Car was Keyed all round

Keying is awful - A really cowardly act that pisses me right off!

Got any photos of the damage? Basic rule is if the scratches are deep enough to feel with your finger nail, paint or lacquer is likely to be the only option.

Any scratches finer than that can likely be 90% polished out using a harsh polish such as rubbing compound, followed by G3 or a specific scratch remover, followed by a finishing polish - A lot of elbow grease but good results you can do yourself cheaply.

The scratches you can feel with you finger need further inspection, if only the lacquer is damaged, then new lacquer can be added using a tiny brush or touch up pen to 'fill' the scratch and polished afterwards to match the car.

If the key has gone down to the metal or primer, you'll need to touch up with paint and then lacquer, followed by polish. This is where a body shop might be best if you're not confident yourself.

A full respray sounds extreme - Even the worst keying can be repaired with a localised repair followed by polishing.

 

Why not make an insurance claim?

 

Its a fair point but depending on his age, the excess plus increased premium for the next few years could cost more than chips aways quote!

 

Unfortunately it is what it is and the car has been severely keyed, Chipsaway (and the like) do localised one-off repairs, I wouldn’t want them to effectively repair every panel. It sounds as if (money no object) it needs a full re-spray in which case my advice would be to bite the bullet and make a claim and have the car repaired properly. If it’s not repaired properly I know I would always notice the odd places where the paint/repair didn’t match properly, and it may be likely the next owner would also notice this, whereas if it's had a re-spray it may even increase the value of the car at selling time as it would look in much better condition.


(If anyone is not going to ever make a claim for let’s say 'only' £1,000 worth of damage then they may as well voluntarily increase their excess to this sum and in return get the premium down.)

 

Yeah you've got a point.

Suppose it depends on car colour too - Liquid yellow is hard to match and likely repairs will always stand out.

But white wouldn't be too bad.

 

That’s what insurance is for; if it’s not worth to the OP/you/me making a claim for £1,000 (or whatever) then increase the excess to whatever that cut-off amount is because the premiums will be much much lower. The insurance company will know that they’re never going to have to pay for high frequency but low value small losses and will charge the premium accordingly.


By going through the insurance company you know the repair is going to be done at an insurance company approved repair shop and hopefully 100% perfect or you don’t need to accept it, rather than paying the spray-shop down the road a few hundred quid in cash and not having any real come-back…..

 

for a decent respray you would be looking at £3k upwards and dont always trust what your insurance say you can take it to a body shop of your choice, so do your homework and find a decent shop!!!!!!!

 

Bastards

 

That video explains the different kinds of scratches well and shows that deeper scratch where its gone right through the paint - The water trick he uses on this vid works well to tell if its just lacquer damage.

I reckon most keying damage will of just damaged the lacquer.

Although the method in the video will work, it is risky. If you rub a bit too hard you'll go through the lacquer and the panel will need to be sprayed. If you use that method, definitely get ultra fine sandpaper such as 5000 and take it very easy.

To avoid too much sanding, i'd be more tempted to use a method like this:

http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=20127

This method you fill the damage with new lacquer until the new lacquer protrudes 'taller' than the rest of the paint - An ultra fine artist brush is best for this, you can get decent ones from 'Games Workshop' that people use for painting tiny models.

This way, when you sand (Using very fine paper) you're mostly taking off excess new lacquer rather than the original lacquer. You'll still cause some lacquer damage around the scratch and get that matte effect shown in the video, but this is where the polishing comes in.

Unless you've got a DA polisher and are working by hand, i'd start with a very harsh polish such as rubbing compound to do most of the work in the first stage. This will start to bring a sheen back to the repaired area and feather it into your surrounding paint. Then you can switch to less abrasive polishes to bring the finish back - But be prepared as this will be a long process and hard work by hand.

 

I thought I'd found a glitch in the matrix or something as I just read this exact post on seatcupra.net too!

 

F-----g Bastards

 

Get some IPA solvent or panel wipe to clean before painting. Anything else (like fairy liquid) will leave residue and paint will react with it.

If its gone through the lacquer and damaged the paint, only a very small amount of paint will be needed.

If it was me i'd be trying to put a very small amount of paint on the brush to add the the colour back into the scratch. Leave to dry for around 45 mins, then go back over with lacquer on the brush, aiming to fill in the rest of the scratch and leave fresh lacquer proud of the original.

Leave to dry then you can sand back and polish to blend it in.

I wouldn't be trying to paint, then sand, lacquer than sand again as there's too much risk of sanding through the surrounding lacquer. That method you'd fill the scratch with paint, sand back flush and you'd be left with no scratch left to add lacquer too.

Try on one area first to practice the technique in the least visible area if you can and see what results you get.

 

When I say a very small amount of paint, I mean buy a set of ultra fine or extra fine artists detail brushes. Get a small amount of paint on the brush and if you end up with a blob of paint on the brush, then dab it off on a towel.

This way you can add a tiny amount of paint, just enough to cover the primer but still leave enough depth in the scratch to allow you to finish with lacquer on top.

You can add the lacquer before the paint is 100% dry and this will help them bond together.

 

Yeah i've heard of paint mixed with lacquer before, should work Ok.

If you amend your order get the proper panel wipe: https://www.paints4u.com/ProductDetails.aspx?productID=635

If not these from halfords are made for the job: http://www.halfords.com/motoring/pa...eparation/halfords-paint-preparation-wipes-x5

 

Also remember you need very fine sandpaper such as 2500, then 5000.


Polish wise start with something harsh such as: http://www.halfords.com/motoring/paints-body-repair/fillers-preparation/halfords-rubbing-compound

Rubbing compound is basically a slightly gritty paste, use this only on the sanded area to remove the worse of the sanding marks.

Then you can go onto a scratch remover type polish: http://www.halfords.com/motoring/pa...ecla-g3-permanent-scratch-remover-paste-150ml

That should bring shine back but you'll still need a finer polish than this to get a really clean shine. I used Gtechniq P1 polish last time.

Ideally the polishing stage should be done by machine on this scale of damage - But thats another league.

I've done little repairs like this on mine and polished up by hand with good results - It's just hard work

 

If it happened me, I wouldn't go down the insurance route or respray. Treat the scratches and get it wrapped

 

Basically rubbing compound is as harsh as it gets polish wise, so it works well as the first stage because it'll take it from the matte finish after sanding up to a minimal sheen by hand. Any other polish and you will be working very hard for a long time to do this by hand so it's just about ease really.

G3 and T cut are both quite harsh and i'd personally use them as a middle stage. You might get a good finish with them after multiple attempts, but if it were me i'd use a final stage polish like P1 to get a good shine before wax.

Remember to give the panel a quick wipe over with panel wipe before you wax to remove any residue.

 

This type of repair ideally needs a machine - But obviously you don't have one (I don't either) and have had good results by hand before, its just hard and time consuming.

That's why the polishing product matters more by hand

 

Not sure on cost but have you thought about vinyal wrap?

Seen a few cars done and looks pretty good.

 

Super resin polish is Ok, better than T cut but not as good as P1. The super resin polish only has a very very light polishing action and instead just has shine enhancers in it which instead 'fill' the tiny imperfections to improve the shine - But these enhancers wear off over time like wax does.

You want a correcting compound which has an abrasive action to actually 'cut' into the paint and remove the sanding marks to produce the shine.

If you want something you can get hold of at the shops instead of having to order stuff then this is the one:

http://www.halfords.com/motoring/ca...meguiars-deep-crystal-car-polish-step-2-473ml

 

No problem, I just really hate keying so i'm glad I could help!

Yeah you should take some pics and post them up