My car was sideswiped in a parking lot

In My Humble Opinion
1

My car has a pretty bad and long scratch/dent on the rear passenger side door and a not so bad one over the wheel well. Makes me a little sad. I take good care of her and was proud of her (still am) but not that big of a deal, I thought. Worse things have happened.

Went for a couple of estimates today and both said that it needed to be painted because the scratches were too deep.

Although I would love to have my handsome car back, I’m really more concerned with rust prevention.

Is there something else I can do? Or at least something anyone can recommend, while I save up the $750 , to prevent rust? It’s a 2002 Honda CRV. Runs like a champ, was garage kept until I got it and has no rust to speak of. But a utility vehicle, not a trophy.

A friend of mine keeps insisting clear nail polish is the answer. I prefer to treat my car better than panty hose. And certainly wax is more effective and even more ecconomical. Right?

Any advice, professional, amateur, or anecdotal is appreciated.

2

3M sells a protective film that is often used as a clear bra to prevent chips. You might be able to cut a strip of that to put over the scratch until you can get it fixed.

3

Would you recommend this over wax?

4

Can I just continue to use Krylon rust preventer and then enamel and then wax every few weeks?

5

You could try one of those “color back” waxes. Probably won’t be a perfect fix or match, but it should at least be less obvious. Is the scratching into the paint, through the paint and into primer, or all the way down to bare metal? If it’s only into the paint or primer, rust shouldn’t be an immediate worry.

6

Scratch is into and through the paint and down to the primer but doesn’t seem to be down to metal.

7

You can do it yourself for well less than $100, if you’re willing to invest the time. Your local auto parts store will have color match touch up paint, fine sandpaper (I use 2000 grit), rubbing compound, finishing compound and lint free cloths. Prep the area and apply touch up paint per the supplied instructions (some manufacturers also have You Tube videos). Sand, apply polishing compound, repeat as necessary to get a smooth finish, then use the finishing compound.

I just repaired a 8" scratch on my mom’s vehicle last weekend. It took about 3 hours (including paint drying time) and a lot of “wax on, wax off” hand buffing but it look great.

8

Thanks. I will give that a try. Maybe I can get someone to just pull out the dent.