Scratch remover? T cut or others?

[Looking4aCar]

Hi guys

I have a faint (but noticeable) scratch on the door of my C Classs and wanted to ask what the best way would be to get it removed?

Should I try T-Cut or any other scratch removers? Will that damage the car in the long run? And is this a permanent solution?

Or should I take it to a garage for a more professional repair?

Or any other recommendations?

Thanks

[rainmakerraw]

Define 'scratch'? Is it down to primer? Bare metal? Or is just the clear coat marked with a line? How old is the car (I'm asking what kind of paint it is)? A picture speaks a thousand words and all that... It may be that you can machine polish out the worst of it so it's not worth repairing, or it might be a smart repair/paint job. Hard to say without seeing it.

[Looking4aCar]

rainmakerraw said:

Define 'scratch'? Is it down to primer? Bare metal? Or is just the clear coat marked with a line? How old is the car (I'm asking what kind of paint it is)? A picture speaks a thousand words and all that... It may be that you can machine polish out the worst of it so it's not worth repairing, or it might be a smart repair/paint job. Hard to say without seeing it.

Will get a picture in the morning!

There are 1 or 2 bits which are down to bare metal (very small) but most of it looks like the clear coat marked with a line

[rainmakerraw]

Looking4aCar said:

Will get a picture in the morning!

There are 1 or 2 bits which are down to bare metal (very small) but most of it looks like the clear coat marked with a line

Smart repair imho. You can touch it in, knock it back down with a DA machine polisher and keep it waxed etc; but ultimately if you have bare metal it needs painting properly. A smart repair wouldn't cost much, certainly compared to the cost of your car. For what you've described £50 to £100 isn't unlikely, so peanuts compared to leaving it exposed to the elements. Where are you based? There'll be a good local bodyshop specialising in this stuff, else you might be lucky and have a quality ChipsAway or similar (they're all franchises so quality varies). Someone will be able to give you a hint if you post your location.

[996TT02]

No you can't t-cut anything that deep. Needs paint. Smart repair perhaps.

[Looking4aCar]

rainmakerraw said:

Smart repair imho. You can touch it in, knock it back down with a DA machine polisher and keep it waxed etc; but ultimately if you have bare metal it needs painting properly. A smart repair wouldn't cost much, certainly compared to the cost of your car. For what you've described £50 to £100 isn't unlikely, so peanuts compared to leaving it exposed to the elements. Where are you based? There'll be a good local bodyshop specialising in this stuff, else you might be lucky and have a quality ChipsAway or similar (they're all franchises so quality varies). Someone will be able to give you a hint if you post your location.

Thanks I am in East London / Boarder with Essex.

Any local recommendations?

Thanks.

[Yipper]

Run a fingernail across it. If you can feel a bump or trough, as above, you're best-off getting someone like ChipsAway to fill and repaint it for £50-100. You can do it for perhaps £10-30 with a bit of T-Cut and a touchup paintstick, but will struggle to match a pro job from someone who does it every day with pro materials.

[jwilliamsm3]

T-cut is so 1990's!

much much better stuff on the market now, look on detailing world

[paintman]

Does the scratch seem to disappear if it's wetted? If it does then likely polishing along the line of the scratch will smooth out the damage to the clearcoat & take the eye off it.
If you try & get it flat there is a high risk you will go through the clear to the basecoat & then it's probably going to be a door respray. Dependent on the colour there are then likely to be shade issues between the door & the rest of the car - silver & pale metallics being particularly problematic & I won't get involved with doors as a result.

[Squiggs]

£50 - £100 to paint repair a door WTF!
To call out an electrician or plumber can cost £50, and that's before he actually does something, yet some people expect that getting someone round to repair a door on your pride and joy can be done for the same price!

When you take into account, travelling time, fuel, van tools and public liability insurance, materials, wear and tear on the van and tools, national insurance, VAT and tax and the fact that a quality and lasting repair will take anything upwards of 2 hours labour, then how could you possibly expect it to cost less than £100?
When you do the maths it wouldn't be a viable business!
At £50 for the job you'd be expecting the repairer to actually run a business turning out quality jobs for a wage of less than about £6 an hour.
I'd rather be flipping burgers at McDonalds.

[Yipper]

jwilliamsm3 said:

T-cut is so 1990's!

much much better stuff on the market now, look on detailing world

For hand-polishing a heavy scratch, T-Cut still works as good as anything on the market (when used properly). It's just pure snobbery on DW because they sell it in Halfords and not some detailing boutique at twice the price. For light scratches by hand or machine, there is Autoglym SRP, etc. For deeper machine-polishing, there is Meguiars M105, etc. Horses for courses.

[Yipper]

Squiggs said:

£50 - £100 to paint repair a door WTF!
To call out an electrician or plumber can cost £50, and that's before he actually does something, yet some people expect that getting someone round to repair a door on your pride and joy can be done for the same price!

When you take into account, travelling time, fuel, van tools and public liability insurance, materials, wear and tear on the van and tools, national insurance, VAT and tax and the fact that a quality and lasting repair will take anything upwards of 2 hours labour, then how could you possibly expect it to cost less than £100?
When you do the maths it wouldn't be a viable business!
At £50 for the job you'd be expecting the repairer to actually run a business turning out quality jobs for a wage of less than about £6 an hour.
I'd rather be flipping burgers at McDonalds.

Scratch-repair is a commoditized, overcrowded industry. It only takes a few tools and a few days of training to become a professional. Pretty much anyone can do it to a "good enough" level. There is always someone else around the corner who will do it for a cheaper price.

[Squiggs]

Yipper said:

Scratch-repair is a commoditized, overcrowded industry. It only takes a few tools and a few days of training to become a professional. Pretty much anyone can do it to a "good enough" level. There is always someone else around the corner who will do it for a cheaper price.

A few tools and a few days training doesn't make a professional .... it makes a cowboy that charges people for bodging up damage on their cars.

My training took a month, my tools cost well over 5k and that was over eleven years ago.

If you think pretty much anyone can do it to a 'good enough level' then you're obviously not that fussed about what repairs look like or how long they last.

A true a professional can do it a standard that is practically perfect and will offer a guarantee that their repair will last. This is the type of repair most people want on their pride and joy.

True that there's always someone cheaper round the corner, but that cowboy will be using cheap products, and he'll be cutting corners on prep work so he can rush onto the next job to try and make a living.
It will be cheap because it's not a quality job and the repair probably won't last six months.
You won't be able to call him back to redo the job because he doesn't offer a guarantee.
And if he did offer a guarantee it wouldn't be worth the paper it was written on because he'll have gone out of business anyway ..... because he was charging so low he couldn't keep his business afloat and/or he had so many complaints about his work people simply stopped using him.

[one eyed mick]

Gee you learnt every thing in a month and only spent 5 k on tools ,lucky /clever boy ! I'm 70 started at 15 and am still learning ! tools ? Imust have spent 15/20 k ! and there are things I havent got

[Winky151]

I think people are just commenting that the likes of Chipsaway quote something like £60 per panel regardless of how many dings are in it. You can't have a go at people quoting what companies advertise.

[docter fox]

I tried T cut on a bumper last weekend and was surprised at how much of a difference it made! You can still see it if you look closely but you can't see it when you stand up, £5 well spent!

[Squiggs]

one eyed mick said:

Gee you learnt every thing in a month and only spent 5 k on tools ,lucky /clever boy ! I'm 70 started at 15 and am still learning ! tools ? Imust have spent 15/20 k ! and there are things I havent got

Obviously I was talking of my initial training and my initial purchases.
Like you I find every day is a school day and regularly update to new and better tools.
My spending isn't quite as high as yours, but then you've got a few years on me

[s p a c e m a n]

I noticed that they've now got a smart repair place in the car park of my tescos yesterday, so now you can get the door dings from last weeks food shop fixed whilst you do this weeks shop