[GrabEmByTheBimmer]

PHOTOS ATTACHED. At work, noticed a car parked extremely diagonally in spot next to me. Naturally inspected for damage and immediately found a very noticeable 1.5" scratch on my door that wasn't there before. The color of the scratch is dark from some angles, and light from others. Doesn't look like a door ding but I'm guessing this person walked to their back door and part of their purse or clothing scratched my car. My first thought is this is clearcoat only. But it does lightly stop my fingernail during the fingernail test, so maybe I'm screwed. My questions:

- If you were me, would you press your place of employment for access to security camera footage? Camera angle would be enough for me to judge if they scratched my car but not enough for an insurance agency (the perp would be filmed from opposite, un scratched side of car). I left them a note to call me and they didn't. Can't really prove it - should I just let this go and handle it myself?

- It seems the way to fix superficial scratches is to polish off the clearcoat then apply wax to re-seal. The idea of this bothers me - Is there any way to actually re apply a layer of that clearcoat back on, after polishing it down with a compound like scratch x? Or is constant wax application the only way to protect the scratch area after buffing it out? Doesn't this mean same area is prone to worse damage the next time it gets scratched, bc of a lack of clearcoat?

- Other ideas I haven't mentioned?

[Billfitz]

I fix scratches like that with an airbrush, then I wet sand and rub out like any paintwork, but with an area that small I do it all by hand, no need to use the power tools. If I'm sure it's in the clear coat only I only spray clear coat to fill the scratch. If it's through the color coat I'll spray one coat of color, then a couple more of clear coat to fully fill the scratch. If you're going to paint don't do any sanding or polishing first, just clean it with lacquer thinner. You're not trying to do an area, you're only filling the scratch.

[435GranC]

Try using (by hand) one of the compounds available at the bigbox stores (Advance, etc). Followed up by a Polish/Wax. Even for something that small a scratch-x solution may work.

Any body shop with a rotary buffer should be able to remove that easily if its not too deep, and for cheap money.

[Billfitz]

The problem with so-called scratch removal products is that they don't remove the scratch, they remove the paint around the scratch until it's the same level as the scratch. If the scratch is very shallow that's OK, if not you're making it worse. It's usually best to fill the scratch first, with clear coat alone if it's superficial, with color coat it's deep.

[agad]

Mark the area with masking tape. Wet sand it with 1500 grit with a very light pressure, them move to 2000 grit and apply more pressure and then move to 2500 grit. Buff it with Meguiars ultimate compound using a rotary or a DA polisher on a medium speed and you’re good to go! In 95% of cases the scratch will disappear unless if it was quite deep, however using this method will make it barley visible in case if it was deep. I fixed loads of these scratches on all my cars using this method and most of them were gone for good! Good luck

[Billfitz]

That's pretty much the same as what I do...after I fill the scratch with paint.

[wdeerfield]

any recommendations for best place to get touch up paint. had something fly off a truck last night and ive got two nice chips/scratches down to metal on my fender now the size of a bb.

[Billfitz]

www.automotivetouchup.com

[Jekyllmd]

buff it out and wrap the car in Xpel; done deal and move on.

Just my 2 cents.

[wdeerfield]

Originally Posted by Jekyllmd

buff it out and wrap the car in Xpel; done deal and move on.

Just my 2 cents.

a $3000 fix from just your 2 cents.