First scrape - argh! Advice requested for hiding my shame!
Discussion
Hey all, first post - "pistonhead" is maybe not the best description of me but I'm sure there's no better place to go for advice. I hope you won't think too badly of me for what is likely a bit of a drive-by. (Does a car pun help???)
I've acquired a new, small but deep scrape in my car courtesy of a gatepost's hinge. Oh well, I'm sure it happens to everyone sooner or later. As a new member I can't post links, but pictures will probably be useful; I uploaded a few to imgur and they're accessible under `/a/PjyHWoH`. it's roughly 10-15cm long, so not huge. I think it'll be possible to touch it up so it's not too noticeable, though both the door and wheel arch are dented a bit.
I don't mind a DIY solution but wouldn't want to spend ages on it. If I get no advice I'd be buying a matched pot/pen of paint and following some youtube video. However, I don't know how far to take it: I've got no fine-grit sandpaper, polish and so on, and I know that the full method is fairly involved with several stages of preparation, layering, sanding and polishing - so really what I'm looking for is advice on the relationship between effort and reward here, i.e. is just filling a small scratch in with a couple of layers likely to hide it reasonably, or do I need to suck it up, get a few grades of sandpaper and dedicate an afternoon to it. Or alternatively, what kind of professional service might do this without charging an arm and a leg? I might get it fixed properly in the future, but not yet, because a new driver will soon be insured on the car and we both agree that it's at further risk
Finally, it's important that this doesn't get any worse. I can see that the paint has cracked in one spot and lifted in another, and with my inexperience I can't tell how many layers of paint this has gone through, so whether I need to take extra care in those spots and/or to seal against rust.
Thanks for your help!
I've acquired a new, small but deep scrape in my car courtesy of a gatepost's hinge. Oh well, I'm sure it happens to everyone sooner or later. As a new member I can't post links, but pictures will probably be useful; I uploaded a few to imgur and they're accessible under `/a/PjyHWoH`. it's roughly 10-15cm long, so not huge. I think it'll be possible to touch it up so it's not too noticeable, though both the door and wheel arch are dented a bit.
I don't mind a DIY solution but wouldn't want to spend ages on it. If I get no advice I'd be buying a matched pot/pen of paint and following some youtube video. However, I don't know how far to take it: I've got no fine-grit sandpaper, polish and so on, and I know that the full method is fairly involved with several stages of preparation, layering, sanding and polishing - so really what I'm looking for is advice on the relationship between effort and reward here, i.e. is just filling a small scratch in with a couple of layers likely to hide it reasonably, or do I need to suck it up, get a few grades of sandpaper and dedicate an afternoon to it. Or alternatively, what kind of professional service might do this without charging an arm and a leg? I might get it fixed properly in the future, but not yet, because a new driver will soon be insured on the car and we both agree that it's at further risk
Finally, it's important that this doesn't get any worse. I can see that the paint has cracked in one spot and lifted in another, and with my inexperience I can't tell how many layers of paint this has gone through, so whether I need to take extra care in those spots and/or to seal against rust.
Thanks for your help!
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