Scraped sideskirt - options?

[blinkme323]

Hey guys, I was driving home late last night and as luck would have it, I clipped a curb and scrapred my sideskirt towards the rear wheel. The picture actually makes it look a little worse than it is, but right now it looks like my options are the following:

a) Touch up the spot as best I can

b) Buy a whole new side skirt

c) Just let it go

I'm extremely OCD, so this is really bothering me right now, lol. Any help is appreciated.

[JimboB5]

Shouldn't be too bad; wet sand to make smooth, lightly touch up... sand again and then try some compound. Of course, resand after paints fully dried, compound after cured. PS... have done this on much bigger scuffs and find a little spray easier to deal with than a brush-on paint - just tape off the area. Hope that helps.

[Michael Stoops]

Originally Posted by JimboB5

Shouldn't be too bad; wet sand to make smooth, lightly touch up... sand again and then try some compound. Of course, resand after paints fully dried, compound after cured. PS... have done this on much bigger scuffs and find a little spray easier to deal with than a brush-on paint - just tape off the area. Hope that helps.

Easy to say if you've got experience doing this sort of thing! We've seen plenty of people make things much worse when attempting to fix this sort of thing if they've never done it before.

What grit sand paper? How far do you sand it? Follow up with a finer grit paper? Don't forget to mask off a LOT of the vehicle if you're going to attempt a rattle can touch-up. Sand again? With what grit? Compound by hand to pull out your sanding marks, or grab a rotary? Any experience with a rotary? Things can go horribly wrong at each of those steps when someone just jumps in blind.


Any chance we get a larger image of the damage?

[Tim Lingor]

Originally Posted by Michael Stoops

Easy to say if you've got experience doing this sort of thing! We've seen plenty of people make things much worse when attempting to fix this sort of thing if they've never done it before.

What grit sand paper? How far do you sand it? Follow up with a finer grit paper? Don't forget to mask off a LOT of the vehicle if you're going to attempt a rattle can touch-up. Sand again? With what grit? Compound by hand to pull out your sanding marks, or grab a rotary? Any experience with a rotary? Things can go horribly wrong at each of those steps when someone just jumps in blind.


Any chance we get a larger image of the damage?

And....Is the scratch right on the edge? Is the paint a metallic?

You can not fog in a panel that easily and wet sanding touch up paint on the edge and expect to buff it with a rotary or even a DA is not feasible. Being on an edge, you will rip off that paint in a blink of an eye as paint is the thinnest on the edges....

I would use touch up paint and try and build up 2-3 light coats trying to keep them as smooth as possible. After it shrinks, take some UC and a piece of cotton terry towel and work the touch up carefully. You are trying to smooth it out without actually pulling it back out of the scratch.

What kind of car is it? I know that if it is a Toyota for example, the dealer can order a replacement skirt that is already painted and color matched. It will not be cheap, but it is an option... Something to consider....



Tim

[blinkme323]

Thanks for the insight so far guys. Just to answer a few questions, it's a 370z, non-metallic paint, and the scrape is just above the edge. I can pick up a set of painted nismo skirts for about $600, so I guess that's an option too.

[JimboB5]

Ditto Tims suggestion of UC by hand - would assume using hand method in that the scuff is small. To be more clear, having done larger areas, I'd wetsand with 1500 to scuff area around scuff mark... maybe 1/4-1/2in around area ( should tape and paper to stay small), clean with alcohol if not Prepsol, spray mist coats to cover now a little larger area, remove tape - let dry - after wet-sanding w/2500-3000 grit, tape again a little larger around painted repair, clean again, clear with mist coats and remove tape - let dry fully. You now have a larger area as you are trying to blend repair - have a cleared area maybe an inch or more around original scuff. Can lightly wet-sand with 3000 to smooth repair into panel - sanding a little into " old " paint. Then I'd try UC after all is really dry. You can see you are getting larger as you progress with repair, just try to keep area of repair as small as you can. I've use Duplicolor touch up spray paint and clear for this type of repair - small cans about $5 each. Keep it small and don't rush. Hope that is of help.

[Michael Stoops]

Blink, if you're as OCD as you say you are, then attempting a repair on your own is probably not your best choice, especially if you lack the skill to effect a perfect repair using Jimbo's process. Heck, using ANY process since this is getting into some pretty advanced techniques in order to get it perfect. And we get the feeling you won't settle for anything less than that.

But before dropping $600 on on new parts, take the car to a few body shops in your area that deal with higher end cars - do NOT go to some down and dirty shop! They'll all talk to you for free and will quote you a price for repairs. Being that it's non-metallic paint and brand new, color matching should be a piece of cake for these guys. Odds are you can get it sorted for a couple hundred bucks and you'll never know it happened.

[blinkme323]

Originally Posted by Michael Stoops

Blink, if you're as OCD as you say you are, then attempting a repair on your own is probably not your best choice, especially if you lack the skill to effect a perfect repair using Jimbo's process. Heck, using ANY process since this is getting into some pretty advanced techniques in order to get it perfect. And we get the feeling you won't settle for anything less than that.

But before dropping $600 on on new parts, take the car to a few body shops in your area that deal with higher end cars - do NOT go to some down and dirty shop! They'll all talk to you for free and will quote you a price for repairs. Being that it's non-metallic paint and brand new, color matching should be a piece of cake for these guys. Odds are you can get it sorted for a couple hundred bucks and you'll never know it happened.

Thanks for the advice Mike, I actually think I am going to take that route just to cover my bases. I found a couple touch up specialists in my area and I think I'm just going to see what they can do first.

[the_invisible]

Originally Posted by blinkme323

Hey guys, I was driving home late last night and as luck would have it, I clipped a curb and scrapred my sideskirt towards the rear wheel. The picture actually makes it look a little worse than it is, but right now it looks like my options are the following:

a) Touch up the spot as best I can

b) Buy a whole new side skirt

c) Just let it go

I'm extremely OCD, so this is really bothering me right now, lol. Any help is appreciated.

Hey dude, that's not even that bad honestly. The chin and skirts of my 911 and 3 series coupe are all scraped. I am a diagnosed OCD patient myself as well and this type of damage doesn't bother me. It just goes to show people that your car is too hardcore for the streets

Well, it doesn't bother me as long as I am the one who caused the damage. If a dealer did that it'd be a different story.

[JimboB5]

Blink, by all means... if you're not as " Car Crazy " as I am and don't feel comfortable doing the repair AND it really does bother you, follow Mr. Stoops advice and pay someone else to fix it for you; then all you have to do is keep in clean and shiny afterwards. Hope it works out for you. Good luck.