Repairing Your Car

How An Auto Body Shop Gets Rid Of Those Ugly And Damaging Scratches On Your Car

If you have a new car or an older car that you've lovingly maintained, it's disheartening to find scratches on it. Scratches are bound to happen at some point if you drive your car daily and park in public parking lots. Your car might be scratched by other car doors, by vandals with a key, or even by you when you scrape against something while trying to pull in or out of a parking space. Here's a look at how scratches can be repaired on your car to restore its beauty.

Scratches In The Clearcoat

The job of a clearcoat is to protect your car, and it does just that when you have minor surface scratches. Rather than scratching the paint, the scratches are confined to the clearcoat. They're still unsightly, but you don't have to worry about rust, and the scratches are fairly easy to fix. Take your car to an auto body shop and they can lightly sand out the scratches from the clear coat without affecting the paint underneath. Sanding the clearcoat only helps with minor surface scratches. If the damage goes all the way through the coating, then you'll need a different type of repair.

Scratches In The Paint

Scratches in the paint of your car are more serious because the area could start to rust in a matter of days. If the scratch is not fixed fairly soon after the damage, the rust will start to show and spread. The most important step is to cover the scratch, which you might be able to do with a product you buy at an auto supply store. Once you take your car to the body shop, the type of repairs you need will depend on the type of damage. It may be possible to airbrush the area or apply touch up paint. The body shop can match the color of your current paint as close as possible so the repaired area blends in. Your car might have some minor dents along with scratches, and these need to be pushed out or filled in too.

If the scratched area is large, then it might be necessary to do more extensive work. This could entail replacing a panel or sanding the metal and filling in the scratches until the surface is smooth. Then, the area will need to be painted. A common problem with painting over a damaged area of a car is that the paint might not be an exact match. An auto body shop can look up the paint on your car by using the VIN, but if the paint has faded some or if there are other slight differences, the paint may not be an exact match and in that case, you might want the entire car painted. The amount of work your car needs to have done depends on how badly your car was scratched. However, even if the scratch seems minor, you want to get it fixed so your car doesn't start to rust.


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