[beamer-dreamer]

my soon to be ex wife... swung the car door too far/too fast and hit our large heavy garbage bins....

the result being a small quarter size dent... which if that were all we'd probably stay married...

but the real issue is the 2 inch long scratch right next to the passenger door handle... it's deep, it looks like it goes down to the primer...

brought it to the local autobody shop.. and he said you better just get used to it.. the cure is worse than the disease.. he said he'd need to paint the whole door, and part of one of the panels to make sure it would look right.. and even then if i ever wanted to trade it in.. a professional will know work was done..

he recommended using a marker and just keeping it well polished to diminish how noticeable it is


anyone have any experience with a scratch like that? should i be going to a detailer, as opposed to a collision/auto body shop?

[DrJLag420]

Originally Posted by beamer-dreamer

my soon to be ex wife... swung the car door too far/too fast and hit our large heavy garbage bins....

the result being a small quarter size dent... which if that were all we'd probably stay married...

but the real issue is the 2 inch long scratch right next to the passenger door handle... it's deep, it looks like it goes down to the primer...

brought it to the local autobody shop.. and he said you better just get used to it.. the cure is worse than the disease.. he said he'd need to paint the whole door, and part of one of the panels to make sure it would look right.. and even then if i ever wanted to trade it in.. a professional will know work was done..

he recommended using a marker and just keeping it well polished to diminish how noticeable it is


anyone have any experience with a scratch like that? should i be going to a detailer, as opposed to a collision/auto body shop?

I used Dr. Colorchip and it fills in the scratches pretty well. It's a two-step process. The first step fills the scratches. The second step smooths and protects the paint. Over time (years) it will need to be redone. Also, be careful when doing any decontamination/polishing/waxing steps.

[danallxt]

If the cost is reasonable for you i would definitely take it to a GOOD body shop. Its a new car, it will always bother you, plus it will take off more on the cars value when you do trade as opposed to it being repaired which if done properly will not be noticed. I'd definitely get it professionally repaired. Unless you have experience a do itself paint/fill is usually a noticeable hack job.

[Ruebarb]

Originally Posted by DrJLag420

I used Dr. Colorchip and it fills in the scratches pretty well. It's a two-step process. The first step fills the scratches. The second step smooths and protects the paint. Over time (years) it will need to be redone. Also, be careful when doing any decontamination/polishing/waxing steps.

I'd start here also for a fix yourself approach.

[soflacarguy]

Highly recommend getting a second opinion from a detailer who does paint correction before doing anything else.

[azuki]

pics for our comrade?

[vampire81]

touch up paint + light localized polish (maybe by hand).
painting the entire door won't be a 100% match and will affect resale.
and you won't be looking at the passenger door if you're driving

[a358970751]

Check dent remover , they might do something

[shonseb]

You could probably get a dent remover to pull the dent out. Then Dr colorchip for now. If it comes out well enough that you can live with it, great nothing more to do. If not, send your soon to be ex wife the repair bill after all the dust has settled

[BrawnyCh]

Obvious solution: Call your insurance company and tell them the car is totaled and get another. It's the only way:-)

[danallxt]

Originally Posted by BrawnyCh

Obvious solution: Call your insurance company and tell them the car is totaled and get another. It's the only way:-)

Since its gonna be totalled I'll offer 25 grand for it.

[beamer-dreamer]

i got some adam's polish scratch remover and polish.. just to try and help a little.. as i had tried the toothpaste "trick" and had made it worse...

it by no means removed the scratch, but it did make it stand out a little less.. i'm slowly coming to terms with it...

i may try the dr colorchip or get the BMW paint, when i get bold enough to try and make it better...

this process made me wonder if i actually want an M440i convertible.. in a color other than black...

[RockCrusher]

Originally Posted by beamer-dreamer

my soon to be ex wife... swung the car door too far/too fast and hit our large heavy garbage bins....

the result being a small quarter size dent... which if that were all we'd probably stay married...

but the real issue is the 2 inch long scratch right next to the passenger door handle... it's deep, it looks like it goes down to the primer...

brought it to the local autobody shop.. and he said you better just get used to it.. the cure is worse than the disease.. he said he'd need to paint the whole door, and part of one of the panels to make sure it would look right.. and even then if i ever wanted to trade it in.. a professional will know work was done..

he recommended using a marker and just keeping it well polished to diminish how noticeable it is


anyone have any experience with a scratch like that? should i be going to a detailer, as opposed to a collision/auto body shop?

Some paint colors don't match well. And just painting one panel - such as a door -- really makes the painted panel contrast with the adjacent unpainted panels. Well, not newly painted but of course still with the factory paint unmolested.

Arctic Silver is one such paint. But metallic paints in general are a pain for reasons I won't detail.

A good body/paint shop can deal with the scratch. To a trained eye sure that the panel has been painted might be discernible. Depends upon the quality of the paint work.

(Reminds me...I had a Porsche Turbo (arctic silver which is how I know how hard it is to match arctic silver paint) fixed after a mule deer encounter. Was quite pleased with the outcome, albeit $25K later. Stopped at a Porsche dealer for some reason and was talking to a salesman about the car. Mentioned how 3 body panels were replaced and challenged the salesman to point them out. He looked over the car a bit then correctly pointed out the 3 panels. Not feeling so good now I asked how did he know? He said the painted panels didn't have the usual/standard factory paint orange peel... Also, it turns out the salesmen had spent years with a large auto body/paint shop and his "eye" was quite well experienced in looking over cars.)

The paint thickness of the to be painted panels is measured and then the panels are prepped and painted and then sanded down to bring the thickness to "spec". Well, what it was before. Thus a paint meter won't detect a difference in paint thickness.

But there are other tell tales. Rubber stripping must be *tied* back so there are no paint tape lines/ridges. Over spray must remain "factory". Doubt the paint shop can duplicate the factory orange peel though...

To do it right is time consuming and expensive.

While the car's history will have this work noted you will have pics of the *before* damage and the paperwork from the body/paint shop to show the quality of work done.

I dare say after some few years the fact the car had some scratch taken care of and as long as the car looks reasonably good will count for little. More important to a used car buyer is the overall condition of the car and the price of the car.

As a way of underlining how body/paint work may not affect a car's value as much as one fears... In late May I traded in a 2020 Dodge for my new BM2 230i. The 2020 Dodge had been hit, at slow speed and while parked, back in January of 2020. Not so much hit as the driver of the vehicle parked next to my car cut the turn too sharp and dragged the side of his vehicle against the left front nose of my car as he was pulling out of his parking space. No structural damage. No steering suspension damage. Just easily unbolted and replaced body sheet metal and plastic parts along with hardware. Cost $8200 to fix. I took lots of *before* pics and had the final paperwork which listed all the factory part used. No OEM or salvage/used parts were used to repair the car. And the paperwork listed what other work was done. Might add after the car was repaired I managed to get a $2500 check for diminished value from the at fault driver's insurance company.

At the BMW dealer I offered this car up for a trade in and of course I had with me besides the title a copy of the before pics and a copy of the body/paint shop repair paperwork. The used car appraiser took the documents and looked at them for a bit then handed them back to me. He looked over the car and we went for a test drive. He driving me as a passenger. He was quite pleased with the car. Low miles: 8100 since Nov. 2020. In very good shape. Just 18 months old with 18 months of factory warranty. Very well -- better than factory -- maintained. I had all the services documented. Got a very good trade in value for the car. The only "negative" was the used car appraiser noted the rear tires while not worn out were worn a bit more than the fronts. (This is typical: A dealer used car appraiser will always find something to prepare the used car owner for a bit less money than he expected.) But still the trade in essentially paid for the BMW. Over $47K and the traded in car cost me $51K in Nov. 2020.

Bottom line is if you want to spend the money you can get the scratch taken care of. But it has to be done right. A crummy scratch repair can be worse than just addressing the scratch with touch up paint.

[yanks1]

ugh, sorry to hear