I have the OB GEE. I somehow got a scratch on the hood. Infuriating!!!

I bought the paint pen kit from PaintScratch http://www.paintscratch.com/. Today, I followed the directions and applied some thin base coats (the color coat) to the scratch. The kit includes some rubbing compound and the instructions, which are not that clear, say that before applying the clear coat you can smooth out the first coat using it. The first coat was a bit bumpy so I used the rubbing compound. It is gritty and I tried to only do it on the scratch but of course the surrounding area got some of the treatment. It is now dull and looks a little scratched. The instructions seem to say that you can fix that by polishing it but they say you can't do that for at least three days after everything is done.

I next applied the clear coat in thin coats but there are still bumps. So now I have an area where the scratch was that has the paint on it and sticks up above the rest of the paint and a surrounding area that looks faded and swirly.

The instructions talk about using 1000 grit dry and wet sandpaper but I am getting real nervous that I am either already in a disaster or heading for one.

I tried to take pictures but they don't show anything.

Any suggestions? Am I screwed or should I go forward with the sandpaper? How much should it cost to repaint the hood? Should I take it to the dealer? And is that going to be a fiasco to. (I always though that having one part of a car painted was the kiss of death because it never matches the rest.)

 

You need to get the pics to work so everyone can get an idea of what your talking about. It's hard to tell.

 

Never EVER EVER buy one of those do-it-yourself scratch kits. EVER!! They are garbage and only cause more headaches.

But, I guess it's too late for that now. My suggestion, don't do anything else. Just take it to a professional and have them fix it for you. Might cost you, but it'll be worth it.

 

I just took these with the flash. They are not great but they should give you some idea.

 

What professional? The dealer? I'm in South Florida.

 

In general the paint looks very swirly. Your hazy scratches don't look that much worse than the rest of the paint. I bet they are very light clear-coat scratches, to be expected at this stage and to be polished out in future steps.

Check this out -- and ask him for advice if you want:
http://g35driver.com/forums/showthread.php?t=95437

In particular, your images look A LOT like his in-progress image:


and here's his end-result image:


Note that the rest of your black paint doesn't look anywhere like the black paint in his pictures... that's what I mean by your black paint looks all swirled up/scratched anyways. A good high quality detail would certainly do your car a lot of good. Maybe get a professional detailer to finish up your scratch repair and the polish the whole car?

 

Notice the spider webing on the light reflections...polishing can take that out and produce a mirror like finish, just look for a local car detailer that offers car polishing. If you want to do this youself, you'll need to spend some bucks for a buffer, pads and polish. http://www.detailedimage.com/DI-Packages-C62/ sells a kit and there are videos online to show you how to use the porter cable, worth having and knowing as a OB owner.

 

Don't do it yourself. I've seen a lot of people use those touch up pens and seriously mess up their cars. If you dont know what your doing your going to make it worse. Just take it to a body shop and have them fix it. It looks like they are going to have to do some sanding and probably some repainting.

That do-it-yourself kit that RedG37SNC recommended is for detailing your car. Your going to need a lot more then a detail to fix that.

 

How much more damage could I do? If I have already screwed it up and take it to a professional to fix they will charge me and worse have to keep my GEE for a day or so. If I carry on and try to complete the job, it could work or be messed up but the repair by the pro will probably have the same downside as now.

Where the hell does one buy Meg's unigrit 2000 and 3000 sandpaper. I already have the Porter Cable and the pads and swirl kits, but I looked at detailedimage.com and autogeek.net but they don't seem to have it.

 

perhaps you know someone that may assist you? i wouldn't try it yourself... since you've already done a little damage already...

 

http://www.google.com/products?q=Meg...&hl=en&show=dd

Trying giving detailedimage blackjack, black better or garret a PM. They are the hard core detailers on this forum. I'm sure they would be happy to give you further advise

 

Your touch up will probably need to be wet sanded, then buffed. Thats something you probably wont be able to do.

 

I'm in South Florida and I would like to help you out man. Let me polish ur paint please lol. I recently did a black G35 that was in pretty bad shape with swirls, acid rain, bird crap, etc. PM me if you want to know how much I charge. I even have the langka kit and will do my best to fix your scratch and get it even again.

 

Back to the begining. You know you are in big trouble when you are back to having just a scratch on your hood amd are happy about it.

Today, I called paintscratch and they said that I could get back to where I started by just using the paint thinner that came with the pen. They said it would not hurt the rest of the paint. When I got home from work, I took off all of the pen paint and sure enough the other paint was unaffected. I then washed the GEE and, using my Porter Cable and swirl polish, gave the hood a good going over.

It looks great. I am back to merely having a horrible scratch and am ecstatic about it. Pretty pathetic, huh.

Thanks for everyone's help. I still want to fix the scratch but I'm going to hold off for a while.

 

Yeah glad it's back to the normal scratch. I wonder if some yellow-pad on a Porter Cable 7424 with the right pressure and some Menzerna 106FF or maybe even some Meguiar's Scratch X would help...