I was backing my 2008 Silver Toyota Aygo and it had a bit of an altercation with a stone bird bath.
Six fairly shallow 6" Scratches up to and slightly on the plastic of the headlight assembly (no visible problems, cracks, leakage, lens problems, anything that’d cost more than £350 when the car gets MOT’d (inspected) in November).
The Iron-monger (love that name) or Hardware store was closed as it’s Sunday. I went to another sort of arts and crafty store and asked if they had emery paper. Blank stare. “It’s a super-fine abrasive - often green in colour. Like the back side of a scrubby sponge yet even less abrasive. Like super-super fine sandpaper”. Nopers.
The paint kit came with nothing but the paint and a fine brush. The scratches are raised ever so much and I kinda think smoothening that surface out might be a good thing?
Just checked it out again and it’s as if I’d described an attack by a wolfman. There’s really no ridges and it’ll just come down to the colour match - though I will try some slight smoothing with the paper bag - so thanks!
Do not use emery paper, it is way too coarse. Use very fine sand paper for wet sanding. And those touch-up brush on paint kits just suck, you will always see the brush marks.
Find your actual paint color. Don’t guess, they may have made 3 different grey or silver colors. If you aren’t sure what it is, one of the RPO codes on the door jamb should tell you, you may have to look them up on line. There are about 20 or 30 three letter codes showing every option the car had, one will be paint. Sticker should be in the driver’s side door jamb.
Then order a spray can of Dupli-color in that base color, and another can of just clear coat paint. A light spray of base color, let dry for a day or so then spray on the clear coat. Works great and only you will know where the damage was.
If the scratches can catch your fingernails and (especially) if raised, the situation is far beyond rubbing with bags. I mean, unless you want the exercise or to entertain the neighbors or something, then knock yourself out.
It sounds like we have similar auto body experience (zero) and I wouldn’t touch it personally. I don’t have any confidence that my repair (smoothing, filling, sanding, color-matching, surface-finishing) could look better. My half assed garage work would almost certainly bear very obvious scars of my pitiful attempts as well as highlighting the original scratches.
I attached pics of the front passenger side. Two pics as it’s raining and there hasn’t been a non-rainy day I could use the little kit I got from eBay. Hard to say which makes the damage look worse.
The scratches are about the length of your hand and as you can see fingernails would feel the worst parts.
I like the idea of Dupli-color and clear coat yet they seem almost entirely USA except for engine paint.
I’ve attached a third photo from “Toyota parts online” which if you magnify a lot at least looks like they’re selling both the pain and clear coat (though the word “stick” comes up a lot)
I’m somewhere between Dallas and [jnglmassiv. If I use a can of anything I’ll mask off the headlight. I do not feel entirely comfortable with a can off paint and a car.
15 year old car - I’ll do something to cover it up if nothing else to prevent rust.
Oh yeah, and any splotches well above are just the rain - it’s just the scratches where it gets dark.
Okay. Would you then say any spray + overcoat is overdoing it?
The eBay touch up paint and avoiding stone bird baths is certainly good enough advice. A lot of course plays into the age of the car. Thank you all.
Sorry for not realising that you are not in the US. I could order a can, and it would be delivered before the end of the next day, sometimes takes two days.
Looking at the photos, the scratch has gone down to the metal and the panel itself seems deformed. A touch-up repair (Dr Colorchip is one I think is available internationally) will be about as good as a DIY-er can hope for. Spray paint is going to look awful if you’ve never done this before…it’s not easy to get a nice smooth coat on there without a lot of practice.
Thanks, yeah 16 year old car. I don’'t have a lot of stuff on hand so pretty much was asking “absolutely do not do this”
I’ve been astounded at what pros can do. If the car was brand new and I’d even cut a pinstripe a pro would have it so good you couldn’t tell if was the right or left side.
“Deformed” is alas also true again it new car or just seeking perfection. It was a 100+ year-old stone bird bath in our parking lot that jumped out of nowhere.
Iron-monger (hardware) shop’s best was 400 grit sandpaper and he send me to a place where I got a small block of actual cork (says “cork sanding block”), stopped at another place for 1200 grit paper, have some micro fiber cloth and just need a “not going to pour for 5 minutes” weather.
If you just want to stop possible rust, try filling out the scratches to be a bit higher than the surrounding paint and polish it down after it has hardened.
It won’t be invisible but will seal the scratch. The transparent paint is to protect the metallic paint against ultraviolet light. Metallic paints fade or even fall off if they are not protected.
400 grit sandpaper is still way way way WAY to harsh for car paint. If the metal was super-rusty, you might use that as part of a finishing step, but do not use this on a painted area, please.
1200 grit is going to leave a visible haze and rougher feel to the paint which will result in a not-so-refined looking finish as well, but will remove the jagged edges of the scratches, which does need to be done.
Personally I would use touch-up over spray-on. Use a toothpick to get it into the scratched area, and several applications until it was mostly level with the rest of the paint, then use a clear-coat over that (with a small brush for coverage. Then use the 1200 grit (or higher if you can find it, I would go for 2000 if available) and wet-sand it down using a rigid block (wrap the paper around a piece of wood) and finally, use something like Griot’s Complete Compound or Meguiar’s Ultimate Compound to bring it back to a shine.
Did second try the best way avaiilable to an amateur such as myself. Matching colour spray with can of clear coat.
Didn’t have my phone so no pix but it came out as good as a first try would have - i.e. doesn’t look like a desperate patch up of the first attempt. I’d love to have puttied up the scratches yet then there’s sanding/puttty/making it worse. Besides only a pro could have pushed out the surface and done a perfect clean job.
Cars in the UK rarely rust on the body - yet fairly commonly on the underside.
