I walked out to my car last night to find a huuuuge scratch on the side of it. The scratch is about a foot and a half/two feet long and looks as if someone keyed my car. I have no idea who did it, but that’s not what I’m really asking anyway. Now I’m asking…what do I do to fix it?
The scratch is pretty deep, way deeper than a surface scratch at least, so I don’t think touch up paint will work. But is there some kind of scratch remover that might work? or some chameleon paint that’ll blend in when I rub it out? Do I call my insurance? My car is a lease and I have some kind of insurance-thingy on it…so do I call the dealership?
Look at your lease paperwork. I know with mine (Honda), it covers a certain amount of damage. You might have to remind them of this, but it is covered and it’s spelled out in the paperwork. It’s something like X dollars per incident thing and up to Y dollars total. For scratches they could be up to a certain length but, IIRC, couldn’t go across more than one panel.
Otherwise, I’d suggest just running it to a body shop and getting an estimate, at least to see where that puts you.
If the car is still fairly new, they can probably blend it right in without anyone being the wiser and it’s better to do it now than risk it rusting for the next two years.
If you’ll be turning it in soon, you can let them assess the dealership tell you what it would cost for them to do it as well when you get the damage inspection, assuming it isn’t covered.
Another thing to keep in mind is that if you’re going to lease (or buy) another car from of the same make, you can often get the dealer to ‘take care of it’. Just make sure they actually do take care of it and not just roll the cost into the new lease/loan.
That stinks. If there are cameras on site, you might want to see if it captured anything.
When my car window was smashed in at a local park, my agent said he’d cover it but it would be a $1000 deductible. Ergo, I paid for it myself. They also asked for a copy of the police report, so you might want to call them to see what they advise. A police report may help you when you turn the car in…
Or maybe drive by an auto body and see what they suggest.
Pour a small amount of phosphoric acid on a microfiber and wipe the scratch clean/neutralize any potential for rust if really deep, dry it off quickly. Check your car manual or look up the right color online and pick up a ‘dupli-color’ stick of the right color from an auto-parts store (they all carry it). Use the pen part to fill the crack then twist the dupli-color stick open and use the brush like you would nail polish and work fast, dab it in the scratch, doing two quick coats, wiping excess off with each pass using a sponge (make sure it is dry and the the soft kind! not a scotch-brite! don’t use too much pressure) Use a buffing pad to smooth out any that doesn’t dry smooth. Will take you about an hour and $25 for everything, plus you’ll have plenty of the dupli-color left for scratches. If you do it right, you will barely notice a scratch was ever there, and maybe only under certain bright lighting conditions, if at all. This is the cheapest option both monetarily and for time, the next costliest and DIY option is buffing the area out bare, priming, painting, clear coating and then polishing, the third and most time and money consuming option is to take it to a body shop.
Lankga is good too, but Duplicolor has perfect matching colors every single time and skips a few steps (one of the few all-in-one things that doesn’t totally suck). Try to stay away from the AS SEEN ON TV crap too.
