Help!! I messed up my paint

[HPLouis]

Hi,
I was cleaning behind my license plate and the plate fell and nicked the bumper. I got one of those detailing pens, the ones use to polish or something and I tried to buff the nick. I then tried a 3000 grit sandpaper. Obviously, I screwed up. Can this be fixed or do I have to repaint the whole bumper?





The car is a Mystichrome Mustang Cobra so I`m hoping that I don`t have to repaint it.

[Swanicyouth]

Hard to tell from the pic. But, it looks like it can be improved - but not fixed 100% w/o a repaint. The way to go about it is to compound & polish the area. I`d tread lightly - the clear is probably now pretty thin there.

[Accumulator]

HPLois- Sorry to hear about/see that...whether it can satisfy you without a proper repaint will depend on how particular you are.

I gather you have an incomplete understanding of what`s involved here, and that makes me think that you oughta indeed tread lightly as Swanicyouth advised. This stuff requires a pretty thorough understanding to avoid making things worse instead of better.

Two separate issues to deal with, both of which call for some studying if you want to DIY things:

1)It appears that some paint is missing (the deepest part of that "scratch") will need to be filled in with touchup paint for a really good repair. Maybe not, hard to tell from the pix.

2)Where you wetsanded (oh man, if people would just never try that...at least not without a few hours of studying first) needs to be compounded (abraded with an aggressive process to bring back some gloss) and then polished (further abraded with a milder process to make it look shiny again). The clear might already be so thinned that the paint will eventually fail, hard to know for sure (especially on plastic where you can`t use an ETG).

Honestly, I suspect that you`ll be happiest with a professional repair, but maybe you`ll be satisfied with just rectifying the damage from that wetsanding.

[Mike lambert]

Fortunately 3000 is pretty forgiving and it looks pretty even, but that center area worries me. I would at this point try polishing it out with a polish to see if it improves. If it does than go to gently compounding and polishing. Good luck!

[Swanicyouth]

You can prolly get that bumper repainted for like $200 from the local dealer bumper repair guy. Paint won`t match perfect - but factory bumper paint never matches anyway.

[HPLouis]

The scratched part is where the trunk lid hits the bumper. That happened to all the Mustangs i’ve ever owned. I’m used to that.

I sent the pics to a detailer who said he can polish out the area I screwed up, if there is enough clear coat left. I’m heading to the professionals on this one.

I tried Meguiar’s Scratch 2.0and it removed the haze and cloudiness that I caused. Should I do anything else (wax??)or should I just leave it alone?

I can’t get rid of the part where the trunk hits the bumper. I’m gonna live with it

thanks guys

[HPLouis]

It`s dark so I couldn`t get a good pic but here`s where it`s at right now.


I`ve got a detailer coming over to polish the car and finish it.

[Don]

At this point I would just leave it alone. The odds of creating unrepairable damage are fairly high now, and personally I would avoid the use of anything but a mild cleaner-wax or a non-abrasive sealant/wax in this area.

It`s dark so I couldn`t get a good pic but here`s where it`s at right now.


I`ve got a detailer coming over to polish the car and finish it.