Some low life this weekend hit the back of my car and took off without leaving a note. Thankfully, the damage appears to be paint related only. I have a nice big circle where the bumper of their car rubbed against the bumper of my car. A thin line of paint came off which will require a touch up. It looks like the bigger circle around it has a fade type scratch. I think either black paint or black rubber bumpered car is the culprit. I can’t afford to have the whole bumper repainted, but was wondering about any advice on how to repair a large surface scratch. My car is a 2007 Silver MC.
Would it be possible to buff it out? What type of material is recommended? Should I have a detail shop do it?
Thanks

 

If you know how to rub it out I'd say do it yourself. If you have just a general idea id say leave it to the pros. If you don't know what your doing you could just make it worse.

 

It may be me, but perhaps consider:
- Filing a police report for a hit-n-run.
- Contact your insurance company and pay the deductible to have it repainted.

Otherwise, depending on the scratch you could use a touch up pen or brush. I would not really do anything with paint in the cold right now (you would want to clean the car and the temperature it sits in needs to be a certain temp so the paint will cure properly).

 

I have filed reports with the police in the past and they do not do a &*^ thing. Even with a license plate number, they will not press charges unless the damages are over a certain value. Low lifes get a way with this stuff everyday especially here in my part of the US.

I can't afford the deductible, only if it was major damage would I have to find a way to pay it.

I just needed to know about if any one with experience could shed some light on this buffing out concept.

 

If the scratch is deeper than the clear coat, it will not buff out. A light scratch in the clear will need wetsanded and buffed out. A scuff will usually rub out by hand with some compound. I would suggest using some rubbing compound over the whole area to get rid of any scuffs and paint transfer. That will let you see the real extent of the damage. Then I would get some 1500 wetsand paper and go over the area to remove any of the light scratches. Dont sand too much or you will rub through the clear. After you sand with 1500, use some 2000 grit to get rid of the 1500 sand scratches. From that point you will be able to buff it out. Your best bet would be to hand rub it with the compound unless you have access to a buffer or someone who can machine buff it for you. After you get the shine back I would address any scratches that go deeper than the clear. Many auto parts stores sell small bottles of touch up paint. You just need to match your paint code to the code on the bottle. Then just touch up the scratch as best you can without globbing the paint on.

 

There are multiple reasons to file a report (even if the police won't do anything):
1. - Some insurance companies require it to make a claim.
2. - Protect yourself. There are some unscrupulous people out there that would hit your car, run, realise they did more damage to their own car and go "I'll file a hit-n-run" on the other guy. Granted, their should be ways of proving your innocents if it became an issue, but by you also filing a report just helps with proving your innocents.
3. - If, by chance, multiple people file similiar reports and it appears there is a trend, the police (should) look into the problem a bit more.

Granted, your case is probably an isolated one and you'll just have to figure out what works best.

As someone stated, be careful, if you don't know what you are doing, you could turn some small scratches into something worse. Can you post pics of the damage? Perhaps we could better advise by seeing the damage.

 

I never thought about #2. Thanks, that's good advice for all of us.