I hadn't had my 17 a month when some ******* put a 3" key scratch in my RR door. I buffed on it and made it look significantly better, but it was too deep, apparently, and I didn't want to make it worse. I took it to a body shop that had good reviews, and the guy wet sanded and buffed, but apparently the clear/paint was already too thin and he burnt through the clear 1". Now it looks even worse with the lighter spot and much more noticeable. I absolutely can't stand looking at it and every time I put my son in his car seat, I am incited with rage that someone did that. Anyhow, the car was mostly pristine and this is an obvious scratch; not well hidden. I way overpaid for the car because it had every option besides the UL but had my mandatory ML and pano-roof options with the atomic silver color I wanted on black interior--difficult to find all that configuration; I also paid almost a grand to have it shipped to me; so I'm WAY into this car too much money, even though I paid cash for it. Do I leave it there and just quit caring about the car, letting it get beat up as my new daily driver, or do I pay out of pocket probably $1300-1500 to have both doors painted and it still not match? I wish I could sell this one without a loss and just hang on to my 11 that I like better and keep it going. That one now looks better than this one. I've actually been driving my 11 more than this one. It's much more comfortable and drives better. The 17 has 76k on it and was very well taken care of; now I'm just sick over this. I have a 14 LS460 as my nice weekend car, and I'm scared to even drive it anywhere, as someone already doored it 3 weeks after I had it, but I was able to buff almost all of it out. What would you all do?

 

Best option is find a used door from a salvage yard in your colour, high probability the match will be close as the average car gets about the same sun exposure. Short of that, a repaint is needed and possibly the adjacent panels will need painting as well to get a good blend.

start here
https://car-part.com/
https://www.hollanderparts.com/

 

Mismatched VINs on door panels are worse. So much for having and taking care of what was a nice car.

 

Your choice but I'd much rather that versus non factory paint. Sounds like a body shop is in your future.

 

After all this, I don’t want the car anymore. The eyesore will bother me but so will a repaint. I’m stuck with it either way. If it was a $10,000 car, it wouldn’t be as big of an issue. I’d rather dump thousands into the 11 and run it to 400k, but it’s too late for that. Only option is to keep it, get over it, but just run it straight into the ground.

 

Mine got extensive hail damae about 18 months after I bought it new. They had to replace the hood, trunk and cut the roof off and replace it. It was the first nice car I had purchased in my life and broke my heart. I would recommend you take it to an excellent body shop and let them fix it properly and just pay them. After a while you will forget about it and the car will look beautiful as before. This too shall pass.

 

I would have it painted. After the time, effort and $$ you have invested it is worth a shot. I had my atomic silver front clip repainted after a minor accident and the body shop matched it so well you cannot tell. If it does not turn out to your satisfaction at least you tried, and it will be easier to resell.

 

Based on the your stated history of people scratching and denting doors, it seems like you'd get it fixed, then something else might happen and you're back in the same boat. If you like the 2011 model better, just let the 2017 go (scratch wise) and spend the time and $ keeping the cars you really like clean. Trying to keep your DD as clean as your others will drive you crazy and cost too much $
My .02

 

Don’t you have insurance? Why stress over it. Just make a claim and have the body shop respray and blend adjacent panels in.

I would never sand it down. The clear coat on these cars are thin. They should have known better.

 

Yep, this was an amateur repair attempt. Heck, a $60 “Dr. Colorchip” color-matched kit would have made this little scratch completely disappear; I’ve used it on worse. A real shame the repair guy made things so much worse.

 

I have insurance but filing a claim would jack up my rates and I'd pay for this $1300 respray 10x over in rate increases over the next several years. I'll leave it for now and decide later if I want to have it resprayed or not.

 

Try the Dr. ColorChip kit. It may make it tolerable to you.

It blew my mind; here is a massive keying/vandalism job on the full-height of quarter on a GS, and well into the bumper cover. Someone carved a large block-figure man into the car - some meth-head (presumably) in Seattle when someone else drove the car. Some of it I have already filled, some of it is still unfilled by the time I thought to take a quick (poor) snap with my phone.



This is a short while later after solvating the paint mix, and buffing. This took almost no time at all given the damage. To say I was amazed is almost an understatement. Even knowing where the damage was, I cannot find it.




There was also some severe scuffing into the paint in the circled area of the bumper cover. I did not snap a “before” pic. But again, even knowing where it was, I cannot find it afterwards. Their unique system is amazing at blending in and leveling scratches, leaving a matching gloss finish, and it’s easy and fast. I just use my fingers for the whole process - much better and more sensitive than the supplied sticks and squeegees. (I have since repaired the tail light leaks, so I want no leak-shaming here ).

 

I'd just switch insurers if that happens. You're not at fault here so the increase in premium should be quite small?

Back to the paint, what color is it? Atomic Silver? Can't really tell.

 

Yes, it’s atomic silver. I’m still stewing over it and what to do about it. My main priority is to keep stalling on selling the 11. Wife is kind of on me to get it sold since I bought this one, plus have my LS460, plus my old Mustang, plus her GX460. I’m purposely dragging my feet selling the old one. Whatever I do, I’ve lost a ton either way. I don’t see how people buy new cars and finance most of the cost, instantly going upside down 5 figures the second they drive it off the lot. The financially responsible answer is to drive it as is and get over it, but that’s difficult to do.

 

Life is too short to get annoyed at things, get it resprayed. The key to Atomic Silver is finding a body shop that has done hundreds of these Lexues before uses the highest quality paint, as there are metallic flake sizes that needs to match too. Our local shop recommended by Lexus uses Glasurit 100 Line for the paint and the results are very good.


IJ7 is the color code:

https://coloronline.glasurit.com/index.php?language=8