Scratch repair experiences?

[EchoRomeo]

Hi all - so I accidentally scratched the liftgate on my newish (2-mo-old) Mach-E when it opened into the garage door. There's a small one-inch scratch that looks like it's down to the metal (I read that the liftgate is actually composite not metal, so think that's actually carbon fiber?). I'm still in the honeymoon period with this car and not ready to accept an imperfection like this (probably ridiculously lol) and was wondering how to best approach touching up/repairing it.

I got a quote from a body shop for $460 and they said the only way to get rid of the scratch is to repaint the entire panel, which seems overkill to me, and probably more than I should rationally spend on something like this. I'm also wary of them repainting a whole panel and the color possibly being a little off compared to the rest of the car. Does anyone have experience with this kind of repair? Does repainting an entire panel generally have a quality result or is there real risk of a mismatch? My car is grabber blue metallic for reference.

Alternatively, are there professional touch-up services that cost less and would have a pretty good, but maybe not perfect result, for something like this? There appear to be other scratch/mobile repair options in my area. Is there something I should look out for in terms of how services like these do touch up work (e.g. sanding down and reapplying primer, etc)? I'm not interested in trying out DIY with this car (e.g. touch up pen)...ideally trying to get the best professional result I can for the money.

Thanks in advance for any input anyone has!

 

[RickMachE]

It won't rust. Either leave it alone or buy touch-up paint from the Ford dealer. Any pro will want to paint the whole area, and a good one will tell you to leave it alone.

 

[Parasmoney]

Based on how valuable your time is the quote you got might be reasonable. If you are a DIYer and don't want to pay that much... This video from Chris Fix might help...

 

[EchoRomeo]

Based on how valuable your time is the quote you got might be reasonable. If you are a DIYer and don't want to pay that much... This video from Chris Fix might help...

Thanks, I appreciate you sharing that video. I may just try the DIY route, per Chris Fix, though I'd ideally like to practice first before taking sandpaper anywhere near my Mach-E (lol). I'm half wondering if I could get my hands on a discarded car panel to scratch and test out that repair procedure on.

Then again, it'd be nice if I could pay $50-$100 to have someone touch it up like that, and save myself the time like you said (maybe just need to look around more).

 

[Parasmoney]

Thanks, I appreciate you sharing that video. I may just try the DIY route, per Chris Fix, though I'd ideally like to practice first before taking sandpaper anywhere near my Mach-E (lol). I'm half wondering if I could get my hands on a discarded car panel to scratch and test out that repair procedure on.

Then again, it'd be nice if I could pay $50-$100 to have someone touch it up like that, and save myself the time like you said (maybe just need to look around more).

You can always try it on the neighbors car who you don't like