Picked up a scratch...

Invertigo · 5 Apr 2011 at 14:35

Due to a moment of stupidity, I managed to drive up against another car in a car park last night. Luckily for me, I left my details and got a phone call this morning saying that the scratch to their bumper polished out fine and they were happy to forgive and forget. First incident in 3 years, and I felt awful to have done that to someone else's car, so was a huge weight off my mind!

The scratches I managed to do myself were a bit worse, and I'm curious what would be the suggested way to get them sorted, be it a respray of the panels or a smart repair.

I'll probably pick up some bump strips from a breaker and have a shot at colour coding them, so thats not a problem right now

Participant · 5 Apr 2011 at 14:40

Step one - wash and a polish with some plastic trim treatment and see how it scrubs up.

Colour coding the bump strips is risky unless you know what you're doing. If it's slightly out it will look worse than black imo.

Django x2 · 5 Apr 2011 at 14:47

i think he's more worried about the massive scratch and gash on the paint Robbie!!!

So, the bit immediately after the bump strip will "probably" polish out. However, on the arch, it's definately dropped through the paint and will need to be reparied.

Touch it up with a pen or similar now to avoid it rusting until you decide what to do but a smart repair will probably suffice. Is it a Focus?

Participant · 5 Apr 2011 at 14:58

Lucero said:
i think he's more worried about the massive scratch and gash on the paint Robbie!!!

So, the bit immediately after the bump strip will "probably" polish out. However, on the arch, it's definately dropped through the paint and will need to be reparied.

If that's true then yes, but on my monitor it looks like it could potentially be paint from the other car. Plus step one is still do what I said, as it may look acceptable enough after that...or it may not

.

Django x2 · 5 Apr 2011 at 15:01

That's definitely primer (his primer) on the arch

Participant · 5 Apr 2011 at 15:03

Step 1! I only said step 1!!! Gaaaahh

PhillyDee · 5 Apr 2011 at 16:02

Robbie G said:
Step 1! I only said step 1!!! Gaaaahh

Invertigo · 5 Apr 2011 at 16:35

Robbie G said:
Step one - wash and a polish with some plastic trim treatment and see how it scrubs up.

Colour coding the bump strips is risky unless you know what you're doing. If it's slightly out it will look worse than black imo.

I have Thursday off, so it's getting the full wash and polish then. With the bump strips, I was considering just getting a set of 4 from a breaker and trying them as opposed to the ones on the car currently

Lucero said:
i think he's more worried about the massive scratch and gash on the paint Robbie!!!

So, the bit immediately after the bump strip will "probably" polish out. However, on the arch, it's definately dropped through the paint and will need to be reparied.

Touch it up with a pen or similar now to avoid it rusting until you decide what to do but a smart repair will probably suffice. Is it a Focus?

Yep, its a Focus. I assume its not paint from the other car, as I gave it a quick rub down earlier to remove all the dust. I guess that, if the scratch on the door buffs out, a smart repair would be fine for the scratch on the arch?