Ouch......scratch!!

[vdubbya]

Here`s the story. My daughter was riding her bike up the driveway when...........you guessed it........her handlebar hit the side of my Explorer. The scratch is about 24" long and sticks out "bright white" on the brown-metallic. I can feel the scratch with my finger nail. My question..........can this be worked out or is it time for some new clear? Thankfully there is no dent of any sort where the scratch is located. ??????????????

[andriver]

If you can feel it with your finger nail then it may need to be repainted.

[Woob]

Of course! What products do you have at the moment? You should be able to get the white stripe out easily with the right products. Do you have a picture? What products do you have currently?

It won`t be perfect, but you can probably get the white stripe gone

[Hellspawn]

I think "white stripe" = primer.

[Woob]

Actually I`ve heard that you can remove some bad scratches with some high and low abrasive stuff. Example: ProPolish and I do remember awhile back someone did a car who backed into twigs and the entire backside was white.

[awd330]

It may be possible to reduce or even remove the scratch, but it`s hard for anyone to really say without seeing the car in person. Perhaps it would be helpful if you could post a good photo. From your description (a 24" inch long scratch that`s bright white and can be felt with a fingernail), it sounds pretty severe and may require a new paint job.

[vdubbya]

I have no way of posting pics at the time for I have no internet service at home. (only at work) Sorry.
The scratch like I stated is around 24" long. Only for about 8" can you get a finger nail in it. I tried a Evercoat light duty compound and my Cyclo polisher w/green pads (that`s all I have at the present for something this severe). That seemed to take away a bit of the scratch but not as much as I hoped. I think I`ll have to maybe have a bodyshop take a look at it and see what comes of that. AAGGGHHHH!
A person tries to take the best care of his toys and then this happens. I park the furthest away from anything at the shopping centers and low and behold it happens in my own driveway. Kids! Oh well.......I guess it is only a car.

[EZ Boy]

If you`re back to primer or bare metal then you can probably get out of this ok with something like the Ducomagic system. All the car yards seem to use these guys to repair chips, acid burns, scratches etc., on their new vehicle stock esp. is used yards. The repair jobs I`ve seen look damn near respray quality for a hell of a lot LESS MONEY! Do your own research and see if that can get you out of your pickle

[gentletouch]

A little brake parts cleaner on a rag will remove any transfer from the bike to the car. Then you can work on it with your products.

[Beemerboy]

I had the same thing happen to my BMW, it was only 5 inches long. I took it to a local body shop and he filled it in and wet sanded it dowm. Took one night and you really can not se where it is. Cost was about 100 bucks and worth every penny

[vdubbya]

I`m going to have it looked at tomorrow. Thanks.

[WarrenA]

"Sometimes" you can sneak by and take a magic marker and color in the bottom of the scratch. the scratch will still be there but not as noticeable. remove excess marker with a little wax across the scratch not with the scratch.

[naddage]

This is a great article that outlines what you need to do to remove nicks and scratches pretty thoroughly.

http://www.bettercarcare.com/articles.php?articleId=27

There was a thread earlier about this article, and the replies were all positive, so I guess this process works well.

I`m following every word of the process, and I am up to the point of wet sanding the excess paint off the filled-in paint chip.

I am a little scurred, but I will try it out this weekend (1500 grit so it shouldn`t be too bad), and hopefuly it will go well and I will post pics.