Help me help a friend deal with his scratches

[Roberto10]

My friend loves his brand new Mazda6 in 'Soul Red' yet in less than three months his wife has managed to scratch it up real bad... I have included pictures of three different places where is got imperfections to illustrate the magnitude of the damage.

As for myself, I am on the road to becoming an Autogeek :xyxthumbs: but I am not sure if I'm quite ready or equipped to do this job. All I want is help my friend avoid shelling out $$$ at a body shop.

Hoping someone can share a few pointers or links to techniques applicable to these deep and wide scratches to see if I'm on the right track. Specific questions:

1) Can I use the wet sanding and buffing technique here?
2) I have some Mazda Soul Red touch-up paint from Mazda, which I believe would be required for the deeper scratches... when in the process can touch up paint be applied?
3) What kind of machine compounding/polishing would these deep scratches require?

Feed back please

Thanks y'all for your help!!

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[af90]

Those first two are pretty rough. You can probably clean them up a bit by claying and going pretty aggressive on the compounding/polishing with a machine with the Griot's 6".

But overall that bumper needs a re-paint with those gouges in it all the way down to primer. Wet sanding would likely help, but I'm not one to recommend someone jumping right into the deep end with that..

The third picture I'm not sure on what exactly it is. But overall you can make an improvement on all of them but don't expect like new.

Touchup paint would be at the very end and you should look at applying multiple thin layers to build on each other. If you try to glob it and fill it in all at once you will use too much and it will be much more noticeable. A very fine paint brush found at a hobby store is a good tool to pick up instead of the brush that is commonly included in it.

[VeloNYC]

Haha, today was parking uphill tapped accelerator pedal car suddenly raved and jumped 5-6" more and hit a barrier in front with lower lip. The same exactly soul red v41, but damage is about 10 and up tiny dings plus big one about 1cm.

I just went sanded with 400 and 2000 grit, then I filled dings with putty. So now it is drying before I'm going to put touch up.

After, I will let it dry for a week and will polish with 3000 grit wet sanding. Right after sanding using orange euro foam CCS Euro Foam Hand Polish Applicators - Hand polish, hand detail, foam applicators, CCS foam pads, polishing pad (http://www.autogeek.net/ccs-foam-hand-applicators.html) I will apply Meguiar's Ultimate Compound and 205 polish. And of course wax it afterwards.

I cannot comment on these extensive scratches but for sure you can improve them by 60-70%, or better, find somebody who can do it professionally.

[oldmodman]

All those areas are through the paint and deeply into the plastic.

The repairs are beyond what a home hobbyist should be doing. The gouges in the plastic have to be filled with a plastic filler. Then sanded. Then filled with a fine surface filler. Then the entire part sanded, then primed with a adhesion promoter, then a primer, then a color coat, and finally a clear coat.

Unless you just want to get a paint match pen and fill in the gouges to make them a little less noticeable.

[cardaddy]

GOOD GOD MAN! :eek:

His wife wouldn't happen to be legally BLIND would she? :rolleyes:

If that car looks THAT BAD in ONLY 6 months... holy doo doo... in 6 years it won't have ANY bumpers LEFT. :rolleyes:

My wife's Denali is 10 years old (similar color... "Red Jewel Tintcoat") and it looks brand new compared to that. (In fact... sans the paint chips in the hood (that have been fixed with Dr. Colorchip) the rest is in great shape.)

My suggestion is get a new wife.:D Or... possibly see about teaching that one how to drive (although I have my doubts). :laughing:

But seriously... that damage cannot be repaired with touch-up paint. Looks deep enough to where it may indeed require plastic repair BEFORE it can actually be painted. :eek:

[MattPersman]

Is he not gonna let her drive it again? My suggestion is just to lease cars for her and don't worry about the ongoing damage. Some people are just hard on stuff


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[Ncs0816]

GOOD GOD MAN! :eek:

His wife wouldn't happen to be legally BLIND would she? :rolleyes:

If that car looks THAT BAD in ONLY 6 months... holy doo doo... in 6 years it won't have ANY bumpers LEFT. :rolleyes:

My wife's Denali is 10 years old (similar color... "Red Jewel Tintcoat") and it looks brand new compared to that. (In fact... sans the paint chips in the hood (that have been fixed with Dr. Colorchip) the rest is in great shape.)

My suggestion is get a new wife.:D Or... possibly see about teaching that one how to drive (although I have my doubts). :laughing:

But seriously... that damage cannot be repaired with touch-up paint. Looks deep enough to where it may indeed require plastic repair BEFORE it can actually be painted. :eek:


True that


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[TFTADetail]

First things first ............ TAKE HER DRIVER LICENSE AWAY FROM HER.

Ok, pics showing absence of paint are simple. Touch up.

The pics showing the scuffs aren't so bad. Use Mr. Clean eraser and scrub them off. They WILL come off, but you're going to have to do some type of polishing by hand to remove the light scratches left behind from Mr. Clean. It won't be anything major but will likely be somewhat noticeable enough to want to correct it.
You could do the same thing with the areas missing paint and then touch up the affected area.

[cardaddy]

Is he not gonna let her drive it again? My suggestion is just to lease cars for her and don't worry about the ongoing damage. Some people are just hard on stuff


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And somehow (magically) the lease terms are not going to break it off in you when you return it 36 months later? (Especially the way she drives, which will include bad rims, dented fenders, and bumpers that need total replacement.) :rolleyes:

ME THINKS NOT! :eek:

It'd be *thousands* less to buy it and eat the damage than have to pay at lease end.