how well does touch-up paint work? have a few chips on hood, deep scratch on doors
07-29-2001, 10:28 PM
#2
It's more your skill at applying, it will look new, applied correctly-
but to apply it that well is really damned near impossible. Check out carcareonline.com for what is possible or feasible. A bodyshop may be your best option if you don't have any experience with touchup
07-30-2001, 05:54 AM
#6
New Member
Join Date: Feb 2001
Posts: 113
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
my recent experience with scratch repair, touch-up paint
This is kind of long but it has a happy ending.
Waxing my car in garage (bad idea). Step ladder falls on driver's door and makes 5" scratch spanning moulding above and below. (Yeah, that Saturn ad with the bike falling on the car in the garage hits me close to home.) I weep, gnash teeth, cry out in despair.
Local VW/Audi guru estimates $500-600 for as-new repair but suggests quick and dirty job that will be better than touch-up paint but not quite "as-new." Says this will cost about $150.
I order Santorin blue touch-up paint from the Audi dealer, and make an appointment with their body shop for their estimate. Two weeks later I drop by and they estimate about $900! My insurance deductible is $500 so I guess I really shouldn't care about anything over $500, but $900 seems especially absurd. I drive back down to the actual Audi dealer and talk to the salesman who sold me the car, Nick. Nick agrees that the body shop is costly, and suggests a guy he knows who used to restore cars and knows how to fix scratches. (Joe Kresser, Chase Auto Detailing, Cincinnati, Ohio.)
We call Joe from the Audi dealer to see if he is in that day. He is in,and suggests that he drive over to the Audi dealership to take a look at my car. (He's less than 1 mile away.) So he looks at it and says that with my Audi touch-up paint, which comes with a bottle of clear as well as "Santorin blau" paint, he can do the job immediately and be done in about 1.5 hours. His estimate? About $15-25.
He carefully painted the scratched areas, and let it dry with the aid of a heat gun. Then added clear coat, let that dry, and then added some of his own clear coat with hardener. He wet sanded it down with 2000 grit sandpaper and then buffed it all out with a motorized buffer. The result? when you stand back from the car, you can't really see the scratch unless you know it is there and exactly where it is already. So I can spot it if I look closely but my girlfriend can't find it from 5 feet away. My cost was $25 plus the touch up paint. I don't think it would escape the notice of a judge at a car show, but if I ever want to have it all sanded out and repainted like new then I can do that later. For now, I'm $475 or so closer to a GIAC chip than I would have been with the body shop, and it all looks pretty damn good I think.
If you need a scratch repaired in the Cincinnati area I recommend you give Joe a call. His phone number is 513-528-9094. And watch out for those step ladders.
Waxing my car in garage (bad idea). Step ladder falls on driver's door and makes 5" scratch spanning moulding above and below. (Yeah, that Saturn ad with the bike falling on the car in the garage hits me close to home.) I weep, gnash teeth, cry out in despair.
Local VW/Audi guru estimates $500-600 for as-new repair but suggests quick and dirty job that will be better than touch-up paint but not quite "as-new." Says this will cost about $150.
I order Santorin blue touch-up paint from the Audi dealer, and make an appointment with their body shop for their estimate. Two weeks later I drop by and they estimate about $900! My insurance deductible is $500 so I guess I really shouldn't care about anything over $500, but $900 seems especially absurd. I drive back down to the actual Audi dealer and talk to the salesman who sold me the car, Nick. Nick agrees that the body shop is costly, and suggests a guy he knows who used to restore cars and knows how to fix scratches. (Joe Kresser, Chase Auto Detailing, Cincinnati, Ohio.)
We call Joe from the Audi dealer to see if he is in that day. He is in,and suggests that he drive over to the Audi dealership to take a look at my car. (He's less than 1 mile away.) So he looks at it and says that with my Audi touch-up paint, which comes with a bottle of clear as well as "Santorin blau" paint, he can do the job immediately and be done in about 1.5 hours. His estimate? About $15-25.
He carefully painted the scratched areas, and let it dry with the aid of a heat gun. Then added clear coat, let that dry, and then added some of his own clear coat with hardener. He wet sanded it down with 2000 grit sandpaper and then buffed it all out with a motorized buffer. The result? when you stand back from the car, you can't really see the scratch unless you know it is there and exactly where it is already. So I can spot it if I look closely but my girlfriend can't find it from 5 feet away. My cost was $25 plus the touch up paint. I don't think it would escape the notice of a judge at a car show, but if I ever want to have it all sanded out and repainted like new then I can do that later. For now, I'm $475 or so closer to a GIAC chip than I would have been with the body shop, and it all looks pretty damn good I think.
If you need a scratch repaired in the Cincinnati area I recommend you give Joe a call. His phone number is 513-528-9094. And watch out for those step ladders.
Trending Topics
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post
audichina
A4 (B5 Platform) Discussion
6
09-29-2003 08:01 AM
RedlumF
A4 (B6 Platform) Discussion
1
01-08-2003 01:14 PM
swimmer
Auto Detailing Discussion
9
05-28-2002 09:17 PM
