How to fix a deep paint scratch?

My car turned 4 years old just 2 days ago (35,000 miles). It’s been very good to me and I’ve enjoyed it a lot. This morning I noticed the first really deep scratch. It’s on the trunk, maybe 10” long. About 5” of that is quite deep. You can easily see the white base coat beneath. I don’t think there’s metal visible, but it might be that deep. You can easily feel it by running a finger over it. Don’t know how it got there. Oh well. The car is jet black.

In terms of just aesthetics, I can live with it. But I’m concerned about rust. I’ve got some BMW touch up paint. Although I’d think my abilities to touch this up and have it look OK in the end aren’t great. But I could give it a shot if that’s the best thing to do. From a search here, it seems that most people just bring the car in to a pro. And I found this link that sounds like a good way to go:
http://www.carcareonline.com/viewarticle.aspx?art=8

So any extra advice for preventing rust here? Thanks.

Reply » How to fix a deep paint scratch?

Jon,

touch-up is nice for small chips, but for scratches, I'd go with another method.

If you can, find someone, who's using Airbrush to repair scratches. This method is a lot more effective than the conventional chip fix, since with the Airbrush stencil, it's easier and more accurate to point and 'shoot' the scratched area, which is already 1 milimeter thin, and fill the scratch by layering the paint.

During my searches, I had found a website, but bummer I didn't bookmark it. I'll see if I can find it again.

Reply » How to fix a deep paint scratch?

Hey Alex,

Thanks for the info. I'll see if I can find that.

I live in a somewhat small town. So finding people who are particularly good at such a specialty is tough. But I'll have a look around. I might even give this repair a shot, myself. I probably can't screw it up worse than it already is. (Famous last words...)

-Jon

Reply » How to fix a deep paint scratch?

Quote:

Trust me, you can make it worse. I used a touch up pencil to remove a scratch (I got key'ed because of a Re-Defeat Bush and Nothing Accomplished sticker- those freak Reps) - now I wish I had not used the pencil since the area is a lot more noticible than with the scratch.

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