Scratch and Stone Chips

[pespro]

Hello all,
Car has not been driven for about two weeks, so very disappointed to see large scratch on the back quarter. Seems to be accidental with someone walking past too close.

I can unfortunately get my nail in all the scratches and chips, i have put DI water on them, you can see they get harder to see, but are still visible. Does that mean its gone through all layers and paint is the only solution?

The rest of the paintwork is in great condition, not being washed by the dealer when new.
The dilemma i have is, the car is a lease and not 'mine'. I want to make this look as best as possible without breaking the bank. In its current state, it would be picked up and charged upon return in two years time.
I do like cleaning cars etc, i feel they ruin the look of the car.

The options i see are
1. Hand polish every 3 months to fill in the scratches and chips. £20?
2. Get some touch up paint, £20 from BMW
3. Get a smart repair, probably around £200 or so i would say.

I have attached a final picture to show the car after its first wash before any damage. Would the first two options above hide the damage from that far away? Thank you all.

 

[jsmoke]

You won't get a perfect finish with touch up paint. You'll never get it 100% on your own imo.

 

[Steedie]

You won't get a perfect finish with touch up paint. You'll never get it 100% on your own imo.

This

I did a pretty awesome job on my previous car with a big stone chip, touch up and clear coat and some sanding down. From a distance it was fine, but at the right angle or close enough, you could see it wasn't 100%. Bugged me enough that I ended up getting it resprayed.

I would not be happy with that at all and like you say, that scratch might cost you on return. A good detailer could do a good job minimising how visible it is, but that looks like it's deep enough where you'd need a smart repair, and even then...depends if it's in an area they can blend without doing too much of a respray.

 

[jsmoke]

This video is impressive, it's for larger rust holes but same idea you'll get an idea of what it takes, it seems like a perfect finish but maybe it's not in the right light.

 

[ShadowMan]

If it’s not enough to bother you day to day then check your lease paperwork as you may find the cost on return is less than the repair. We handed back an Audi A6 and I believe they only charged £126 per panel for scratches and other minor stuff like that. As such we didn’t have anything fixed and expected their bill. As it was, BCA collected it and on their report they didn’t even pick it up so we ended up with only extra mileage charges.

you have 2 years left. Wait til nearer the end of it doesn’t bother you as you may get more and end up repairing the same panel twice if you need to at all.

 

[TNGL]

I recently had a similar thing happen to my new car. I think if you get it repaired now, you'll be kicking yourself if something happens to that panel again. I would say give it a few weeks and see if you gradually stop caring about it, if not, get it fixed.

 

[Armageus]

Polish with some SRP or similar, then wax and stop worrying.

Towards the end of the lease either payout to have it smart repaired, or as mentioned above the cost may not be excessive on hand back anyway.

Likely looks worse on the photos and is annoying "because you know it it there", but in person I imagine most people wouldn't even notice it.

 

[AiiR]

Depends how good you are at forgetting about these things. I hit a parked car yesterday and did some minor damage to our front bumper. You wouldn't notice it, but I know it's there, so decided to just bite the bullet and pay the dealership to repair it (£250). Me personally, I can't stand imperfections so the cost is relatively small compared to how leaving it would get on my nerves!

Gorgeous car btw, would love an 8 series myself.

 

[Nasher]

That colour will probably be difficult to match so a respray might mean doing a large area around it to blend it in properly. Maybe it's just the camera but it look a bit orangey and orange is difficult.

 

[jsmoke]

That colour will probably be difficult to match so a respray might mean doing a large area around it to blend it in properly. Maybe it's just the camera but it look a bit orangey and orange is difficult.

You can get colour code from plate though?

 

[Nasher]

You can get colour code from plate though?

That's only the first step of the process. Just because you have a paint code doesn't mean it will be a 100% match for the paint on the car and it's really obvious on orange when it isn't.

 

[Armageus]

You can get colour code from plate though?

Yes, but the finished result with metallics and pearlescents can be difficult to match because they require several different stages

 

[paintguy]

This video is impressive, it's for larger rust holes but same idea you'll get an idea of what it takes, it seems like a perfect finish but maybe it's not in the right light.

It's a shame he failed at the first step - "remove all rust"

So many bad practices shown in that video, but it did look decent in the end for a DIY job. I'll give it a month though before it sinks and looks like a relief map of the Marianas Trench

That's only the first step of the process. Just because you have a paint code doesn't mean it will be a 100% match for the paint on the car and it's really obvious on orange when it isn't.

Precisely. Even getting the paint 100% right won't guarantee a perfect match since application can vary the colour wildly. Give me a single pot of paint and I could get several different shades out of it.

 

[jsmoke]

It's a shame he failed at the first step - "remove all rust"

So many bad practices shown in that video, but it did look decent in the end for a DIY job. I'll give it a month though before it sinks and looks like a relief map of the Marianas Trench



Precisely. Even getting the paint 100% right won't guarantee a perfect match since application can vary the colour wildly. Give me a single pot of paint and I could get several different shades out of it.

So what's your advice, get the whole car repainted?

 

[paintguy]

So what's your advice, get the whole car repainted?

The one in the video? That's quite unnecessary, a local repair would be perfectly acceptable there. There are just much better ways of doing it.

If you mean colour matching, there are a few ways to go about it. Spraying test pieces first to get the best out of the colour / undercoat / application technique / number of layers / drying speed etc. If that doesn't get you close enough then flicking some colour a small way into the adjacent panels will generally do the trick.

 

[ezekial]

Does the lease not state an acceptable level of wear? To me it doesn't look that bad. If it really bothers you I would just use chips away or something, the repairs are adequate for a lease car.