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Just noticed that our one year old car has got a bunch of pretty obvious scratches on the side . It appears that it has happened while taking it out of the garage since i can see it has generously scratched our gray garage walls. ** ATTACHING PICTURES WITH THE POST **
What would be the best way to address this and take care of the scratches or at least hide them to the best possible extent? I see various suggestions online along with DIY kits but not sure whats best for these kind of scratches. If i need to take it to a shop, I would hate to spend anything more than $250-300 dollars since it is on the side with no dents and not very obvious.
Do body shops or dealers respray just specific areas of the car to address such issues? Or is respraying usually done only for entire body? I assume respraying specific areas would still be quite expensive?
If i just leave it as such, Is there a possibility of paint peeling out in future? There are no dents but extent of scratches is a bit unclear to me. I do not see any spots where it has totally peeled out. I tried washing with water to see if it was just paint from the garage wall that was sticking on the car but this is how it looked after cleaning.
Looks like paint transfer. It may not even need a respray but just a good buffing. If repaint is necessary, they can just repaint the affected area; no need to repaint the whole car. Even just respraying a specific area is usually a few hundred bucks though. Automotive painting has pretty high fixed costs; you're already a couple hundred bucks down on prep work and materials before they ever turn the spray nozzle on.
From the pictures . . . try a good Cleaner / Polish first and very possibly most, if not all, your problems will be gone. If that doesn't do it, try a good rubbing compound.
Well, All of the above except...
That will not buff with "mild compound".
Go to parts store and buy variety sand paper kit. Should have all wet-or-dry sheets from 600 all the way into 3200.
Start with 800 grit, damp rag seeping water down onto work area, and GENTLY sand the area. GENTLY. You do NOT want to go through paint to primer. Make sure water is continuously running to flush shavings off.
Proceed through 1000>1200>2400>all the way into 3200 grit.
MOST of this will disappear, if you were lucky. NOW you can buff it. You likely to end up with still noticeable mark on the edge, as it looks like it went through pain to primer.
Color match respray at paint shop is about $400.
You can go automotive paint store (Wesco here) or even Sherwin Williams, and they will mix you color match spray can. But that is costly and takes quite experience with how to spray. You can order spray cans with color match in auto parts stores. I just ordered 2 cans for my truck, few months ago, $8 each.
Do NOT start with sandpaper of any kind. Always start with the mildest substance. We can be pretty confident that ScratchX won't take care of this. But a product like Meguiar's Ultimate Compound used with a random orbital polisher might just take care of it. Only if that doesn't work should you consider a more aggressive strategy.
Definitely don't start with sandpaper. In fact, unless you are experienced at detailing don't even try sandpaper if the compound doesn't work. Take it to a detail or body shop.
It does look like you have a good chance to get that buffed out though. At the very least it wil look much better.
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. It appears that it has happened while taking it out of the garage since i can see it has generously scratched our gray garage walls. ** ATTACHING PICTURES WITH THE POST **
