Ok lightning friends, i don't mean to rant. i was backing into my garage which i have being doing for four years.telphone cable runs up the wall with a staple in it i caught the staple put a 3in' scratch bad, on the right fender they want $600.00 to fix it. We use to have people that knew how to blend a scratch in. They want to paint the whole right side i don't think so,

 

your truck blue?

 

Must be one hell of a tight fit if a staple sticking out of the wall scratched it, eh???

 

[QUOTE=Bartak1]Must be one hell of a tight fit if a staple sticking out of the wall scratched it, eh??? [/QUOTE

MY garage is panel i just got to close telephone cable with staples in it

 

Ford red

 

You can paint and blend it in yourself, I did it with a much harder to do darker color (sonic blue). Goto a custom paint company online and have them mix you a custom spray can to your paint code. Wet sand the area first, then tape off, apply a few thin coats of paint to start filling in the scratch letting each coat dry for 30 minutes or so and then wet sand smooth.

Keep doing this until the scratch is fully filled in and the scratch and surrounding area is perfectly even and smooth with each other. At this point from the wet sanding the paint will look cloudy (a bunch of super fine scratches from the wet sanding) but it will feel perfectly smooth and level to the touch. Now all you have to do is polish back to a factory shine with some polish. Meguiars Scratch-X will be readily available at most stores and work great for this last step.

Take a microfiber and some Scratch-X and start rubbing until it's shining back to a showroom shine. Actually, it will turn out better then factory since you have done an extra step (wet sanding) so you wont have any orange peel.

Listen, if you're thinking it's going to be too hard, one way to look at it is you're going to be out $600 anyway, there's no harm in atleast "trying" yourself before you take it in. That's how I learned, and I got the area I pressure washed off with my 3700PSI pressure washer on my Sonic Blue Lightning back to factory from a silver dollar size chunk of bare primer. My first shot I got it!

Say $35 for a custom mixed spray can.
Make it big, $20 bucks for all the 3M wet sandpaper you're going to need (you'll only need three different grits).
$8 or so for some Scratch-X
Take your time and set a day on the weekend aside to do it (the longest part is letting each coat dry, otherwise the other steps only take a few minutes each)

That's allot better then $600!... It's not hard to do, I can't even use a buffer but I can paint and wet sand and make touch ups where you can't even tell anything was done! (I asked neighbors to point out the area on my front bumper that I painted and no one could tell!) But worst case scenario, you take it in anyway - atleast you had nothing to lose.

 

Learn to drive.....first,,, then get it fixed..

 

What about insurance?

I have a $250 deductable b/c I have no garage and people are a$$holes.

 

Turtle wax has a polish that comes with a red lipstick.
http://www.amazon.com/Turtle-Wax-Col.../dp/B0002JN4LQ
You smear into the scratch. It works awesome for my black L. I have a 3 feet long scratch on my driver door. lasted me about 3 weeks but i clay and wax my truck every month.
good luck.

 

Scratches arent always as bad as they appear to be

Example, I lost my 20ft Portable Garage in a Hurricane like Storm last year,
the Wind ripped (8) 2ft 7/8" steel anchors out of the ground, tossed 300lbs of Sand Bags around like they were filled with feathers, and the entire tent went airborn and flipped over landing on my shed roof. Oh ya it also ripped out all the eye bolts and straps mounted into cemented 4x4 post and ripped one post in half. Unfortunately the tent then came back down on top of my Lightning and did a real number on it in a few spots (some were real bad, TG the cover saved most of it, that was ripped to shred's and thrown out afterwards)

At first glance I was sick to my stomach and truly couldnt talk about it for days



Even after compounded and buffing it out, it WAS NOT looking promising...

 

Then I decided to talk to my neighbor (body man for Jag) and he looked at it and told me that was all in the Clear Coat and I could wet sand it out.
So I took my time and wet sanded it over and over again (being careful not to go too deep), then we compounded it and buffed it with a machine,
AND WA LA......






Neddless to say I DO NOT have a portable garage anymore....



Give it a try you have nothing to lose...

 

Looks good rob i think i will try wet sanding and then do some buffing and polishing. thanks for the ideals TOM