Why do People Key Cars?

[ChimpOnGas]

Why oh why do people do this?













I'll have the little fekker when I catch him.

[ChimpOnGas]

Thanks chaps, I spent an hour I didn't have on it this morning.

Four grades of wet & dry followed by three grades of cutting compound all by hand as I no longer have a machine polisher.

But as Mark pointed out thems some deep scratches

Here's the best I could do in an hour of sweat & tears,



The thing is I've got a good idea who it was, every neighborhood has a little fekker & ours is "Ginger Kid".

"Ginger Kid" is getting a visit later




Please add your creative suggestions below on how I should deal with the little shiiiit

[ChimpOnGas]

[ChimpOnGas]

sapper said:

He is obviously hitting out at the way the system has let him down.
He perhaps needs more friends to spend time with.
So with that in mind can i suggest you embrace the poor lost soul, take him for a ride in your pride and joy as a good friend would.
Bring him to my place and we could all spend some quality time with my friends Messer’s Black & Decker, and Spear & Jackson.
He could then return home a changed person.

Love this sapper, I had no idea you were so caring

Fair brought a tear to my eye

Keep the suggestions coming chaps for how I can help "Ginger Kid" get back on the straight & narrow.

It's making me feel better already

Edited by ChimpOnGas on Friday 20th September 12:34

[ChimpOnGas]

sonnylad said:

Sorry to hear of this Dave, it's also a big worry i have as its always sitting in a very vulnerable place as you know.

Cheers Russ, you're probably alright up Garston way mate, and the fact nothing has happened so far is a good sign.

Just be careful next time you bring the mighty LS Cerb round my way, "Ginger Kid" is still at large.

But not for long

All vermin must be eliminated, it's the Gas Man's law

[ChimpOnGas]

sonnylad said:

Looking again at the boot one it could almost be a tag that the likes of those scum tend to leave dotted around the neighborhood.

Actually knowing how often he goes to school, I believe this may be "Ginger Kid's" best attempt at writing his own name.

[ChimpOnGas]

jamienshelly said:

Personally I would just kick the living st out of the little fecker,
Even if he is not guilty, he looks like he needs a kickin.

Thanks jamienshelly a very fair, level headed & well considered response.

I was thinking along the same lines.

Thank you.

[ChimpOnGas]

Thanks to all my TVR mates for your sympathy & ideas on what pleasures I can bestow on "Ginger Kid".

Much appreciated, you've all helped to make a bad day a bit more bearable


PS: My wife just called me, her response was "now we have move house".

"Ginger Kid" just cost me £400k, bang goes my LS Evolution chassis Chimaera build

[ChimpOnGas]

Thanks again all, your responses show what a great bunch the TVR community is.

I'm building up my knowledge base on smart repairs and buying in some dedicated materials & supplies to have a second go at the scratches.

There's some good tutorials on YouTube and I've found other useful tips online.

I know I'll never be able to make an invisible repair of it, but with patience and the right products hopefully I should be able to make the damage less obvious to the casual observer.

If any of you have first hand experience of this type of paint correction I'd very much welcome your advice.

Of course what it really wants is a trip up to my mate Malcolm (Potato Muncher) at Surface & Design for a professional job.

The truth is there really is no substitute for the years of experience gained by painting thousands of TVRs in a proper bodyshop environment.

Sadly I have neither

[ChimpOnGas]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Thanks cossers, that kit is actually rather good, if perhaps a little expensive for what you get.

It's what I used on the morning I found the damage, well I used the sanding pads which took out about 20% of the damage, its still a long way off the clear coat stage.

I'd bought the Turtle Wax scratch repair kit a while back to flat out some other little blemishes, it completely eliminated the lighter scratches and proved ideal for flatting my stone chip touch up paint blobs.

But this time the challenge is far greater.

So far I've brought the scratches out as much as dare without breaching the surrounding clear coat.

The next stage will be 3m Red Acrylic Putty 05098, followed by some more very light 2000 grit wet flatting using a de-nibbing rose.

After that it's the careful application paint to the scratches, more light flatting & clear coat a day or two later over the fully cured paint.

Then a final flatting followed by three grades of progressively lighter compound to remove the haze in the clear coat from wet sanding and to blend out the repair into the original undamaged surface around the scratches.

Well that's the plan, truth is it'll never be invisible, Crimson Starmist has a lot of reflective flake in it so when the light hits it you can always see touch up repairs.

This means I'll likely end up with a line; in my experience even when the flatting is done well it's very easy to make the panel look worse than if the scratch had just been left untouched.

This is what I'd really like to use for the process...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/3M-Perfect-It-Denibbing-...

But at £450 for the kit I'd be better off paying for a professional repair.

So I'll be building up my own hand de-nibbing kit (in three grades) from here.

https://www.monzacarcare.com/products/?category_id...

Still not cheap if you buy all grades & the de-nibbing rose.

Edited by ChimpOnGas on Saturday 21st September 13:03

[ChimpOnGas]

On it again today, mostly the bootlid.

Ok so while far from perfect, but it is at least looking a lot better.



From this:





To this:





To this:





To this:





Ending up like this:




Not quite finished yet & then there's the N/S front wing which I've flatted, polished, filled with 3M stopper, then flatted & polished again.

Its gone from this:




To this:




The wing photos haven't come out great but essentially I now have a red putty line nicely filling the scratch, but the paint & final flatting is the tricky bit.

You really have to be careful not to over sand & go through the clear coat, been there done that on the boot lid

As expected it's far from an invisible repair, but it is at least much better and doesn't draw your eye like the bare scratches did.

[ChimpOnGas]

Thanks again for all the great comments & words of support.

No one needs this kind of mindless vandalism, so I really hope it's not a trend.

Moving on & to bring all this to a close here's the best I could do


The Boot before as styled by "Ginger Kid"



And after, flatting, painting, flatting & compounding:






The Wing before; and more of "Ginger Kid's" handy work





During (adding the paint before a second round of flatting):



And after flatting & compounding:






Ok so it's not perfect, you can still see the lines of paint but I hope you all agree it does look a lot better?

I should point out this was all done by hand, and I'm far from experienced in localised smart repairs.

I used 3M red stopper to fill the scratches, a small pot of Crimson Starmist touch up paint from Surface & Design, 1500 followed by 2000 grit wet & dry, then three grades of compound/polish.

I'll give the whole car a final gentle buzz over with my new dual action polisher that should arrive in the next few days, followed by some Prima Amigo polymer glaze to hide any final imperfections.

With any luck the car should look reasonably respectable again

Dave

[ChimpOnGas]

jojackson4 said:

Nice job Dave
What's happening to public enemy Number1?

His time will come....

Slowly, slowly, catchy (Ginger) Monkey