Best way to fix a scratch?

[VBOMB]

I'd say its about 5cm x 2cm and has only scratched off the paint and would like to fix it. Should I do it myself or hire someone? Any idea how much it'd cost? Its a 99 Civic hatch and white :D Cheers!

[ekcoupe]

try scratch x then polish, thats what i use gets em out if u rub hard enough.

or if that dosent work call up touch up guys they might know what to do not sure what they charge though:D

good luck

[VBOMB]

Thanks :D I've tried that but it'll need a coat of paint unfortunately. Luckily its a very light scratch - might have to give them a call, I checked out how much it'd be to paint the side markers with them (black panels along the side of the car) and they quoted like.. $450 just for that

[ekcoupe]

can i see a pic of the scratch.

[flipfire]

Try running your nail across the scratches, if it gets caught then thats a pretty deep scratch and might need to be repainted.

Are you talking about the moulds that runs across the door and side? cause you can DIY that

[VBOMB]

I'll try take one this afternoon :D &yep the moulds, I saw the DIY thread just worried I'd stuff it up and make it worse lol

[Troy]

Dunno which Touch Up Guys you saw (obviously in Sydney area), but I got a quick quote the other day on a number of scratches and blemishes in my paintwork (quite a few) and he said $100 should fix the lot, so $450 is a bit over IMO.

[VBOMB]

True, considering someone on the forum offered $1200 for a complete respray lol :)
May have to ring around, I'll try get a pic up tomorrow

[TheSaint]

if it isnt too deep you can use autoglym paint renovator - i just went over my EG with this stuff and it got out scraches that were around from 4 years ago =)

http://www.autoglym.com/enGB/product-proddetail.asp?v06VQ=GI&Range=1

[VBOMB]

Sorry for the quality, I thought the scratches were worse but here: :p

http://i46.tinypic.com/2cct6yw.jpghttp://i46.tinypic.com/33w39xh.jpg

[PlatinumVisuals]

That shouldn't be hard to buff out :) How deep is the scratch ? Does your nail get stuck on it ?

[VBOMB]

Nah it doesn't seems like it just scratched the paint
Just don't want it there if I sell it :p

[B16bcivic]

sand it down slightly and buy a bottle of spray in the same color code and spray it urself. thats what i did, it looks new. if it turns out not so good buff it and polish wahlah its all done and looks new. my mate is a spay painter qualified. Asked him and he told me that.

[VBOMB]

What would you sand it with?

[B16bcivic]

i forgot what they call those sand paper lol its those wet and dry sand paper. really fine ones. just go to any mitre 10 store and ask them for really fine wet and dry sand paper, they should direct you to it. sand it with water and once its lvl just spray it with the color code on your car. after wards buff it and polish ur good as new. and bobs your uncle

Tip:

do not take it to bare metal as u will need to primer it again. then sand then paint.

[VBOMB]

what colour should it be when I sand it? that greyish?
cheers :D

[B16bcivic]

spray it with the same color as your car code bro.
but what do u mean by that greyish?

[VBOMB]

nah I mean like.. once I've sanded it a fair bit what colour should I be seeing before I spray a new coat?

[B16bcivic]

yeah when u sand it u should be seeing the grayish color if it did scratch all the way to the primer coat, if it didn't then white should be the color you should be seeing. when its leveled and its at the primer coat or just the white color, you don't need to primer it. You can then just respray the same color as your car onto it.

try avoid spraying it anywhere else but that spot only. once spray let it settle and dry for a few hours before polishing and buffing it.

[VBOMB]

will do, cheers :D

[B16bcivic]

welcome. anything else just post and will reply.

[Zilli]

yeah when u sand it u should be seeing the grayish color if it did scratch all the way to the primer coat, if it didn't then white should be the color you should be seeing. when its leveled and its at the primer coat or just the white color, you don't need to primer it. You can then just respray the same color as your car onto it.

try avoid spraying it anywhere else but that spot only. once spray let it settle and dry for a few hours before polishing and buffing it.

your going to need to wait for than a few hours before buffing fresh paint

also, if you do it this way without "blending" then you are going to have problems with colour match...

[SHI-FTY]

i agree with zilli n you will also have to scuff 'up to' 2 feet of wat u r reparing this will help in blending process
when you spray start from the edge of your repair(scratched area) gradually spray less and less paint until you are just applying a mist coat approximately one foot all around the scratch. the idea here is to so your eye moves around from your original paint to the resprayed area n cant really tell the difference\
lastly You can also use our clearcoat blender which is used to blend the freshly applied clearcoat and melt it into the existing finish. This shud n will give your paint repair a professional look.

if u cant achieve this the buyer that looks at your car wen it comes to the forsale time will easily be able to identify your repair and they will do nothing else but low ball you for ur effort
ive been tryin to blend paint on a practice spare RH gaurd i bought for cheap n it took me 5 times to blend it right i still wasnt as happy but i think its best to leave it to pros!

[VBOMB]

Oh I'm not selling anymore btw :p

[SHI-FTY]

u will eventually

[B16bcivic]

well i do agree with u guys too but if the scratch is only minor you dont need to fill it. if the scratch is only a small one its not noticeable aswell.

some paint dont require a clear coat. like for my car i did what i did and it turned out nicely. small scratch is not hard to be respray and repaired.

unless your doing the whole guard. touch ups