I was contacted by a member on L2D for a referral for his sister in law for a scratch repair. The car was a medium gray Corolla and had been keyed heavily down 2 doors. I quoted her a price sight unseen. She called the day before to say it had been hit on the other side by a door and had more marks in it now too. I decided I'd do a step by step procedure for the way I repair key marks. My system works well for me. Use it; don't, at least you have one option of a way to do it. I also decided I'd do a one step on this car using Duragloss 671. For something completely different, I decided to try the new Optimum mf finishing pad with it to see how it would work. More on that later. WHEELS/WELLS/TIRES/WASH: The Wheels were cleaned with Zep Citrus and a RG brush. The tires were cleaned with OPC at 2:1 The wells were cleaned with ZC too. The car was then foamed with DG 901 mixed with Zep Citrus. I could tell just rinsing it there was no wax on it at all but I did an aggressive wash on it anyway. Originally, I was just going to ONR the 2 doors and be done with it, but since I had to do the other side anyway, it blossomed into a full wash. It would look better this way anyway. The car was then washed with DG 901 and power washed off. It was dried with the Master Blaster. I then set out to start on the key repair. Here's what I was up against: Passenger Side Marks: I had instructed the owner to pick up a bottle of touch up paint from the local paint supply house, which she did. I then blobbed some onto a clean plastic lid and used a pointy toothpick to get deep down in the scratch. I put the toothpick into the scratch and leave it for a second and let the paint wick down into the crevice. I repeat if necessary. I then turn the toothpick on its side and flatten the paint out so the crevice has been completely filled. I get the paint above the surface of the crevice and higher than the surrounding area. You don't want it too high as it will really add to your wet sanding time, but you do want it somewhat higher. Here is the finished result from filling the entire scratch: The paint was allowed to dry overnight. I finished it at about 1:30 am and didn't get back on to it until 1:00 the next day so it actually had 12 hours to dry. The next step is wet sanding. I had taken measurements and had lots of paint to work with. I started trying to level it with 2500, then moved to 2000 and then to 1500 as it was taking so long. I would level the built-up area with 1500 and then go over it again with 2500. I went over the area one final time lightly with 3000 grit. It took about 2 hours to wet sand the area. Here's the final result of the sanding: I then used my Dynabrade rotary with a black TufBuf wool pad and M105. It was ridiculously easy to polish out the area. I followed that up with M205 and a B & S white pad, again with the Dyna. The night before I had decided to go over the whole car with DG 671 so it did not look goofy just having the doors polished and that's it. I started out with the Optimum mf polishing pad and my Megs DA, but it did not have enough cut for me. I then upped the pad to a white LCC and still I was not happy. I then tried a Surbuff pad with the DG 671 and it worked like a charm! I was not expecting it to, but then again, I don't have a lot of experience yet with 671. It finished down very well and really cleaned up the surface. That was used on the key repaired doors as well too. I wanted the wheels to have some protection so I broke out my paint gun and sprayed them with Permanon Platinum. I then decided to do the whole car with it. The entire car: glass and paint was also done. This was wiped down with 2 different mf's. It was crazy slick after this step. The tires were dressed with Opti Bond and the windshield trim done with UTTG. I ended up charging them $50 more than I originally quoted. One look at the car and the man said he was more than happy to pay it and thanked me for the extra work. All in all a 6 hour job. KEY AREA REPAIRED: OTHER AFTER SHOTS: Thanks for looking.
Nice work on the key scratch. You can't see even a shadow in the pix. I use the same approach with rock chips and small scratches, and have done some key scratches as well. While the rock chips disappear, my attempts at repairing key scratches are not as nice as what you did on this Toyota. By chance do you have any close ups.
Thanks for the sharing your process. Great work. Question though, instead of the toothpick wouldn't it be easier to use one of the touch up kits that has the brush on one end and the roller ball pen on the other.
I just have the shots I took. What you see is what was there. The key, no pun intended, is to wetsand enough with the 3000 to make the scratch outline disappear. Do that and you're golden. IT GOES WITHOUT SAYING DON'T DO THIS W/OUT A PAINT GAUGE!! Thanks, that's what I was hoping for! You should see the paint brush collection I have!! Time and time again, I go back to the pointy (not flat) toothpick for 2 reasons: Small amount of paint on the end and It goes as deep into the crevice as you need it to. Try it. Let the toothpick wick the paint down there. You're not really "brushing" it per se, you're allowing paint to wick down into the bottom of the crevice. You may need to do it more than once if it's deep. Thank you Kody. The 671 gave it an awesome boost too! Thanks Chas. Yes, they were both thrilled!
I was wondering, the paint that was used, is it a paint and clear all in one? I know some touch up paints require clear coat over them. -Kody-
It's the same paint they use to mix up for the body shop, so it's just the colour. If you had a ton of time, you could lay down the colour first, then go over that once it dries with clear and once the clear is dry, wet sand it down. You couldn't do that on a customer's car, it would take too long.
Richy, this is VERY impressive to say the least! I cannot see ANY remaining evidence of the scratch in your after pics. I should find a scrap panel somewhere and see if I can try this myself.
Wow, I really wish I could do that! Gonna have to try it one of these days. I just tell people they're SOL.
Awesome job richy. That's just incredible results. I'm from Windsor also. Would love to meet up one day and learn from a master.
