The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Paint scratches

My son's jeep got 'keyed' over the weekend. Some mean and nasty kid took a nail or key down the side of the car. Some of it looks like it could be buffed out. Others are too deep.

Does anyone have advice on how to take the majority of the scratches out? Is there a process of rubbing compound then some sort of finishing glaze?

TIA

Keyed cars need to be repainted, no amount of buffing is going to replace missing paint. File a police report and contact your insurance company. With any luck the culprits will be caught and with even more luck they will be forced to pay your deductible.

No easy fix here if you want a nice finish.

I am hoping there is a quick fix. He is 16 and I am sure this will be the tip of the iceburg.

I was thinking of buying a paint pencil (or whatever they are called) from Autozone to fill the scratches in. But wanted to see if there was a way to buff out what I could.

Vandalism sucks

Yea you are deffiently looking to have to repaint the vehicle. If you buff out what you can you will deffiently thin the paint maybe even to the point of it flaking off. You can try the paint pencil but it will be noticeable it just all depends on what you can live with and what you want to pay for. Take it to a body shop and you might find a guy who will at least give you a little advice.

Kenny Broomfield

I guess I was looking for someone that has the page in their parenting manual to answer this question.

My son is 16 and I believe this may not be the worst of 'wear and tear' on this jeep. I just wanted to do the best I could to get these scratches out.

I wasn't sure if buffing would work or make things worst. I also thought of the paint pens.

I have no experience in this. But it made me sick.

Thanks again.

Well from the parenting manuel How to raise children of the 21st century by Spank Emhard Jr. Page 1618 part three says ask your son what caused the scratches. I am sure that he might have provoked somebody to do this, there are always two sides to a story. Than I would go from there. It might be punishment enough to make him ride around in a scratched up vehicle. Or to make him pay for some of the work. He might also know who could have done this. Maybe he can do some dectective work as school and get someone to confess. Than egg there car.

Kenny Broomfield

This is a 'West Side Story' event. This is my old jeep. I am a proud parent and put his school sticker on the back. The damage was probably done by rival high school kids. He spent the night at a friends over in their neighborhood.

I just want to do the best I can to fix this.

Punishment? This was a mistake. Probably my fault for being a proud parent, owning the jeep, and not removing the sticker. He had my permission to be there.

Is this his fault? I doubt it. He is a good kid

I would be mad. At the least file a police report and put the neighborhood on notice that they have some delinquents running around doing such things, but I doubt the police will do anything more than take a report.
Vigilante justice is not the answer.

No I did not mean that by any stretch of the imigination. Please understand I was just kidding. Although sometimes we want to take matters into our own hands, egging cars, it is not the right thing to do at all. Sometimes it is just a thing of live and learn and take more body mechanics classes. Which by the way did you think about asking his school, if they have a vo-tech class about body shop, to see what it would take to fix. It might be a good idea for you and your son. You might also pick up ideas to help with your project.

Kenny Broomfield

Thanks for the response. No offense taken.

My son is like my father. I guess this mechanic stuff skips a generation in my family. He has no interest in cars. Just transportation to him. His mother was like that, too.

Maybe, I am not much of a mechanic either. Just like to have fun with it.

Oh. They do have a car club at the high school. I have thought of volunteering to help out. My boy is keen on sports. I am sports challenged. Go figure. lol

Thanks again for the information

If it was me I'd get some paint, the same as the jeep, and with a small tip brush paint the scratch.

There are ways to minimize the scratch, to the point of almost not being noticeable, but are a pain in the butt to do.
To make the scratch disappear would require repainting.

Dan

Get some red paint and fill the scratch. Then go back and paint stitches along it. Have some of the red drip down, maybe create a little pool on the fender.

Done!

By the time he's done with the jeep, I bet you'll add a lot more stitches to it!

Blue,

You may want to try one of the colored wax products 8-12$ and 20 minutes, while it wont fix the problem it will make it look better. I am mentioning this as a possible easy/quick option and not a repair.

Fixing long scratches with the pens is only good to keep it from rusting. It will show. The color wax I have never had luck with as keying is to deep. If the paint is old, and since he is young(likely to have more paint issues in the near future), you may want to look at the $50 Rustollem paint jobs. Very easy to repair scratches at that point. This website even shows a repair after he painted. Just food for thought. http://www.rickwrench.com/index79master.htm?http://www.rickwrench.com/50dollarpaint.html

Thanks to all for the advice and suggestions