Car has been 'keyed' can scratch be repaired?

[barbusg60]

Hi all,
On friday night my car, my wifes and another parked next to ours were all keyed. Mine is just a single deep scratch down the door but my wifes and neighbour have multiple scratches.
Wifes car is whits so doesnt look as bad but mine is orange so it looks terrible.
No cctv or video doorbells in the area and none of the neighbours saw or heard anything.
My original plan was to try some colour polish to try and fill the scratch in a bit, I know it wont be brilliant but it may mask the white undercoat and I dont want to go down the line of a door or side respray as its only a little VW Up and we live in an old cottage with no parking so its bound to get the odd parking scuff etc in the future.
A colleague mentioned that smart repairers can fill the scratch and airbrush over with a localised repair but I just thought Id post here in case anyone knows about this sort of thing?
Ill add a couple of pics when I get home if anyones interested
Thanks in advance,
Rob

[higham5]

Rob sorry to hear of this mindless act. I think the days of older cars with multiple layers of paint that you could “T Cut” back into the scratch have gone. I have had very little success as most cars are lacquered so there is little paint to move.

I also tried a black polish repair pack. Well I certainly ended up tinted!

I would contact a local “ Chips away” / local spot repairer and see what they say.

In the meantime there is no harm in trying a bit of polish, as you can hardly make it worse.

Steve

[MacDeath]

A local mobile repairer will essentially fill the scratch with colour matched paint and sand to level, clear coat, sand and polish.

Each scratch is so different and visibility depends exactly where, but can be a decent repair. In fact, almost a DIY job if you are handy and have a sander/polisher.

[rgee]

Happened to me a few years ago but luckily it was just the lacquer which you can DIY with wet/dry and polish to get most of it out.

https://forum.tz-uk.com/showthread.p...ar-got-keyed!!

[Slevin Kelevra]

It all depends on what level of finish you are willing to accept. One persons good job will look absolutely shocking to someone else. Painting the car is a last resort as you will do well to match the factory finish by repainting on your doorstep.

I recently bought a car which had a fairly minor looking scratch on the rear quarter. I took the car to a very well respected local Detailer who was going to ceramic coat the car anyway. I asked him about the scratch assuming he would be able to polish it out no problem but he said it wasn’t quite as easy as that. It all depends on the paint depth, so, if the car has thin paint ( the layers of physical paint that were applied to the car in the factory) then there is only so much paint he can remove ( polish ) .

In the end he did an amazing job and combined with the ceramic coating, the scratch is not noticeable at all but I fear yours sounds much worse..


My advice would be seek out a local detailer or body shop who have a great reputation and ask their opinion.

For me, even attempting it yourself is only asking for trouble. Unless of course you are happy with a very poor finish.

Painting a car well is far harder than it looks.

[jukeboxs]

Sorry that happened to you both, OP. Some scrote scratched right across the bonnet of my new Skoda Superb (taken delivery earlier that day) years ago - I decided to just touch it up myself (score repair clear for all to see), using a £5 Skoda touch-up set off eBay - with the view they'd just come back if I did a better job. So, I had a scarred Superb from that point on. But, it wasn't scratched again in my ownership. So, maybe my psychology worked, who knows. [Neither of my BMWs since then have been scratched - maybe they took pity on me.]

[barbusg60]

Thanks all,
It’s down to the white undercoat and I don’t think VWs have the thickest paint anyway so no chance of polishing out.
I’ll speak to some retailers/smart repairers to see it anythingbcan be done.
On mine I could always put a graphic along the side(s) to cover it but not really my sort of thing.
Some pics…





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[RobDad]

If that was in metallic paint it might be a nightmare - but in flat red I’d be inclined to get a chips away type outfit to take a look. I’d be surprised if they can’t fix that to a satisfactory condition tbh


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[Mj2k]

If that was in metallic paint it might be a nightmare - but in flat red I’d be inclined to get a chips away type outfit to take a look. I’d be surprised if they can’t fix that to a satisfactory condition tbh


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Yeah I’d agree with you on that, looks a pretty simple job there.

Just a shame you have been put in a position to need to consider it.

[barbusg60]

It’s not metallic, but I think it’s an orange pearl colour
Looks flat red in the pic.
Has a definite ‘shimmer’ to it
Fingers crossed I will be able to find somebody to make it a bit better

[barbusg60]

Here’s my wife’s white Golf and the neighbours blue car, they really went to town on theirs!
Mine was parked between them and they seemed to drag a key along mine in the middle of damaging theirs!




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[amii21]

Once you get the car sorted, maybe assess your parking situation to prevent future occurrences. Could you be inadvertently blocking someone in, or blocking pavement access, etc. People are so irrational nowadays. Might also be worth investing in a ring doorbell or similar security.

[Mj2k]

If it’s a pearl then it’s a bugger for a smart repair, similar to metallic I’m afraid. It takes a lot of blowing over to hide the blending area.

I had someone egg a pearl blue S2000 and the egg shell was like little stone chips. Needed an awful lot of work to get it fixed, about £1400 from memory and that was 15 years ago.

A shame they didn’t do the paint above the crease line as a natural blend point. Looking at the photos it’s almost likely to be a full door paint. Not an expert but always get any marks on my cars sorted out & tend to now know what or where they will have to do it.

I use a smart repair place that uses spray booths etc vs the chips away type of place, so a mobile unit may be cheaper and can just fill & blend as best they can.

How old is the car & how much does it mean to you having it look perfect?

Wonder why they did it, are you parked in a new place / taken someone else’s assumed space? Such a quick and evil way to harm property that costs a fair amount to get sorted.

Where are you located? Might be some members with good experience of local places.

[aa388]

Some kind Person did that to mine the week I got it, priced up chips away and the main dealership. Both were a similar in price.


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[xellos99]

Nightmare to fix, in my experience that wont t-cut or polish out, even with pro gear like rotary polishing machine and pro grade polishes.

I am way too tight to re-spray so i would go to the car dealership to get the correct touch up paint tube.
Paint over the mark with a very fine art brush with great care and let it dry. Then try to polish it in and hope it blends enough so that it is not as obvious.

And up the security if possible, they may come back to target you again.

[barbusg60]

We’re down in Wells, Somerset and live in one of the oldest parts with little cottages all tucked away down little ‘courts’ off of the road with no parking. No vehicles when these were built lol
We park in a little dead end road opposite which was originally old people’s bungalows and have been partking there without incident for 12+ years now.
It’s a tidy example of an early Up (bought to give my daughters extra driving practice, should have just got an old banger really) and before this was immaculate but I just know that if I spend a lot getting a proper job done something else will happen the day after!
I’ll start researching smart repairers and see what can be done, anything will be better than it is now, even if it’s a coloured polish to hide the white scratch a bit.
Thanks all for your input.
Cheers,
Rob

[brucelee]

I'm not actually sure from the pics if the scratch has gone through the clearcoat. When you scratch clearcoat it leaves a white ish mark.
They would not have used a white primer or base1 on a car that colour. Could it be light grey?
Again I doubt they'd use a light grey primer or base1 so means it would be the e-coat. Ecoat is under the 3 paint layers so would be a very obvious and extreme scratch.

[DONGinsler]

How old is the car? When I did some touch ups on mine. Factory paint pen color was noticeable. Car paint had changed over time and you could see the difference.

Go to the dealership and see if they sell paint pens. Paint on one side and other is a clear coat

[Progressive]

Happened to a car of mine, which I loved, 15 years ago. Tried a few budget cover-ups to save a few quid. Eyes were drawn to it every time I saw the car until the day I got rid of it.

Get it professionally repaired.

[Rob153]

Bit late to the party but by the looks of it that definitely won’t polish, or flat and machine polish out. Chips away or similar are good for bumper scuffs, little local repairs etc… To repair that properly would need a decent body shop, would have to blend into doors to get a decent colour match.

Hope you get it sorted, if you damage it yourself fair enough but no excuse for mindless vandalism.