Scuff/scratch fix?

[Spanman702]

Some body tried to parallel in a spot way to small and scratched the front of my car and left. Its a 2000 Toyota Camry with lunar mist 1c8 any good procedures to make this look better, its just a large scuff mark and some scratches. Thanks alot for any help
Here are some pictures they are not the greatest but you can see there is one main scratch in the middle that is kinda like a crease and the rest are minimal surface scratches
http://s301.photobucket.com/albums/n...av_album_album

[eddie926]

You should probably post this in the Detailing forum. But, posting a pic would help. How deep are the scratches? If your fingernail catches in them when you run it across them, then they may be too deep for you to get out.

If they're not that deep and you just have "surface" scuff and/or paint left behind by the offender's door, you may be able to correct most of it with Meguiars ScratchX.

http://www.meguiars.com/?auto-paint-cleaners/ScratchX

You can ge it cheap at Wal Mart. I've used it successfully on many a scuff.

Edit: When I said what i said about your fingernail catching, that only applies if it's a scratch. You may also perceive that your fingernal "catches" if you have paint from the other car on your paint and it results in a slightly "raised" edge. If it's paint from the other car that is causing the "catch", you SHOULD be able to fix that with ScratchX.

[ELL]

If you have access to a polisher (dual action or if more advanced, rotary), try to buff out the damage using a medium grade polish
If not, and you are set on repairing it yourself, you can probably wet sand the area down evenly before applying a coat of touch up paint in your car color, followed by clearcoat (multiple coats if you want a better job)

[eddie926]

Again, posting some pics would help. It all depends on how bad the damage is.

If the damage is severe enough you may need a polisher or even wet sanding as ELL noted. However, you should always start with the least aggressive method and step up to a more aggressive method only if necessary. i.e. don't just launch into wet sanding as you may cause more damage than you fix.

I've gotten out some pretty nasty looking scuffs by hand with ScratchX and it won't damage your finish.

If that doesn't work, then I'd try the medium grade polish, realizing the you may have to use a fine grade polish afterward to remove hazing caused by the medium grade polish.

I'd go to wetsanding only as a last resort and only if you're really comfortable doing it, realizing that that would be a multi-step process involving possibly multiple grades of sand paper and multiple grades of polish afterward.

I'd concentrate on getting any surface scuffing off first then see what you've got in scratches afterward. If the scratches are deep enough to catch your nail then you're talking fairly major correction which you may or may not want/be able to do yourself.

[EEngineer]

dump the car and get an new camry =D

[Spanman702]

Theres pics up on the original post if anyone can help

[eddie926]

From what I can tell in the pictures, I 'd say you'd be able to clean all the black scuffing off with ScratchX. It's a fairly large area though, so doing it by hand will be a fair amount of work. It's definitely bad enough that if it was on my car I'd be taking my PC 7424 to it. I think with a good polish and either a machine or a lot of muscle you can get 90+% of it out.

Unfortunatgely, it appears to me that you have at least one fairly deep gouge, that one that's toward the middle vertically, that I don't think you're going to be able to do much with on your own.

[ELL]

It's not as bad as I visualized, but like eddie says, you've still got your work cut out for you

I see several fairly deep looking scuffs, but my 7424 has proven to me that it's not always as bad as it initially appears. You can probably polish that out pretty well

Luckily, I don't think it's even that noticeable. Hell, I live in NYC, where people ding you all the time and the parking spots are super small.

I've never used ScratchX, so can't help you there.

[gladis]

Well my mom effed up my car by parking it and running it against a metal post (thank god for side moldings), but the front part of the rear wheel well got scratched up too.

I used some rubbing compound, followed up with polishing, then meg's deep crystal. I rubbed off a lot of clear, but i dont have a machine, and I thought it was much better than leaving the white crap on it.

Eventually I'll have to go in and get a proper paint job reworked on parts of the car.