scratch

[Hezz]

Nipped to supermarket tonight and returned to find someone little had decided I needed a scratch along my focus' door I really can't understand the mentality as it was deffo not an accident, just some kids being

 

Its right down to primer, its that deep my fingernail sticks in

 

 

Any good ideas / tips ?

[SLEEMAN]

how big is the scratch and what colour is the car??

[shawdreamer]

how big is the scratch and what colour is the car??

 

and.... dont even consider using the "magic touch-up pens", their a pile a shite if you expect them to fix a scratch flawlessly like the adverts claim they can.

 

if its down to the original prep undercoat (eg primer) your better of going your local motor factors and getting a small tin of the exact match colour coded paint and using a fine tip brush to gradually "fill-up" the scratch in stages till its just flush with the original surface before cutting it back with some compound.....suprisingly the colour coded T-cut is pretty good at the finishing.

 

MAKE SURE YOU MIX THE PAINT THOROUGHLY!!!!

 

worked a treat with my last Focus and a silver escort before that, you literally had to get right down and squint like a half blind biddy to even slightly make out the scratch locations.

 

failing that, ring a couple of touch-up places, a mate of mine swore by them after they tidied up his dads Corsa door skin before he came back off holiday and discovered his son apparently couldnt park near a Asda post without trying to sideways mount it. (I still reckon the tit handbraked into it while trying to show off )

[Hezz]

Its about 30cm long, my focus is black. I managed to polish the start and end parts but the middle is too deep. I was gonna try dabbing paint into it like you said SD failing that its a smart repair or full panel

[SLEEMAN]

Best for smart repair matey, try flying colours team (same company I work for under dent wizard) see if they have anyone local to you. I would avoid some smart repairers such as revive as if they have to spray it you may have overspray! But check around your local bodyshops first to see what they have to offer

[shawdreamer]

black is silly easy to patch up (either Panther or Ash....yours being the previous obviously)

 

The focus I mentioned was Panther Black and was silly easy to do on my drive, took me a handful of hours adding careful layers into the scratch (which stretched from my front wing, all the way across my passenger door and onto the rear quarter panel) before cutting it back with Black T-cut.

 

The black was far easier to do than the silver escort I also did and on that ocassion I even used one of the pre mixed Holts aerosols instead of neat paint straight out the tin, I just sprayed it into the lid and dipped the brush into it, cos its pre-thinned it was much easier to apply thin coats and slowly build up the scratch which then helped limit how much it had to be cut back with compound afterwards.

[demented]

Works well applying the paint with a wooden toothpick.

 

As Shawdreamer says, spray paint into can lid; but use toothpick rather than a brush too apply paint.

 

Good results are achieved if lacquer mixed with the paint prior to application; most modern paints whether metallic or not are of a matt appearance when dry and require a lacquer to provide the sheen.