Recommend me a good Car Scratch Remover

A Happy Panda

A Happy Panda

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Well, found this on the bumper of my car today:

img00001200910051411.jpg


Sorry for the crappy pic, I used my phone's camera.

But as you can see, it's more of a scrape than a scratch. I just got the car barely a month ago, so it kinda sucks.

Anyways, I'd like to avoid going to the dealership or a shop as much as possible, anyone have a suggestion as to how to get rid of the thing?

By the looks of it, it seems to have gone down to the primer, but not the steel, but I'm not sure.

Of if you think it looks bad enough, anyone know how much it would cost to fix it? Its a 2010 Mazda 3 Hatchback.
 
It's really hard to tell from that pic, but it looks like it is definitely down to at least the primer, if not further. If it was a surface scratch, you could buff it out with an orbital polisher and some zaino or Klasse all in one. You don't have many options here to do this yourself and have it coming out right unless you've got the right equipment. I'd take it to a body shop.
 
[quote name='JolietJake']What about a bottle of touch up paint? I think some dealers even sell them so the paint matches correctly.[/QUOTE]

That's what I've heard. I just called the service dept. of my dealership, no one picked up. I'm gonna roll by after work, see if they have it.
 
I used to detail cars, and from past encounters you should go to a body shop and have it fixed. If you put touch paint it will look ten times worse than what u got now. Touch up paint is for only for very tiny chips, and still looks bad.
 
Goddamn. Got 2 estimates, 1 was like $590, the other was $720. fuck me.

Might actually give that Fix it Pro a try...

the scratch has met its match.
 
[quote name='A Happy Panda']Goddamn. Got 2 estimates, 1 was like $590, the other was $720. fuck me.

Might actually give that Fix it Pro a try...

the scratch has met its match.[/QUOTE]
Was one of those estimates from the dealer service department? They should have someone that takes care of minor scratches like that for trade-ins, lease returns, etc.

I had my truck in for a oil change and inspection and set up an appointment for next week to have something similar taken care of. They have a guy that comes in on Thursdays to fix stuff like that. The guy at the service dept said it should only cost around $135 to repaint.
 
[quote name='A Happy Panda']Goddamn. Got 2 estimates, 1 was like $590, the other was $720. fuck me.

Might actually give that Fix it Pro a try...

the scratch has met its match.[/QUOTE]

The Fix it Pro only works if just the clear coat is scratched. From your pictures it looks like the paint itself is gone too. I say get a little bottle of touch up paint and see if that works for you. If not then go to a body shop.
 
[quote name='Darknyss']Was one of those estimates from the dealer service department? They should have someone that takes care of minor scratches like that for trade-ins, lease returns, etc.

I had my truck in for a oil change and inspection and set up an appointment for next week to have something similar taken care of. They have a guy that comes in on Thursdays to fix stuff like that. The guy at the service dept said it should only cost around $135 to repaint.[/QUOTE]

No, two different body shops. I'm waiting for the dealership's estimate. He said he'd call later today. I'm really hoping its sub-$200, that's about all I'd want to spend.

[quote name='musha666']The Fix it Pro only works if just the clear coat is scratched. From your pictures it looks like the paint itself is gone too. I say get a little bottle of touch up paint and see if that works for you. If not then go to a body shop.[/QUOTE]

Yeah. If the dealership's estimate is obnoxiously high like the other ones, I'm just gonna buy a bottle of paint and call it done.
 
You can do it right with touch up paint, but you're really going to have to put some effort into it if you want it to not look like you drew on your car with a sharpie. I've got a link on another PC for repairing a deep scratch. If I can find it I'll post it here. I've got a polisher myself, which makes removing scratches easy, but if a place was willing to do it sub $200, I'd just have them do it.
 
Bumpers these days are plastic, so if the scratch "scratched" the plastic, the body shops will just replace the bumper, which does cost the amount you were quoted.

If it's just a paint scratch, the $135 estimate is reasonably. Paint jobs aren't cheap, and good ones are even more costly. If paint work doesn't get done right, it will just crack and peel, or not match the rest of the paint, making it look worse than the scratch by itself.
 
Here is the real 411
Fix it Pro is well, I was raised such that if you dont have anything nice to say dont say anything. Dont waste your time or money. There are scam alerts all over the net about the company and product ,infomercial magic. I am in the auto restoration business and products on infomercials like that give the rest of us in the car scratch remover biz with legit products a bad name. I love and admire Billy Mays, god rest his soul but....

You have two real world choices for deep car scratch removal...well actually three.

1. Door number 1 Have a Pro do the job . but not a body shop...find a mobile service that does chip and deep scratch paint touch up in your area (google it). It can be done litteraly in less than 30 min. They do two methods, airbrush or a technique where paint is squeegied into the scratch and then leveled. The results are not invisible,but very convincing and way cheaper than having the whole panel repainted by a body shop. It will cost roughly $150 New car dealers use these guys all the time, good result and inexpensive and fast,to get a car on the lot and sold.

2. Door number 2 You can do the touch up yourself and with the right kit and the right technique get pretty nice result. As metioned just brushing on touch up paint will look bad. There are two ways to do a at home touch up repair that while maybe not as good as Door #1 it will look pretty good. The best part it will set you back less than $70. and remove that sore thumb. The best trick to apply touch up paint is with a syringe (like the type you use to recharge a ink jet cartrige at home) it allows precision applicaiton of paint. A lot of times you can just leave it alone, declare victory and it will look pretty nice.
If you get a so called "blob" remover to level the touch up paint you can further massage the touch up.
It looks like your car is a non metallic and since it is also red thats good for home touch ups, straight red and black, white are the easiest to do at home with good results.

Door #3 put a cool sticker on it.;)

Seriously, We can talk off line if you want more info.
car-scratch-remover.com
 
On such a brand new car (and such a "happy" one if you know what I mean. Haha) do not use typical scratch removers. They break down the compund of the paint around it and kinda smears the good paint over the damaged area. Will mess up paint around spot. Sometimes noticeable but not worth it to find out on a new car.

Best bet is like what someone said. Orbital, polish and you should see a difference..... but I only say that because from the pic it looks like a scuff more than a scrape. You can even try clay bars (I like Turtle Wax Liquid Clay Bar. The one that has 3 visible components) and see if that removes the blemish. Worth a shot. Polish really won't add red paint to the spot if it is down to primer. Just make it shiny and slightly reflective enough to lessen its significance. Zaino is a good one but I remember that bein pretty expensive. You can grab something from www.poorboysworld.com if you wanna go that route.

But I completely agree with touch-up paint. Not meant to be brushed on. Just for dabbing kinda. WILL make that stand out more UNLESS you are really meticulous and after adding a bit of extra touch-up, you grab a 2000grain (er something really high like that) and wetsand the touch up down to be even with rest of paint. Problem here is if you're aren't careful enough you'll swirl the clear coat around the messed up area.


Moral of story... try liquid clay first. If that fails, try a shop. But I have a few local shops that would do something like that for maybe $30-50 tops. Your estimates are waaaaayyyyy tooo much
 
If the scratch is through the clear coat and into color coat or primer using even a professional machine with polish will do nothing except make the surrounding paint look better, period.

Car Scratch Removers do not "smear" paint. Professional formulas correct paint defects in the clear coat ie "remove" the defect by removing a very small amount of clear coat (if the car is 1990 or newer) or in the case of a older classic non clear coat paint you are removing some of the color coat, which is normal. You are not after a paint correction in this case you are after a paint repair.

An orbital is only for waxing, usually cheap consumer machines, that are not designed for polishing, period. Professional machines such as a DA (duel action ie Porter Cable 7424) or rotary (for Pros only) are the ONLY tools that will do paint correction. In your case paint correction is NOT what you need. You need to fill the defect area and bring it to the same level as the surrounding paint for a fix if you choose not to have the entire panel shot.

Using wet dry sand paper is not recommended unless you absolutely understand the process and have a good kit or system or support. There are multitude of reasons why you dont want to go this route, if the paint touch up repair is done correctly the first time you will not need to wet sand. Wet sanding with ordinary wet sand paper and water your bare fingers on a paint "blob" will easily make more of a mess. There are special hand tools specifically made for precision wetsanding like this...your bare fingers are not on that list.

Liquid clay (worthless product) will do nothing for your problem and neither will tradtional detail clay (the correct way to clay). They are for an entirely different purpose.

There are no reputable shops that will do a spot paint touch up for $30-50, trust me. If someone says that I would walk away. Thats the typical charge for restoring one plastic headlight lens, specialized spot paint touch up by a reputable mobile service or shop will be about $150 alittle more perhaps a taste less.

I am passionate about making sure people get good sound information on this subject bc there is so much mis information floating around. I want to make sure you dont waste your money and time on something or someone that will not get you the results you can live with.

car-scratch-remover.com
 
Thanks for the feedback everyone, especially Karlsbad.

The paint is actually a metallic-esque red, the sparkle just didn't show through on the pic, the shops both said that would add a little bit to the price.

I'm still waiting for the dealership to get back to me on an estimate. The guy said he'd call me yesterday, he didn't, so I called them. They tell me he was in a meeting he forgot about and told me that he'd call me first thing this morning, he hasn't. I may call him during lunch.

If that turns out to be too much, I'll try googling a mobile service or shop. I've seen those tents around that repair windshield chips and cracks, but never one for paint jobs?
 
One last thought on Googling for a service to do the paint touch up. If you strike out bc they are not listing in Pay Per click or organic search, call (better yet go in person) a BMW, Mercedes, or Lexus dealer, ask to talk to the used car manager , be cool and ask nice for a referal to who they use to do touch up paint repair, Im not guaranteeing he/she will give it up, if not try another dealer, you can be guaranteed if they do give you the name the person will be good. You can also use this to your advantage and say so and so at BMW refered you and you might be able to get a break on the price, cash for the job always works too. You might want to hook that nice Car Dealership person up with a cup of Starbucks too.

Good luck dude!
 
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