ;P

 

I had scratches in my hood also. I am not sure if they were intentional or not. My father thought that some fine grained compound would help take out the scratches, but that just dulled the paint around the scratches. (bad Idea, now I know).

I brought it to a local body shop here in Long Island NY and for 75 dollars he "buffed and reglazed" hood. It looks like new. You cannot see any of the original scratches of the damage done by myself.