Deep scratch in paintwork

[ratty]

Some fucker last night keyed my car, left a nice 6inch scrape along the passenger side.

Whats the best solution to try and cover it up? JML scratch remover looks good.. ?

http://www.jmldirect.com/product.asp...gecurrency=GBP

Im kinda fucked of as I've only had the car 8 weeks or so..

[Zoots]

You don't show a pic but say it's deep - has it gone down to primer or metal? If so you'll need more than a magic polish. Have you thought of a local dent/scratch repair service?
I've used chipsaway before - they're nationwide, were cheaper than I thought and did a great job. You might find a local fred in a shed to do it cheaper.

[Conkers]

I Used Dr. Colorchip... http://www.drcolorchip.com/ worked a treat in a gouge on my door panel.

[Little John]

Where is somewhere? is it near Bolton I know there is somewhere near Bolton but I'm not sure if its the same one.

The rule is if it catches a fingernail when you move it over the scratch then it needs painting as it has probably gone through one or more layers of the paint (clear, colour and base coat).

Polishing removes fine layers of paint the idea is to relevel the paint to the bottom of the scratch so the surface is flat again and the sctatch is removed. The problem is that you only have a fine layer of paint 100-150microns is about the norm on modern cars some are even thiner so you don't always have a lot of paint to remove especially if you remember the 150um is the 3 different layers clear, colour and base coats you don't want to remove all the clear coat never mind the colour coat and leaving the clear too thin will result in it failing with the changes in temperature Im sure you have seen the cracked looking paint and areas where it looks cloudy where the clear coat has delaminated from the colour coat.

Anyway if your local pop round and I will have a go at it for you, it may be possible to improve parts or make it less noticable till you can pay for a bodyshop repair, if it was an old car I would only just say chips away but as its a new one then get it fixed properly. I have done keyed cars in the past where it was down the full length of the car, now your normally looking at £100+vat per panel for repainting I was able to remove the srcatch on 3 of the 4 panels by polishing alone which resulted in saving the owners a few hundred quid.

The way I look at it you have very little to loose having a go, its knackered or a mess anyway so polishing can't really make it worse than it is even if you end up in the bodyshop it probably needed it anyway. Have a look here for a few ideas of what is possible with the correct kit and no JML isnt the correct kit .

[ratty]

I'm in notts, so bolton is a tad to far - but thanks very much for your offer.

The car is a focus - 2004, I'll post a pic of the scratch later

http://img594.imageshack.us/gal.php?g=p1030016u.jpg

[sidewinder]

To get that looking right it will need to go to a bodyshop and will more than likely need the basecoat colour flicking into both adjacent panels.

[Over Carl]

I've managed to make loads of scratches look a lot better with t-cut, sometimes even made them totally vanish, although urbsy who used to be mod on here and also owned a bodyshop would refer to it as the devil's spunk and said it should never go near a car's paintwork.

[Ginnerfreak]

I have just purchased some of this JML stuff for the wife's Lexus RX. She has a few scratches from parking next to a bush.. nothing major not too deep, so ill let you know how it goes.

[Over Carl]

DIdn't notice the pic attached, from looking at that I would guess t cut may totally eliminate it, but as I said, do your own research before using as some people aren't keen on the stuff.

[Little John]

If you try tcut book the bodyshop before you start and a few days off work as you will go through the paint on that and wreck your arm.

[cosmicma]

it might be worth trying some autoglym colour restorer it's not as abrasive as t cut

[ratty]

I'll get a quote from chipsaway first i think, what sort of money is involved for a job like this?

[super mike]

I'll get a quote from chipsaway first i think, what sort of money is involved for a job like this?

Either that or go around local bodyshops and see how much they charge to do smart repairs. Depends how fussy you are. For it to be perfect it will need a respray.

However, if it is down to the metal and you are still debating what to do put something on it to prevent water/salt/grime getting at it.

[Little John]

Also check out body shops a single half door respray shouldn't cost too much and chipsaway can be a little hit and miss when it comes to the quality of their work as they are all franchises.