I’ve got a few deep scratches in my car’s paint…all the way through the clearcoat, paint, and primer, I think. As far as I can understand, the typical DIY products available online/Amazon will not really fix this, although I am open to suggestions as it is a ~15 year-old car.
Failing a DIY approach, any suggestions as to next best/cheapest approach to get this reasonably addressed? Is a body shop the only viable alternative?
Cheapest? Clean it really well and apply touch-up paint or nail polish to keep it from rusting. Put one of those big band-aid stickers over it.
@mblatz Since you are past clear coat, you can not fix it 100%. You can definitely do a 10/20 foot repair.
Easiest way to do it is find your paint code and order touch up paint, duplicolor works fine:
https://www.duplicolor.com/product/scratch-fix-all-in-1-exact-match-automotive-touch-up-paint/
When you get the touch up paint, find an area thats not visible (under the hood, trunk hatch, door sills ) and practice or create a scratch there. Making an identical scratch under the hood would be fine since you are going to protect it from rust.
Do not use the applicator. Use a needle to apply a tiny amount of touch up paint and wait for it to sink. If you do not practice first the bump will be very obvious.
I would buff the entire car before and after. My buffer disappeared last month but I should still have some compounds. If you grab the touch up paint I would be happy to show you how to do it, but you will NEVER get beyond a 10/20 foot repair past clear coat/down to metal.
Thanks for this! I really appreciate the insight and offer. I’ll take you up on it if I decide not to have a regular body shop take care of…