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It appears some lovely person opened their white car door into the side panel of my wife's brilliant black '13 Audi A5. As you can see, the dent is a little smaller than a dime with white paint residue. Without going the body shop route, I'm wondering if I can at least cover the white paint, perhaps with Dr. Color Chip.
Any input would be appreciated. Attachment 49739
First things first, you need to figure out if it if paint transfer, a scratch on the clear coat or a scratch in the paint. If it is paint transfer, no need to cover anything. You should be able to remove it.
If it's a scratch on the clear coat you should be able to polish it out. If it's in the paint, you will have to go with something like Dr. Colorchip.
Check if you can "catch" the scratch with your nail. If yes, it is deep. If not, it's only the clear coat.
Nobody can tell cause none of us are there in person to check.
But, might just be the small dent with paint transfer. And if it is, a paintless dent repair person should be able to rectify this. Usually these folks have polishes on hand as well, but if not, something like a mild polish should take this white paint off.
The first thing i do with those is to chemically remove any and all paint transfer and see what i'm left with underneath. What i avoid is any abrasive use first. My favorite for this lately has been DG 501 and my rotary with 2"-3" pads. Sometimes there is no scratch and all i'm left with is a ding for a PDR person to remove. If it has scratched the paint i evaluate the next step depending on depth and severity.
The white paint transfer should easily be removed by Claying and Polishing the paint surface. Search for a good (PDR) Paintless Dent Removal person in your area to safely push the dent back out. Good luck!
sorry to hear about that. unfortunately, no matter how careful we try to be something is going to happen at some point whether it be a ding, stone chip, RID, and any other defect(s). there's no way of keeping a car perfect these days. hope you get it worked out... :)
Grr, these stories always tickle me. I had 3 dents like these on my previous brand NEW car. After PDR I followed up with DR.Color Chip alternative and worked out almost perfect. On my current NEW car it is started to appear slowly, I got 4 small ones in period of 15 months :(.
When I bought my 2010 Fusion used, it had door dings and little dents all over it. Some of the dings/dents had paint transfer, some had scratches in the paint, and some of them had very noticeable chips in the paint.
I did lots of digging, calling around, etc.. and found myself a very good Paintless Dent Removal (PDR) guy. Luckily, my guy charged me only $300 to do the entire car, although he forewarned me that some of the dings and dents were along body lines, and so he couldn't promise he'd be able to get them all out. Turns out, he's VERY good, and he did... but I digress.
The first thing you need to do is find yourself a good PDR guy. Check with your local car dealerships, etc.. They most likely will have found someone who does good work and doesn't charge too much.
You'd be amazed at what a really good PDR guy can do.
Once you've had him fix your dent so it's gone, then you'll want to do like others have suggested, and find out what exactly has been done to the paint. If you're lucky, it's just paint transfer, and a simple polish should remove it. Otherwise, if it's deeper, then you can go from there and either correct it with some compound, or fill it in with Dr. Colorchip or some touchup, etc..
Thanks, everyone, for the feedback.
I'll find a PDR person and hopefully the paint transfer will polish off from there.
Much appreciated!