[eee_90]

hey all,

Unfortunately I am another victim of a jealous low life. My car was key'd last night, though I have to say it could have been much worse.

It was right next to a convenience store, and I checked with them to see if they had any cameras, but unfortunately they do not have any of the outside.

So... I am stuck either living with it, or fixing it. Anyone else been in this situation? What is the process and how much lighter should I expect my pockets to become?

[hellomyBMW]

damn... that sucks. I'v gotten my old X5 keyd too in the past but it wasn't bad as your...
The best thing is to buy touch up paint and try to blend it in. And afterwards, you will need to use a mechanical buffer to buff the shiiiiiiit out of it.
If you look on this forum under the cosmetic section, you will find a good touch up paint products. I remember seeing it before.
Good luck!

[Sara]

You have to fix that. Sorry it happened to you though.

[Reznick]

THis just sucks and we're all seeing these threads too often.I had it done to mine , but only on the hood( I guess that could be called lucky)From what I can see its scratches down through the clear at the very lest. Its gonna need to go to the body shop. I'd start by calling your insurance and go from there. Does the scratch go from the quarter panel to the rear door or all the way to the front fender?. Either way I hate to say it , but its not gonna be cheap.I do a lot of custom painting and I hate to say it but I've never seen a touched up scratch or something that has been blended that ends looking good. Especially with a really dark color. Sorry...some days I really hate people

[ragingclue]

How deep is it? Looks pretty shallow. Doesn't look like it got to metal, so that's good. You're pretty lucky the offender isn't very good at keying cars.

[eee_90]

Thanks for advice everyone.

Originally Posted by Reznick

THis just sucks and we're all seeing these threads too often.I had it done to mine , but only on the hood( I guess that could be called lucky)From what I can see its scratches down through the clear at the very lest. Its gonna need to go to the body shop. I'd start by calling your insurance and go from there. Does the scratch go from the quarter panel to the rear door or all the way to the front fender?. Either way I hate to say it , but its not gonna be cheap.I do a lot of custom painting and I hate to say it but I've never seen a touched up scratch or something that has been blended that ends looking good. Especially with a really dark color. Sorry...some days I really hate people

It goes from the quarter panel to roughly the handle of the front passenger door.

I've never had this happen, so I'm unfamiliar, but it really does NOT look very deep, perhaps just the clear coat? But I could be dead wrong. If it's just the clear, does that make the repair any easier/less expensive?

[GChase]

I have similar smaller in length key marks from people who did it to the previous owner of my car. If you have a buffer or you just wax the s**t out of it, it will make it much less visible. This won't completely fix it though.

I don't recommend you go through insurance. That will be way too costly. Also don't get a completely new paintjob. This doesn't seem that deep...

So either buff it yourself or get a professional buffer to try and get it out. If that doesn't work, then go the touch up paint route. I warn you though, 99% of touch up paints are S**T and will not match your car. I learned the hard way from trying to touch up my front bumper, and it ended up looking worse than before, so I just got the whole thing re-painted ($400). Goodluck!

[Blzn335]

I had my 350z keyed all the way around. I went through insurance (vandalism). Files a police report, turned it into my insurance, paid $500 deductible and painted the who car. Sux but what can you do. Sorry for ur loss

[Dark_Knight_335]

Thankfully you have a dark color -should be fairly easy to blend.

[mixahhh]

I had some similar damage in my roof, when I bought my car. How can you miss such a thing, when buying a car? well, easily..

anyway I used some ultra-fine sanding paper 2000+ roughness and polishing paste. The end result was amazing:


You need some time to rub with this polishing paste to make the lack surface smooth. Low RPM polishing machine with a clean sponge and small amount of paste is excellent.

Disclaimer: Try it first in a less-visible spot. Use sufficient amount of water with sanding paper..

[Notsafe335i]

Here's how you fix it.

Set the person who did it on fire. Problem solved.

"You don't f$#% with a man's automobile." Vincent Vega, Pulp Fiction.

[KidSupreme]

yeah, take it to a body shop. Sorry to hear that tho.

[Mardio]

That really sucks. Do not worry... they will pay, karma is on the way!

[JustinGTP]

Did you do anything douchey prior to the keying? Driving like an asshat or double parking? Not that it makes it ok, just don't be a target! If you were driving like an angel and parked nicely, then WTF and people are just plain losers. I am in the process of getting two key marks painted because they are too deep

[techy1]

2000-3000 grit wet/dry sandpaper rubbing compound and polish will do the trick.

I've cleaned up a few of these before.

if you don't feel comfortable with the sandpaper i'd suggest you go to a body shop, maybe need a bit of touch up paint but might not. can't tell without it in front of me.

If it was me personally I'd just go to the body shop main reason I'm to lazy now to do this work myself.

[KwlAznKid]

i will never understand why people do this to other people's cars especailly when you didn't do anything wrong

[DASHOCKER]

try scratch x with a buffer.

[Dark_Knight_335]

All of you mention wet-sanding.
What are your plans for your clear-coats?

[gpb]

Originally Posted by Dark_Knight_335

All of you mention wet-sanding.
What are your plans for your clear-coats?

Meguiars M205 polish. M105 then M205 if needed.

I've taken out a couple of scratches with the following technique:

1. clean the area thoroughly; cottonball with alcohol for example.
2. apply touchup paint to the scratch with a toothpick or a micro brush, use the absolute minimum amount of paint
3. wet sand the dried touch up paint level with the surface, I used 2000 grit paper cut out with a hole punch and glued to the eraser end of a pencil -- do your best to sand only the touchup paint and minimize how much you get into the surrounding clearcoat.
4. clean the area to get rid of any sanding detrius
5. polish with the above Meguiars combo or equivalent
6. reapply sealant and/or wax to the area

I used to have a link to a web page that showed this technique in detail but can't find it; Google for paint scratch repair and include terms like paper punch and pencil eraser. There are also several youtube videos. One I saw advocated bondo hole putty for very deep scratches as the underlying filler to build up the base. (technically, the guy advocated his special $20 filler that he sold, but it looked and acted exactly he was rebadging Bondo's $3 tubes)

[thecadman99]

Watch some youtube videos, they'll help

As mentioned above- you can do a lot to help it.
Wetsanding lightly with a very small piece of 2000 grit, followed up with 3000 grit, or something like M105 or Megs Ultimate Compound, then M205, then a sealer (synthetic wax) will do a lot to make it disappear.

This kind of thing is why I will probably never buy a new car- I would be TICKED!
KARMA KARMA KARMA!

[techy1]

Originally Posted by Dark_Knight_335

All of you mention wet-sanding.
What are your plans for your clear-coats?

sorry writing at work left out the details about that part but the two guys above this are right on.

[psmitty95]

That sucks. I'm pretty sure someone took a razor or something else sharp to my back windshield because I just noticed two really deep scratches a few days ago. At first I thought it might have been a branch but then it would've got my trunk too and I purposely avoid hanging branches...