Re Spray Or Polish

JPWilson · June 12, 2014

Hey guys, a while ago Isomeone keyed my car which I have touched upas best I could.

On the door that's scratched its also faded a bit.

I wanted peoples opinion, could this be mopped and the faded paint got rid of and make the scratch look better or would it need spraying?

Cheers guys.

wendle · June 12, 2014

I would have thought that if the scratch has gone below the
clear coat / lacquerer level then the scratch will not polish out, as for the
fading it could polish up as long as again its not the clear coat that is
damaged.

It looks like the scratch is in the middle of the door so a
smart repair is really out of the question, depending on how fussy you are, it
would improve the look but smart repairers usually don’t like doing repairs in
the middle of panels as its difficult to get a good blend, unfortunately that
only leaves a full panel re spray.

jomo · June 13, 2014

I give machine polishing a go first if you have one, start off by wet sanding area where the scratch is to feather the edges, then polish back with a rotary or dual action polisher.

If you dont have the stuff to do this then give a local detailer a call, ask if they do paint correction and get them to pop round and give you a quote.

I'd say your looking around £60-£80 to do the door, or £150-£250 to correct the whole car, as if one doors gone bet you a dollar the rest of the car could do with it.

JPWilson · June 13, 2014

Thanks guys..

The reason i ask is a friend of a friend does this as his job, he said he would do the whole car as a 4 stage process for £50 as a mate.

He said the scratches would look a lot better but cannot guarantee the faded white would come up like new so im wondering if its worth it or to get the parts re done but then thats going to be £300 or so.

Does a 4 stage process sound about right as ive never had it done before... he said it would take around 3-4 hours.

wendle · June 13, 2014

He must be a good mate, I would have thought the products to
do the job correctly would have come to that amount.

JPWilson · June 13, 2014

Ha ha... me too.

He's a friend of a friend.

I think i may just get the doors re-sprayed... pains me to spend money on something that some idiot took 10 seconds to destroy with a key.

jomo · June 13, 2014

Not knocking your mate but 3-4 hours to do a 4 stage paint correction he must be an octopus!!!

To wash a car, clay the paint, clean the paint to just start the correcting stage takes 2-3 hours alone, now a good paint correction can take up to 2-3 days but thats going to the far end of the scale, but i'd say no less that 6 hours to remove swirls and defects in the paint then polish and seal sounds about right to me.

Read this post, http://www.lexusownersclub.co.uk/forum/topic/90734-detailing/