tonyhw

Hi,
My car got keyed and I looked up a bunch of different methods for fixing a deep scratch. This was my first time fixing a scratch, wetsanding, and buffing.

The method that I used was:

1.gently wet sand the scratch
2.use rubbing alcohol to clean the scratch
3.apply touch up paint
4.wait for paint to dry
5.level the paint via wetsanding (2000 grit, I presoaked the paper and used a small rectangle chip to give it a flat surface)
6.buff with rubbing compound using orbital buffer with wool pad(i had some turtle wax rubbing compound lying around, so i just used that)
7.polish using orbital buffer w/ yellow foam (meguiars ultimate pre-waxing polish)
8.wax using orbital buffer w/ red applicator bonnet (i had some formula carnauba wax, so i used that)

Everything was ok until step 5. It was diffcult for me to level my touch up paint. I used the big brush that came with the touch up bottle... even though I read that I should use a finer tip. (I learned my lesson). Anyways, I continued to wetsand it with 2000grit for a very long time. maybe over 10 minutes. It was getting late and I was running out of time because I had school the next day, so I stopped and decided to just do a rough job this time and fix it again later. So, I continued with my buffing, polishing and wax.
I might've over buffed as well, because I think i over sanded the scratch area and the 2000 grit marks wouldn't come off, so I kept buffing it. At some point it started to look a little better, but not much of a difference and I decided to move on and polish and wax.
Polishing and waxing was pretty straightforward and simple.

I've looked at some other forums posts and found that other people with a similar problem were recommended to get the whole panel repainted because they've sanded through the clear coat and into the paint (some might've been past the paint).

If my best option is to get it repainted, I would like to try to fix this on my own first for some experience, but I don't know what I should do now. My friend told me to clean the area by removing the wax then try wet sanding it again. Before I take this advice, I figured I should reach out to the ClubLexus community first... since most of the posts I've read were from here.

Thank you for your help.



P.S I buffed polished and waxed my whole car, but my primary issue is this scratch.
The scratch




After buffing polishing and wax.




After buffing polishing and wax.




After buffing polishing and wax.

DennisMik

That sucks that some low-life keyed your car!

I have tried to do scratch repair and failed miserably. It is an art form that I can't master. My advice is to have the door re-painted. If you want to try some more yourself, I wish you luck.