Deep scratches in paint

Comments

• swschrad Member Posts: 2,171

  June 2001

  nasty. the / best \ way is to have the hood chemically taken to bare metal and fully refinished, as well as having a serious talk with the cat (or worst case, if it's a problem with drapes and legs and such as well, and is at the level of the cat or the claws, having a competent vet dissect the claws out of the paws. a competent vet will NOT use tools like nail clippers; some do, and that's like cleaning your fingernails with a chain saw. beware! the result can be a crippled critter that can't walk and is depressed and owly. you have to qualify the vet like you research a car or a mechanic.)
  
  you may have to settle for having it spot-patched and buffed out, and throwing an old moving pad or something over the miata hood when you get home. that's what most of us end up doing.
  
  in any event, I would try the moving pad long before I would try boxing up the cat and going to "kitty jail" for another go at the vet.

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• jgmilberg Member Posts: 872

  July 2001

  My stupid dog scratched the hell out of my new Yukon XL, I think a bird was on the luggage rack, and he wanted at it. It is dark blue and the scratches are obvious. I had the thing buffed out at a local auto detailers, looked good for a few car washes and now they are back! Went back to the shop that did the work, and was told that going at it with the buffer more will end up in a burned clear coat or rubbing all the way into the color.
  
  The dog is here to stay, so now I don't park in the back yard, but want it to look new again! I have insurance that will cover it, but don't like the thought of having my rates go up. Does anyone know if there is any way of fixing this short of haveing it re-painted? I love my truck, and want it to look as good as it did when I took delivery. Any help is greatly appreciated.

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• mrdetailer Member Posts: 1,118

  July 2001

  I use touch up paint, and recently, just lived with the spotting. But the paint it too thick from touch Here is a product that says it eliminated that issue. It's called Langka.

  
  I haven't tried it yet, but have ordered it.
  
  

  
  http://www.langka.com/
  
  

  
  Hey, if it doesn't work, there's always insurance.

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• timadams Member Posts: 294

  July 2001

  Make sure to let us know how the langka works. It looks interesting, even if it has a terrible name.

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• armtdm Member Posts: 2,057

  July 2001

  Well, I have this product and have tried it multiple times. It has never worked for me. Every time I use it according to instructions it removes all the paint from the touch up scratch, not just the blob, and I am back to ground zero. They suggest, which I have not tried , to let the paint dry several days before using Langka, someday, if I have the patience I will try this. Never does any damage, just removes too much of the recently applied touch up paint

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• anselmo1 Member Posts: 163

  July 2001

  I suggest you declaw the cat and get your hood painted. Touchup paint will not look good. Personally, the cat would have to go.

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• isellhondas Member Posts: 20,342

  August 2001

  There are companies like Same Day that offer excellent touch up services. They operate out of mobile trucks and will come to your house if you want.
  
  We use these guys and they are unbelievable.
  
  I'm sure every major city has a couple of these. Call your Mazda dealer and ask who they use.

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• isellhondas Member Posts: 20,342

  August 2001

  Don't try using touch up paint. The results will be worse than what you have now.

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• mrdetailer Member Posts: 1,118

  August 2001

  I don't have a new car, and I want to make the current paint coat last as long as possible. Last fall some scouts raking leaves (fund raiser) put 2 3-4 inch scratches in my sunrise Red Mazda. No good goes unpunished. I was able to find a touch up paint Ceramcoat that matched better than the bottles I ordered from Mazda last year.
  
  I also ordered Langka. I tested it on some smaller scratches first. Langka could easily completely eliminate any paint you added. With the supplied plastic card you have to use a cotton cloth. Don't use terry cloth. It cleans up everything fast, including the paint in the scratch. Find a thin 100% cotton, and use a lot of patience. Use very light strokes to be successful. Work outside. The fumes are toxic smelling. Really strong. It's a product that with a little artistry, and patience can be very good.
  
  I actually found that for my longer scratches that a flat toothpick worked much better than the supplied brush. I'ts hard to explain, but it seems that with the flat toothpick touching it to the scratch seemed to invoke capillary action. The paint just slurped into the scratch and left very little outside. The touch up brush got the scratch, and quite a bit outside of it. Langka was more useful on the brush scratch because of the extra amount, but using the toothpick was much better overall. It just filled in the scratch area.
  
  I could also get the toothpick to leave a smaller bump on very small rock chips.
  
  I've used black touch up paint on a black pickup, and it was much easier to match than the silver metalic, or Red colors. It was as easy as my white car.

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• spyderturbo Member Posts: 31

  September 2001

  I own a black Spyder Eclipse GS-T and I am a fanatic with the paint finish. I recently had the car at the dealers trying to diagnose a leak problem with the convertible top. To make a long story short, the clip on the knife the mechanic had in his front pocket made about 7 deep scratches in the driver's side rear quarter panel. The dealer buffed some of the scratches out and then took the car to a paint shop. The paint shop wet sanded the scratches out and then compounded, polished and wax buffed the remaining scratches. It was absolutely amazing. ALL of the scratches were removed. I would suggest that you go to a good paint and body shop and get them to look at your car. I would suggest that you NOT repaint the hood. A new paint job is NEVER as good as the original. Good luck!

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• ogor Member Posts: 1

  September 2001

  I just recently purchased a 2001 F-150 Supercrew and discovered a few minor scratches on the truck before driving it off the lot. Because the scratches were very light, I had no problem with making an appointment to bring the truck in latter and get them buffed out. Here's my problem, after getting my truck back from being worked on, not only did they do a lousy buff job (could still see the scratches) I discovered new scratches and a patch of clearcoat stripped off the paint above one of my tires. Besides bring it back in and risking further damage, does anyone have a suggestions how to deal with this situation? Thanks for any suggestions.

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• swschrad Member Posts: 2,171

  October 2001

  I would get some real good pictures with a polarizing filter on the camera lens, at a sharp angle to the paint defects, with the daily paper in the frame so you have some photographic evidence of what is there NOW.. obviously, you didn't have it then, so you're missing a step.
  
  which means next you probably should take the truck and the old work order back and talk to the shop manager, give them one more (free, absolutely) chance to take the monkey rash off the truck carefully.
  
  if that fails, get the same kind of pictures, copies of both orders, have a REAL body shop fix it, and take the whole documentary pile to small claims court and get some relief from the anti-body-shop. or tell everybody you know and see on the street what the anti-body-shop did, whichever is more gratifying... keeping in mind those dudes could sue YOU if they are really having trouble keeping their oatmeal down today, and they won't be in small claims court for THAT.

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