Araargghhh - I have buffed through the clearcoat!
Discussion
Thanks to my friend's anglelic little boys squeezing past my lovely shiny Eurobox, they have introduced the handlebars of their bikes to the paintwork leaving a 10 inch scratch down a door. Feeling quite annoyed about it, but not wishing to show it, I bid my farewell and set about trying to polish the scratch out once I got home.
Using some GS27 scratch remover polish, I managed to rub most of the scratch out, except for about 1 inch where it must have been just little bit deeper. Unfortunately, I now notice that I have just gone through the clear lacquer coat in that area and now makes it more noticeable that it was before
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I took it to a back street bodyshop who said, only way of making it disappear would be to repaint the entire door, and of course half the driver's door and part of the rear quarter panel. I spoke to a Chipsaway guy on the phone and from my description, he said exactly the same - full panel repaint required. To me, this is really excessive to have all that done, and it would concern me that I have a huge area of paint that may not exactly match the rest of the car (it is a metallic steel grey), all due to a blob about the size of 1p coin spoiling the otherwise pristine paintwork.
So, I have booked for another "smart repair" franchisee to come and have a look at, and hopefully sort it out next week.
What I would like to know is, what do you think the chances are of covering up this little blemish where the lacquer has gone through? Anyone have any experience of this kind of "fault" and can say what was done to repair it? Was the result noticeable or completely invisible in the end?
Using some GS27 scratch remover polish, I managed to rub most of the scratch out, except for about 1 inch where it must have been just little bit deeper. Unfortunately, I now notice that I have just gone through the clear lacquer coat in that area and now makes it more noticeable that it was before
. I took it to a back street bodyshop who said, only way of making it disappear would be to repaint the entire door, and of course half the driver's door and part of the rear quarter panel. I spoke to a Chipsaway guy on the phone and from my description, he said exactly the same - full panel repaint required. To me, this is really excessive to have all that done, and it would concern me that I have a huge area of paint that may not exactly match the rest of the car (it is a metallic steel grey), all due to a blob about the size of 1p coin spoiling the otherwise pristine paintwork.
So, I have booked for another "smart repair" franchisee to come and have a look at, and hopefully sort it out next week.
What I would like to know is, what do you think the chances are of covering up this little blemish where the lacquer has gone through? Anyone have any experience of this kind of "fault" and can say what was done to repair it? Was the result noticeable or completely invisible in the end?
rom what you describe are going to have to paint at least the damaged panel, no choice i am afraid. A part panel area will be noticeable.
i had a scratch on my car last year and chips away sorted it using W&D sandpaper to remove the indentation and then buffed the clearcoat back to a shine. he said he didnt use scratch removers as it was too easy to do what you have done.
he checked first if the clearcoat was damaged, then work on it carefully to remove the scratch, only charged me £25.
Bennno
Bugger.
Well, the scratch has gone anyway. Just have to see what this chap says - but he does have a good match for my paint colour. The company he works for is "Flying Colours", and he touched up a scratch that was on the top of the car's rear bumper when I bought it. That repair is not noticeable from looking down on it, but I know it can be seen if you are looking for it. Just hope that he may be able to do something with this - I don't really want the hassle of getting a door re-painted if I can avoid it.
Well, the scratch has gone anyway. Just have to see what this chap says - but he does have a good match for my paint colour. The company he works for is "Flying Colours", and he touched up a scratch that was on the top of the car's rear bumper when I bought it. That repair is not noticeable from looking down on it, but I know it can be seen if you are looking for it. Just hope that he may be able to do something with this - I don't really want the hassle of getting a door re-painted if I can avoid it.
It's a shame the spray process/quality still can't be duplicated in this day and age.
I always wonder why they can't match metallic distribution, topography and clear coat depth/finish the same as the surrounding paint for an exact match.
Unfortunately with metallics the only way is to spray a big enough area so the blend is subtle enough to not be noticed.
No chance you could just put over a new layer of clearcoat and polish it up as good as you can and leave it at that?
Dave
I always wonder why they can't match metallic distribution, topography and clear coat depth/finish the same as the surrounding paint for an exact match.
Unfortunately with metallics the only way is to spray a big enough area so the blend is subtle enough to not be noticed.
No chance you could just put over a new layer of clearcoat and polish it up as good as you can and leave it at that?
Dave
High metallic-content paints can't be just painted over a blemish and then lacquered in, unfortunately. The flake distribution shows up the repaired area, sometimes just from certain angles, but it does show.
That's not a feature of the paint system or repairer skill, it's the simple physics of an atomised paint spray including metallic flakes and the physics of reflection meaning that a patch on top shows up in the way it reflects light - even though the paint may be identical (even from the same batch) as the original paintwork.
The repair needs to be blended to the nearest natural break in the panel, eg a trim strip, sharp curve or angled suage, or the panel edge. On large, unbroken flat panels, no repairer will be able to blend the repair away invisibly without a panel respray, sadly. With a paint mixed to perfectly match the panel though, the repair won't need pushing into adjoining panels as your back-street bodyshop suggest though. They may use stock paint or an approximate-only matching system, which would mean repainting several panels to hide the colour variation.
Anatol
That's not a feature of the paint system or repairer skill, it's the simple physics of an atomised paint spray including metallic flakes and the physics of reflection meaning that a patch on top shows up in the way it reflects light - even though the paint may be identical (even from the same batch) as the original paintwork.
The repair needs to be blended to the nearest natural break in the panel, eg a trim strip, sharp curve or angled suage, or the panel edge. On large, unbroken flat panels, no repairer will be able to blend the repair away invisibly without a panel respray, sadly. With a paint mixed to perfectly match the panel though, the repair won't need pushing into adjoining panels as your back-street bodyshop suggest though. They may use stock paint or an approximate-only matching system, which would mean repainting several panels to hide the colour variation.
Anatol
Edited by Anatol on Wednesday 21st June 19:36
Thanks Anatol. I'm starting to get a clear message here.
Can I ask then. How do I ensure that I get a perfect paint match if just the local panel is repainted then? The car is a Saab 9-3. Does that mean I should take it to a Saab dealership only? Or is it a case of going to a place that uses some licensed proprietry system to guarantee a match.
I see so many cars, especially silver ones and other metallics, where a repainted panel really does show up to me. And unfortunately, when it comes to my cars, I really am very very picky indeed and can spot the smallest flaw an absolute mile off. That's what's getting my goat on this. I nearly got rid of the original scratch, probably 97% gone. But going in search of getting rid of that last 3% is when I discover that it has breached the lacquer layer. Big regrets now for causing this 'little smudge' in the paint that could now get quite expensive - and I'll be even more put out if I spend a couple of hundred pounds and get a full paint job that I find is noticeable, and therefore unacceptable to my picky self. HOWEVER, if I can get a near perfect match to the factory finish - it may be the excuse to get the stone chips done on the front at the same time - bound to be cheaper than taking it in again at a later time.
Nightmare this car - absolute nightmare. I am sure the build date must have been a Friday the 13th!
Can I ask then. How do I ensure that I get a perfect paint match if just the local panel is repainted then? The car is a Saab 9-3. Does that mean I should take it to a Saab dealership only? Or is it a case of going to a place that uses some licensed proprietry system to guarantee a match.
I see so many cars, especially silver ones and other metallics, where a repainted panel really does show up to me. And unfortunately, when it comes to my cars, I really am very very picky indeed and can spot the smallest flaw an absolute mile off. That's what's getting my goat on this. I nearly got rid of the original scratch, probably 97% gone. But going in search of getting rid of that last 3% is when I discover that it has breached the lacquer layer. Big regrets now for causing this 'little smudge' in the paint that could now get quite expensive - and I'll be even more put out if I spend a couple of hundred pounds and get a full paint job that I find is noticeable, and therefore unacceptable to my picky self. HOWEVER, if I can get a near perfect match to the factory finish - it may be the excuse to get the stone chips done on the front at the same time - bound to be cheaper than taking it in again at a later time.
Nightmare this car - absolute nightmare. I am sure the build date must have been a Friday the 13th!
Just got a quote from a local body shop who told me that they could repaint the whole panel without going onto others, and that I would not be able to see any difference because they match the paint up. Cost £160 + VAT and can do it in the space of the day.
Having the whole door seems to be OTT for the relatively small patch where the clearcoat has gone, but on the other hand, I guess its most likely to yield the best results in the long run. Just hope that they can do as good a job as they say.
Having the whole door seems to be OTT for the relatively small patch where the clearcoat has gone, but on the other hand, I guess its most likely to yield the best results in the long run. Just hope that they can do as good a job as they say.
I own a 12 year old Jaguar that I regularly take to shows, it won best of class at Wincanton Classic show last weekend. No I'm not bragging, but merely trying to put my comments into some sort of perspective for you!!! The car is a deep red, Jaguar micatalic finish with a clear laquer top coat. This paint gas mica particles as opposed to aluminium particles, I believe. To get to my point, however, I had both the bonnet and the drivers door resprayed as I was not happy with the finish. (A replacememt bonnet had been fitted and the paintwork on the door damaged). I took it to a recommended general bodyshop and made it quite clear that I wanted a high standard of finish without blending the paints across the adjacent fron wings and rear door. They had no problem with that and in fact quoted a far less expensive price! The work done was excellent, the colour etc. matched perfectly and I have had plenty of favourable comments at shows on this work. It just shows what can be done. I think that you need to make clear what your standards are, that you do not want adjacent panels touched. If they are still willing to take on the work, you have plenty of grounds for complaint in the unlikely event that the work is not upto scratch. Always inspect other work being carried out at the works to guage their standard.
For the record, I used Westwood Motors, near Bradford upon Avon, Wiltshire if anyone is interested. There is no website, advertisement as word-of-mouth suffices!!!
Hope this helps.
For the record, I used Westwood Motors, near Bradford upon Avon, Wiltshire if anyone is interested. There is no website, advertisement as word-of-mouth suffices!!!
Hope this helps.
Anatol said:
ChipsAway won't attempt a 'patch' repair on a silver - they'll blend to the edge of the appropriate blend zone - panel edge, trim piece, sharp curve etc - the same as any other paint repair.
Tol
That's funny, on their "enrolment" days they demo patching one of the bosses silver BMWs, and make a point of saying "if we can repair a metallic silver we can repair anything".Tol
It won't be a true 'patch' in the way that say, a flat red can be patch repaired. The repair will have consisted of a 'cap' of paint, baked and flatted back, and then 'blended' into the panel with a blend paint, flicked out quite markedly with the airbrush. A flat colour, with a good paint match, can be repaired with no need to blend in in the same way, due to the lack of metallic flakes.
Having assisted in the running of the open days, the repairs demonstrated are the sort that a franchisee leaving the training centre would have no real difficulty with - wheelarches, bumper repairs, etc. The blend zone on these tends to be naturally very small - the edge of the arch panel, or the natural curve of the bumper providing it.
Although the CAI paint systems are more than capable of mid-panel repairs on doors, wings and quarterpanels, these are considered advanced repairs, requiring an upgraded paint system, and are not commonly demonstrated on the Open Days. Repairs of this nature on a high-metallic panel involve a 'drop coat' of blend metallics out to the edge of the nearest blend zone.
HTH,
CG
Having assisted in the running of the open days, the repairs demonstrated are the sort that a franchisee leaving the training centre would have no real difficulty with - wheelarches, bumper repairs, etc. The blend zone on these tends to be naturally very small - the edge of the arch panel, or the natural curve of the bumper providing it.
Although the CAI paint systems are more than capable of mid-panel repairs on doors, wings and quarterpanels, these are considered advanced repairs, requiring an upgraded paint system, and are not commonly demonstrated on the Open Days. Repairs of this nature on a high-metallic panel involve a 'drop coat' of blend metallics out to the edge of the nearest blend zone.
HTH,
CG
Well, I have decided now that this is really the only way forward to get a satisfactory result.
Just discovered though that roadworks are due to start on the road we use to get to ours this month, and last until November! Wondering whether I should hang on for now, incase of stone chips, or just get it done on the basis that doors are not a prone area for chipping.
Just discovered though that roadworks are due to start on the road we use to get to ours this month, and last until November! Wondering whether I should hang on for now, incase of stone chips, or just get it done on the basis that doors are not a prone area for chipping.
also have to agree about who you send it to, i run a body shop and have been a paint sprayer for some years and you see some very poor work out there. dealer ships sub the work out to the very best garages around because they have to keep a reputation at the end of the day, but depending on where it is on the door and the coarse of the silver they may well blend into your front wing and rear quarter, also expect to pay alot more though the dealer. best bet is to find out what body shop they use and go direct
regards
richard
regards
richard
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