Scratch Advice

[Kal_c63]

Hi all,

I have been unfortunate to discover the scratch below on my car.

I just need some advice as it appears diamond white isnt that easy to match.

My local MB body shop will sort this out as a SMART repair for £250 or a full panel for £500.

What would you advise to be the best fix without it being an obvious repair?

Thanks

 

[GordonTarling]

Find an independent smart repairer or bodyshop and get their opinion/estimate.

 

[bolide]

I'd get the scratch polished out as much as possible then leave it till the car needs other paint doing. Trying to paint one panel and getting it to match will be really difficult - even the way the metallic particles sit affects the appearance in certain lights and from certain angles

Nick Froome

 

[joecash]

£500 - someone's laughing

 

[Kal_c63]

Ended up being quoted £650 because they want to respray both panels to match.

Bit worried about the matching so unsure what to do.

 

[Ant-toe-knee]

Looks like a deep one, can you catch it if you use your finger nail on it?

 

[Ant-toe-knee]

A machine polish will help reduce it.

 

[Herbs0962]

Scratch

I have just had bonnet, wing and bumper sprayed and the bumper needed a bit of prep, I paid £400 for the lot.
As for matching I have had no issues, they didn't even see the car just the panels, I guess it's colour matched by some wizzo computer.
I guess you should be looking at £150/£200

 

[Barry-p]

The problem you have and what makes it different to a normal spray job is the 3 stage pearl paint which you have to use to match the colour. It's not as easy as looks/sounds or reads. If you don't get your grip and base colour correct the by the time you add the pearl it will look so wrong it's like you've painted the car it the completely wrong colour and end up blending bigger and bigger and end up down the whole side of a car!!!!!
I would try and flat and polish as mush as you can and see if it that's your eye of it or takes it out. If not be prepared to pay high money as this is a specialist bit of painting we have all seen how bad a silver car can look if not applied correctly and that's just normal metallic so you should get an idea how bad a pearl could look.

 

[b1g1an]

All of a sudden having a black car doesn't seem so daft!

 

[Barry-p]

All of a sudden having a black car doesn't seem so daft!

Agree, both my everyday cars are black one being a solid black so even better. The other 2 cars are both solid dark blue! All a nightmare to keep looking clean but a dirty black car looks better then a mismatch painted and polished light coloured car (my view anyway)

 

[gibee]

Megiuars M101 on a cutting pad then M205 on a polishing pad would get it out. May need wet sanding (2500 grit) before hand if it is deeper than the picture shows.... bodyshops are so bad these days at matching paint, just not worth the risk of a having multi shade car. Proper detailer should be able to do it cheaper than a bodyshop.

 

[Kal_c63]

Many thanks all,

I may go down the detailed route to hide it. If it still doesn't look right then go down the merc body shop route.

 

[gibee]

Many thanks all,

I may go down the detailed route to hide it. If it still doesn't look right then go down the merc body shop route.

Yes there is little to lose. I didn't suggest this first time as i've not used it on Merc paint yet and the scratch is very long. However, you could also try touch up paint then Langka... This is the chemical equivalent of using touch up then wet-sanding the blob, in your case long blob away. It might not be noticeable with your colour paint.

BTW even merc bodyshops can get it wrong, i had to have the whole side of my car resprayed due to a poor colour match on the passenger door... The car is obsidian black, but in direct sunlight the door had a brown tinge... now the whole side of the car has a slight brown tinge so it's not as noticeable. Last thing the resprayed clear coat isn't a ceramic, which is a bummer as ceramic is tough as nails...

Good luck, hope you get sorted