Keyed car - repair options

[CIS121]

Came home tonight to find it's been keyed whilst on the drive. I'll do the usual of reporting to the Police tomorrow but unlikely to result in much.

What are the options regarding repairing and has anyone been down this route? Seems quite deep and metallic silver colour. It's a 9 year old car so I'm after a cost effective solution rather than a perfect one.

[ZOLLAR]

Sympathise with you, mine was keyed about 2 weeks ago 9 year old too.
I've looked at machine polish, paint touch up (your scratch sounds similar to mine) but I've decided I'll get it resprayed not the cheapest option but it'll drive me nuts each time the light catches it and I'll notice it.

[Carpie]

Unless it's a particularly special 9 year old car, leave it as is?

Especially if it happened on your driveway, imagine if you had it repaired and the same scum come back the next week and do it again

[BDR529]

Get some pics of the damage up.

Has it gone down to the primer?

[zombies]

Can't understand why this happens

This happened to me not long ago for the first time in 23 years driving
thing is, it happened on the drivers side which was mint, the NS has damage along both doors and arch, if it had to be anywhere the passenger side would have done

last week, I seen a couple of kids (about 10/11 years old) walk past the house (my garage / car parked opposite) I seen one lad pick up two stones and throw them at my car, one hitting the rear hatch
only due to the fact he couldnt throw proper it didnt do much but just missed the back window

I chased the little gets for about 3/4 mile and caught em (to my surprise)
the lad started crying and my main concern then was that he didnt get that upset by my presence (plus I didnt have my inhaler) and I got his address and sent him on his way

he has been past since with a sly look across to the car but hopefully he wont do it again

I was a swine as a kid myself

[BDR529]

^^ Should have nailed him to a fence and set him on fire.

That'll teach him.

[StottyZr]

How often do people actually get keyed randomly for no reason? I know a fair few people and can't think of one instance where somebody has randomly had there car damage in this seemingly targeted way.

[MrTrilby]

We had the same happen to one of our cars some years ago. The scratches looked quite deep and I assumed a respray was in order. ChipsAway managed to rescue it and return it almost as good as new, for far cheaper. I'd ask them for a quote first.

[V6Alfisti]

I had my Alfa GT keyed for no reason at all, car left in "secure" hotel parking whilst attending a conference in Birmingham. Massive scratch down the front wing, sanded lightly with 4000 grit paper and using a machine polish over the top and red moose to finish it off. Took 90% out but there were still some parts that went through to primer.

The GT was relatively new at the time, can't think of anything else but blind boredom or envy. Idiots

[CIS121]

Tried Chips Away - the guy wont take it on as he says they don't do repairs to bonnets. His advice was a respray which he suspects will be about £350 +VAT (M25 area, West of London). He also said that some body shops may be able to affect a good bonnet repair without a respray but it's unlikely to be 100%.

It's an old car and I'm not looking for a perfect job. Anyone know a decent value bodyshop (West London to Surrey area) that they would recommend?

[tomsugden]

I've used these guys before for bodywork, and they've been cheap and reliable, and did a good job:

http://carreraworx.co.uk/

[YoungOne]

I had one of my cars keyed along the whole length of one side and managed to make it pretty much invisible on my own ( part chopped it a dealer and they didn't see it )

Anyway if it hasn't gone down to primer (wet it and if you can't see the scratch when wet then the colour is still there) you can fill it with the clear lacquer from a touch up pen. Let it properly dry then flat back with some 2500 grit wetordry then polish it back up. Job done.

[CIS121]

I've just heard from the Police that three men were arrested on Saturday night and they appear to have targeted quite a few cars in the area. One of the guys was caught scratching a car so a prosecution looks likely. I suspect I'll still have to repair it myself, but at least it's nice to know I wasn't singled out and that the culprits have been caught and are unlikely to vandalise anyone else's car again :-)

[Superhoop]

How far away from Orpington are you?

I know a guy that does some great smart repairs, great as in fantastic work and very reasonably priced - that said, silver is probably the worst possible colour to match

[McSam]

CIS121 said:

Tried Chips Away - the guy wont take it on as he says they don't do repairs to bonnets. His advice was a respray which he suspects will be about £350 +VAT (M25 area, West of London). He also said that some body shops may be able to affect a good bonnet repair without a respray but it's unlikely to be 100%.

It's an old car and I'm not looking for a perfect job. Anyone know a decent value bodyshop (West London to Surrey area) that they would recommend?

Will they do it if you remove the bonnet? I understand that companies like that won't do bonnets, bootlids or roofs because they're too horizontal for their methods or whatever to deal with effectively. Could be wrong, though.

Glad to hear likely suspects have been caught