DIY touch up for bad scratches = $100 versus $1800

[dtbaker61]

So I had an unfortunate encounter with a stucco corner at my garage door... backed out in a hurry, and turned the wheel a little too soon to make my J-turn out the driveway. Scraped front corner badly, totally my fault. ;( Took it to local paint shop with good rep, and they quoted $1800 and 2 months before they could do it. They wanted to completely remove bumper and all trim before spraying.... etc.

I did NOT want anybody to take apart the bumper since I can only imagine the time required with sensors, pulling the frunk, etc. I also did not want to leave the car with them for days and add the cost of rental, etc. So I thought I'd try to repair myself, and if I failed I could always bring it in after the fact.

turns out that the kit from TouchUpDirect.com was less than $100, and the color match is pretty darn close, for Infinite Blue even! The kit had everything except I had to start with more aggressive sandpaper to take down the deep scratches, then finer prior to priming. Took about 2 hours to prep, sand, prime, and color. Then 10 more minutes the next morning to clear coat.

In retrospect I probably should have sanded a little more, and done a wet-sand with finest grit before priming... They do NOT recommend sanding between coats or after clear coat. only buffing after clear to help blend and gloss the surface after a couple days of drying.

 

[Regularmache]

Nice! Well done. I did the same thing when stationed in Hawaii and they use coral stone as a retaining wall the length of the driveway. Much deeper gouges as a result. I believe if it was sand paper it would be like 2. Found a shop in Honolulu that did small color repairs, it looked as good as yours but I paid a lot more! Really well done.

 

[AKgrampy]

You’re hired!!! (But I hope to never need it)

 

[Tngo23]

So I had an unfortunate encounter with a stucco corner at my garage door... backed out in a hurry, and turned the wheel a little too soon to make my J-turn out the driveway. Scraped front corner badly, totally my fault. ;( Took it to local paint shop with good rep, and they quoted $1800 and 2 months before they could do it. They wanted to completely remove bumper and all trim before spraying.... etc.

I did NOT want anybody to take apart the bumper since I can only imagine the time required with sensors, pulling the frunk, etc. I also did not want to leave the car with them for days and add the cost of rental, etc. So I thought I'd try to repair myself, and if I failed I could always bring it in after the fact.

turns out that the kit from TouchUpDirect.com was less than $100, and the color match is pretty darn close, for Infinite Blue even! The kit had everything except I had to start with more aggressive sandpaper to take down the deep scratches, then finer prior to priming. Took about 2 hours to prep, sand, prime, and color. Then 10 more minutes the next morning to clear coat.

In retrospect I probably should have sanded a little more, and done a wet-sand with finest grit before priming... They do NOT recommend sanding between coats or after clear coat. only buffing after clear to help blend and gloss the surface after a couple days of drying.

WOW
I am impressed. You did really good & looks very professional Dan

 

[Gimme_my_MME]

I got pretty worried that picture 2 was your "after" picture, before continuing scrolling and seeing it was just an additional "before".

In reality it came out REALLY well. Doubly so when you consider it was less than $100

 

[kkriskal]

Wow, awesome job.

 

[txaggies07]

So I had an unfortunate encounter with a stucco corner at my garage door... backed out in a hurry, and turned the wheel a little too soon to make my J-turn out the driveway. Scraped front corner badly, totally my fault. ;( Took it to local paint shop with good rep, and they quoted $1800 and 2 months before they could do it. They wanted to completely remove bumper and all trim before spraying.... etc.

I did NOT want anybody to take apart the bumper since I can only imagine the time required with sensors, pulling the frunk, etc. I also did not want to leave the car with them for days and add the cost of rental, etc. So I thought I'd try to repair myself, and if I failed I could always bring it in after the fact.

turns out that the kit from TouchUpDirect.com was less than $100, and the color match is pretty darn close, for Infinite Blue even! The kit had everything except I had to start with more aggressive sandpaper to take down the deep scratches, then finer prior to priming. Took about 2 hours to prep, sand, prime, and color. Then 10 more minutes the next morning to clear coat.

In retrospect I probably should have sanded a little more, and done a wet-sand with finest grit before priming... They do NOT recommend sanding between coats or after clear coat. only buffing after clear to help blend and gloss the surface after a couple days of drying.

I hope I never have to use this post to help me out. You did a great job. I would be sooooo nervous sanding it, making it look way worse before it gets better.

 

[dtbaker61]

thanks for all the kind words.... I think it did come out well. Not 'perfect', but the color match is great right out of the can.

The scratches were very deep, probably 1/32" in places, so I had to start with pretty aggressive (200 grit) sandpaper to remove paint/primer and get down to the deepest scratch. Then went over it with 400 dry. I probably should have finished sanding with 400 wet or 800 wet to get it a little smoother. I think I didn't go QUITE deep enough in some places. My advice for bumper repaints like this one is to spend enough time on the sanding, because the paint will not 'fill in' scratches like this.

I'm going to give it a couple days to harden, and then buff the clearcoat... which should blend the finish with surrounding areas nicely.

 

[TX_MME]

How well has this held up over time? Does it still match or has it faded at all? I'm about to have to do this too unfortunately.

 

[dtbaker61]

How well has this held up over time? Does it still match or has it faded at all? I'm about to have to do this too unfortunately.

The paint color and clearcoat have held up very well. Looks better than the day I did it since I went back and buffed a couple weeks later.

If I were to do it again, I would have sanded a little deeper to take out the deepest scratches, and worked the areas with finer and finer grit to obtain a smoother surface before primer. I was thinking primer would 'fill in', but it really is best to get the surface perfect first, prime and NOT sand, and go right to color coat. Wait overnight, don't sand, and clearcoat... wait a couple weeks, and then buff

 

[River Rat]

Nice, first road trip after dealer PPE got 2 road rash chips outside the PPE. So I may need some minor touch up, really pissed but the PPE is perfect.

 

[PA Bob]

So I had an unfortunate encounter with a stucco corner at my garage door... backed out in a hurry, and turned the wheel a little too soon to make my J-turn out the driveway. Scraped front corner badly, totally my fault. ;( Took it to local paint shop with good rep, and they quoted $1800 and 2 months before they could do it. They wanted to completely remove bumper and all trim before spraying.... etc.

I did NOT want anybody to take apart the bumper since I can only imagine the time required with sensors, pulling the frunk, etc. I also did not want to leave the car with them for days and add the cost of rental, etc. So I thought I'd try to repair myself, and if I failed I could always bring it in after the fact.

turns out that the kit from TouchUpDirect.com was less than $100, and the color match is pretty darn close, for Infinite Blue even! The kit had everything except I had to start with more aggressive sandpaper to take down the deep scratches, then finer prior to priming. Took about 2 hours to prep, sand, prime, and color. Then 10 more minutes the next morning to clear coat.

In retrospect I probably should have sanded a little more, and done a wet-sand with finest grit before priming... They do NOT recommend sanding between coats or after clear coat. only buffing after clear to help blend and gloss the surface after a couple days of drying.

I recently had a minor scratch. I wanted to touch up. My local Ford dealer actually had a pretty cheap tube of touchup paint and clearcoat. When I put the base coat on, it didn’t even come close to matching. The directions on the box, and on the tube were insanely inaccurate. I would suggest to FORD that the directions on the box refer to a YouTube video, and they take care of the instructions on the video. It turns out the clearcoat also has dye in it and that’s what matches up the color. I haven’t gone back and applied the clearcoat yet. We will see.