Hey guys, have a couple of questions.

Do the following three photos look like stone chips or maybe something else that could have done the damage? The paint is gone period. I could see the silver petal poking through. Thoughts?


Shot at 2012-07-23

Shot at 2012-07-23

Shot at 2012-07-23

These next two pics upsets me a bit. Found these scratches on my hood. Do you guys think this is from someone keying the car?

Shot at 2012-07-23

Shot at 2012-07-23

Any ideas on how to fix both the chips and the scratches? Tried turtle wax polishing and scratch remover compound but nothing. Its one of the scratches i could actually feel with my fingers. I really hope its not a keying. It would absolutely blow.

 

1st looks like rock chips

2nd looks like keying

the way to find out if its fixable via wax, polish, buff, etc. is usually to run your nail in and see if it catches

 

Have you ever scene rock chips that bad? I mean, does it fall in line with what other people experience.

Regarding the keying, kind of blows. First time that something like this happened to me. Any idea on what could be done to fix? I assuming a whole paint job on the hood would be quite expensive. The scratch does catch the nail

 

check out the Automotive Care & Detailing section in CL or do some searching throughout the forums

 

they keying looks fixable to be honest.... you scratched the clear from the LOOKS OF IT, and therefore it gives you that white hue, polish it up a bit with a proper polishing pad and some high end polish (not the turtle wax crap) and you should be okay.... your car overall looks like it needs a really good detail ASAP, I see a lot of scratches on it

 

Classic case of stonechips - size and shape, and angle of impact will dictate how well the paint comes off from being hit.
The scratches look more like a handbag or something set on the panel and dragged off rather than lifted, but impossible to rule out malicious damage entirely.

A good detailer should be able to assess the likelihood of levelling the paint to eradicate the scratches - his paint gauge will tell him if there's sufficient paint to do so.
The chips can be filled in, in stages to remove the poor look of them. Done well, it'd be fairly hard to spot unless you're up close and looking for them.

 

Stone chips can probably be fixed with Dr. Colorchip. The other doesn't look like key marks but rather objects placed on the car and dragged off like what others have stated. These can probably be polished out, but I wouldn't do so without the help of a paint thickness gauge, probably the best to give it to a professional detailer to do the job.

 

TC, you do realise a good detailer who knows how to properly wield a buffer and polishing compound will (should) have a paint gauge to assess the depth of paint/clearcoat there is to work with, and if a sufficient amount can be removed to safely level the surrounding paint, thereby losing the unsightly scratches and swirls?

Trust me, I know this sort of thing very well for a reason.