Key marks, what to do?
 

My car was keyed 3 times while I had it parked in the parking garage; along the top of my spoiler, along my passenger side rear fender, and vertically on my passenger door.
My car was ran into by a drunk idiot who must have had a belt buckle on or something and it made two deep and wide scratches on my drivers door.

I want to get them out cost effectively but good quality work. Any suggestions would be appreciated.Attachment 38839

Take in account the cost of you deductible "assuming you have full coverage" vs the cost of getting the repairs done professionally. Being this was a hit and run and out of your control your rates will not be affected from making a claim.
For future reference its always best to get a police report for any damage large or small. this would help with future claims

Don't know if this will work but meguires scratch x ( think that's what it's called) worked wonders on my car. Might want to see if that can remove the scratches first.

I would try this first before filing a claim.

Drag your nail perpendicular over the scratch and if your nail catches it, the scratch is too deep for ScratchX or any polish. You might be able to make it less noticeable though. GL. :)

K thanks for the advice guys. And I did file a police report and they did nothing about it, no follow up or anything.

yah, unfortunately they make a report for you so that you can file a claim to your insurance. unless someone dies or something they dont really follow up. :(

Dayum dude! Sorry to see that someone defiled your ride. Any idea who did it? Keying is usually a very personal thing. :mad:

Haters gonna hate..

:icon17: agreed

Meguiar's #83 with a DA polisher would probably make the scratch on your spoiler less noticable.

if you have insurance this would fall under a comprehensive claim and all you pay is your deductible

But they sure as hell know how to follow up on the lead to a donut shop and investigate the jelly filling.

The only person that I thought that maybe did it was this girl that I had a thing with for a while; then three days before my car got keyed she said she was going to key my car. She said it was just a coincidence but I am not believing it.

Thanks, do you know where I can get it and for how much?

Im sure the 83 is only a cleaner/polisher, what you want is something that will remove the scratch. For that I would try Meguairs Scratch X 2.0, its about $10 bucks, I have used it with a buffer, and it removes very fine scratches and swirls effectively.Your local auto store like Advance, AutoZone, or Napa Auto should carry it. But Heres a website that has it:Meguiar's Scratch X 2.0 - 7 oz - Free Shipping Available | Detailed Image

Thanks for the info. Will buffing out the scratches on my car leave certain areas of it looking different then the rest? I am new to all of this, so I am a bit lost.

Tward

No it shouldn't if you do it right. What I did was first buff the area, apply some of the scracth x.20 around the area and buff again. Jus repeat those steps until you see the scracth wear off, but don't use a lot of the scracthx 2.0, and if you are worried about it looking diff then the rest take a clean buff pad and buff the area again after the last application of the compound. The area I buffed looked like the rest of the car even after I did my next car wash. Good luck. :tiphat:

Dr. Colorchip worked wonders when mine was keyed.

If I were local to you I would help you get them out. You can try the scratch X, but there are better products out there. It doesn't look like it is down to the primer, so a good detailer could get a lot of it out. Nissan's paint is not a hard paint which is good and bad for obvious reasons. Look at your local yellow pages for detailers... I don't think one would charge more than about 50-75.00 to get most, if not all of it out.

If you are going to buff it yourself you should apply the harder pressure on the scratch and then feather the pressure out on all sides to blend it in. The color won't be different, but depending on how marred (scratched) your paint is all over with little scratches will determine how much of it you can see.

Funny that you mention that, but at the time I had a scratch over my left side back fender on my car, and I took it to the body shop and they quoted me 250 dollars to buff out and detail. Even more to complete respray and replace that area. So I went home and tried the Scratch X and it worked like a charm, and it saved me about 240 dollars. If the OP is concerned about his inability to do it himself I would recommend a shop, but it is totally doable and could potentially save him a lot of money.

Ditto that! I just keep the stuff in my trunk now. It's awesome stuff! :tup:

I will give it a look, if i can find it for that cheap then i will definitely do it.

Yea that price is way out of the question. I am 18 years old and in college, and have plenty of stuff to pay for, so 250 bucks to get some scratches out isn't an option right now. I will get a quote on it and if its to high i will try the scratch stuff you recommended. I am new to all this and kind of worried to be trying it for the first time on a car like this.

If you can feel the scratch with your fingernail, it's too deep a scratch and you will need re-spray to effectively repair it to a like new condition. Polishing either won't be enough or you could possibly make it worst if you don't know what you're doing. If its only the clear coat, a good professional shop might be able to wet sand and level it out. Do not wetsand if you don't know what you're doing! I would give Dr Colorchip a shot, it's easy to apply and practically fool proof. Even if you mess up, it can be removed without damaging the paint. It's not 100% perfect though. Scratch X works pretty well, but it has some fillers that eventually wear off. I would give 3M scratch remover a shot. It has worked really well for me, especially removing etching caused by bird crap and I dont feel like bringing out the polisher. Just be sure to reapply wax afterwards.

I understand, as long as you are careful and pay attention to what you are doing you should be fine. Good luck! :tiphat:

BTW you really don't have to rub too hard to see the effects of the scratch X (our paint is already soft!). I use a terry buffing pad SPARINGLY, maybe 3 or 4 circular passes, then wiped with a clean terry cloth. That's all it needed. The comment about waxing after is important. Good luck!

which is why I said detailer and not body shop... of course a body shop is going to quote high like that and say it needs more work.

Yeah but a lot of body shops are detailers as well, such as the shop I went to.

For me it doesn't look like they will buff out. looks to be past the clear. its kinda hard to tell from the pictures. And for me scratch is a glorified cleaner wax.When you have a scratch in the clear coat dirt and wax build up in the scratch making it more of an eyesore such as swirl marks or worse. As long as its in the clear it can be buffed out.

I've used this method in the past and have seen pretty good results, but you must have a steady hand and be quick about it.
Go to your local dealer or a car quest give them your paint code and they should be able to match it pretty close, depending on how old your car is but you shouldn't have a problem with fading. These cars are't that old. Things you will need:

The Paint
A few dry Q tips
A glass of water
And some thin cloth/ not like a rag but something smooth

Note: If attempted I would only try this on the door. The wing doesn't look as bad but its way too long.

Have everything readily assessable as you will have to move kinda quick..

Have a wet Q tip close by. Cut a small piece of cloth "long enough to wrap around the Q tip and hold with your fingers but not too long where it gets in your way.
Dab a small amount of paint on the wrapped Q tip " the Q tip will act as a pencil giving you more control, the cloth acts as a barrier, you don't want fuzz in your paint".

You want the paint to look like a drop of water on the Q tip.
Wipe the paint over the scratched area in an even motion applying even pressure "the paint will stick to the scratched area if there is no clear left it wont be slick".
There will be some access paint on the clear, this is where the wet Q tip comes into play "wrap this Q tip as well, remember no fuzz also you don't to wet it where the water will run".
After you apply the paint, Quickly wipe off the access with the wet Q tip. It should remove fairly easily as the clear coat is a slick surface.
You must do this quickly as you don't want the access paint to dry.

If done correctly someone who doesn't know its there probably won't notice it.

^^ Interesting

R1010220, thanks for the recommend! I have a scratch I may try this on! :)

Well today i tried out some of the things you guys suggested to get out the scratches i have. I tried the Meguiars X and it wasn't filling it it, guess the scratches are too deep. I also tried a clear coat pen, this worked better than the Meguiars but the scratches still seem very noticeable to me.

Thinking about just letting a detailer take a look at it, if the price isnt outrageous then i will probably go with that.

Thanks for all the suggestions though guys. I really appreciate it.

R1010220, I may give your plan a shot on the scratches on my door. I havent even touched those scratches yet.

Ya I wouldn't attempt this on your wing the scratch is just too long. But in my opinion as long as your going to let a detailer look at the wing you might as well let them take a look at the door as well. Who knows it may fall with in a price range your comfortable with. If not then give it a shot.

I had a BOM Acura RSX S. I noticed two small scratches on my back panel (about the size of the ones on your door) and decided i would try to touch it up myself.
So I headed to the local Car Quest and got the paint i needed. I feel I have a very steady hand so my plan was to use a fine hi-grade paint brush to fill in the scratches. Well needless to say that failed pretty quickly LOL.
Before i knew it I had a big glob of paint on my car in the general area of the scratches.
So i quickly grabbed a dry cloth and rubbed it off.

The paint filled in the scratch pretty seamlessly and came right off the clear.
My cousin "well **** man that worked out pretty damn well" lmao

I mean I could tell where the scratches were, but I already knew. For others it was pretty hard to tell.

Lol, glad mine didnt turn out that bad. I was just messing around with the clear coat. Its definitely less noticeable but still know its there.

TWard a woman told you "im gonna key your car" 3 days before this happened andddd..... Come on bro, tell the police it was her because she TOLD you she will do it, it is probable cause... she needs an alibi and the police can actually make a case for you, if anything you will get some justice because she will have a record.

I did, the cops asked if i suspected anyone of doing it. I gave them her name and number they called her, and left the case alone i guess bc i haven't heard of anything since.