Need some advice on a a 6" scratch on a new car :(

[Grifftech]

My wife and I just bought a 2014 Jeep Cherokee Granite Crystal Metallic and had it in the garage. The wife had the rear hatch opened and I opened the garage door and the arm that connects to the door to move it dragged right across the hatch /facepalm!!!

I am wondering if you guys recommend any of those touchup kits that might do a decent job.

It is a deep scratch and just touching it up with paint probably wouldn't fill it.

Anyway to maybe use a filler and then touch up the scratch and then some polishing.

This is the wife's new vehicle and she is NOT happy with me :(

[builthatch]

My wife and I just bought a 2014 Jeep Cherokee Granite Crystal Metallic and had it in the garage. The wife had the rear hatch opened and I opened the garage door and the arm that connects to the door to move it dragged right across the hatch /facepalm!!!

I am wondering if you guys recommend any of those touchup kits that might do a decent job.

It is a deep scratch and just touching it up with paint probably wouldn't fill it.

Anyway to maybe use a filler and then touch up the scratch and then some polishing.

This is the wife's new vehicle and she is NOT happy with me :(

sounds like a genuine accident.

the ultimate thing to consider is that it's just the hatch, an isolated panel. so if you end up working on it and your wife still can't live with it, it'd be easy for a reputable shop to just refinish that panel without having to blend to adjacent panels.

but, there are tons of options and techniques for filling scratches. the biggest thing in my eyes is that with new cars, the clear is SO thin, so if you do some filling/sanding/filling/sanding then polishing, any of the leveling work you do will be risky because the OE clear surrounding the scratch is so thin. it's just the way it is nowadays. you have to weigh it out.

deep scratches tend to show because the center of the valley is a different color than the cleared paint around it. so on a gray car, you will likely see a white center. even if you knock it down quite a bit, that center will still highlight the scratch. if you can at least just get the center filled slightly...carefully...and then sand and polish...or even just polish without pulling the new paint out, you might be able to reduce the appearance enough to an acceptable level.

some people mix clear and base for touch up paint. whatever you do, imo it has to be thin to work well, reduced down quite a bit.

[jamesboyy]

Ochie I am sorry to hear the bad news, though one way to solve your problem would be to do a layering process with touch up paint from the dealer(body color) and or auto parts store(clear coat and white base coat) you will want to place three coats of primer(white base coat) making sure to let each coat dry 15 mins followed by lightly sanding(so the coats can bond to one another) and you repeat that process for the body color and clear coat once done you should have a blob which you sand down and polish down to flawless perfection