Car Key'd

[alymac]

Afternoon all, i'm on looking for some advice. My sons car was key'd by some moron while he was working last night, at this time i have only seen a picture of the damage and was wondering if anyone has any knowledge on how best to go about attempting a relatively cost effective repair ?

On the bright side, if there is one, the damage has been done to the roof of the car and not the sides, it is one of those corsa's with the black roof instead of it being the same as the rest of the car, i had wondered if we might be able to machine polish it out ?

Thanks in advance for any pointers

 

[renault12ts]

Depends on how deep the scratch is.

 

[TripleD]

First need to understand if the key with through the paint an onto the basecoat, if it is, then respray is really your only option.
If it's not through to the base coat then you need to assess how deep the scratches are, if not too deep them it could polish out with some mild abrasive polish check some here: Cutting Compounds & Polishes | Car Care & Detailing Products
This could be done by hand, it it's deeper than it's best to look at a machine polish/wet sand, if you look for a decent local valeter they could advise costs of machine polishing and sanding as this is probably something you don't want to do yourself. Might even find a bodyshop could do this?!

 

[alymac]

thanks very much for the help guys, i'll see it tonight when i get home and see where we go from there then, thanks very much again

 

[daveenty]

A rough guide would be if you can feel it with your finger nail then it will want re-coating, either with paint if it's gone through it, or clear coat if not.

Hope it's not bad and will just polish out for you.

 

[Alex225]

If you can feel the scratch with your finger nail then it will need paint unfortunately. If you can't, then you may be able to polish it out in the main part.

Sorry to hear it though, there's some right scum out there.


Post arrived just as I hit the post button.

 

[Abb]

Sorry to hear of your sons misfortune. Having the roof wrapped could be a cost effective option.

 

[TripleD]

Sorry to hear of your sons misfortune. Having the roof wrapped could be a cost effective option.

Actually that's a good thought!

 

[Sparkyy]

A kid caught my last car with the brake handle of their bike down the whole side of the car I thought it'd been keyed, anyway the parents came and told me and paid for chips away to sort it around £130 if I remember right, afterwards you'd never know it'd been done great job maybe worth asking your local one for a price if it needs paint.

 

[Deleted member 113659]

anyway the parents came and told me and paid for chips away to sort it.

Fantastic story.

 

[optimusprime]

Chips away best on the planet earth. Along with Dent Devil ..

 

[daveenty]

Chips Away are as good as the operator you get.

Bear in mind that they're a franchise so each one of them, whilst theoretically all singing from the same hymn sheet, will have a different way of operating. The guy who did one of mine was excellent (apart from his masking which cost a couple of hours cleaning up) and did a spot on job, though others may not be as diligent or skilled. I couldn't fault the paint match or the finish, though I've also heard tales of woe from other people in other areas.

I like Abb's suggestion of wrapping it to be honest. Seems an effective way out of it if it's not easily repairable.

 

[alymac]

Thanks very much everyone for all suggestions. Have to agree that I think Abb's idea is certainly the front runner as the car lends itself to this seeing as it's already got a different coloured roof from the rest of the body. I think my sons intention is to ask the local coachworks to wrap the roof either in black again or a carbon type design along with the mirrors, it seems that every cloud has a silver lining as far as he's thinking

Thanks again everyone

 

[ash59fifty-uk]

If a wrap is chosen, at least seal the scratch first depending on the depth of it. You don't want to be peeling off the wrap after some time and it takes paint with it/scratches it further