Car question...

[trinamick]

I was driving down the street a little while ago, and a buddy of mine was coming from the other direction. He turned in front of me, but he stopped right in my lane. I, being the idiot who has seen Footloose too many times, decide not to swerve and let him get the best of me. I hit my brakes, but the road was wet and I slid into his truck (actually, his boss's truck). The bumper of the truck slid right over the top of the headlight on the passenger's side and made a long scrape. It's not bad enough to turn in on insurance or anything, but I would like to fix it. Any suggestions that i can do myself? I've seen those funky scratch repair kits on TV, but do they actually work? Are they available anywhere else?

This will teach me to screw around when driving the Katmobile... :g2f:

[grinner]

no they don't. Not that I have seen. And I know a couple of people who have attempted to 'fix' their cars with them.

[trinamick]

Any other suggestion? :(

[grinner]

how bad is it? Is the metal damaged? I know you don't want to hear this... but it is an accident and you should report it... if only to get the car fixed.

[DentArthurDent]

depends on lotsa stuff there Trina... whats your deductable? If its a SCRATCH, it may not be too much to have a bodyshop do it... if there is a crease in the metal, then a bit more... As I recall you live in the dry end of NE, yes? Do they use salt on the roads? If they've gone to Mag Chloride, then you prolly should have it doent right, so it doesn't start rusting. You could always see if one of your bosses has an 'IN' with one of the local bodyshops...
oh and go kick the buddies eeema, and tell him he OWES you...

AFD

[Selena]

How's that ad go ... "Oh oh, better get MAACO!"

[BrowderChick]

I had them repaint my car about 2 years ago and now the paint is all chipping off. Hey it was the cheapest in town at the time. But if its just a scratch I would get an estimate and see what it would cost. And the auto shops do carry touch up paint. :D:D

[Vampgrrl]

If it's under your deductible or just over it...dont report it.

Insurance co.s are bleeding money and 2 claims will get you dropped with many companies and 1 claim my jack your rates good.

Save the insurance for a BAD wreck.

[trinamick]

Unfortunately, we don't have a MAACO anywhere near! :( There isn't any denting. It's actually only through the paint in two small scratches. The rest of it is light scraping. I washed it down last night, and someone suggested waxing it to see if some of it will buff out. I haven't done that yet, wanted to get other opinions before I go playing around with it. I have full coverage, but I'm not sure what my deductible is (I think $500). It's not bad enough to be over my deductible. My insurance is extremely picky. The second you send in a claim, they jack up your rates almost double.

You're right, AFD, there will be some eema-kicking gettin' done. Of course, it was kinda my fault too, so I probably can't say a whole lot. As far as I know, they still use salt on the roads. That's why most of our car dealerships around here suggest undercarriage coating when you buy a new vehicle.

While I was looking at the damage, I noticed that on that same side, someone doored the quarter panel and left a nice ding as well. Grr... :mad: This didn't happen when I had a crappy car - I knew I should have kept the Ford POS! :D

[Darth Buddha]

Dent kits only work on really superficial "impressions"... so the word 'Dent' is really misleading. Worked on a slight impresion on my back hatch, but didn't touch a tiny dent on a buddies car.

An expensive fix would be to find an undamaged panel or hood in a junkyard (no small feat) and get it painted to match (don't go to Maaco if you want it to look right). Worked on my old Jetta, but then I was friends with the guy who did the painting... and he is so obsessive about perfection it is scary.

[trinamick]

A guy I know runs a body shop. I might be able to talk nice and see if he could do a little fixin'. I really don't want to shell out a lot of money on it right now if I can help it, though. I guess stupidity doesn't come cheap.

Someone suggested rubbing compound. Do you think that might work on the light scraping? I know it won't fix the actual scratches.

[Madre Farbot]

Buffing it down sounds like a good first step. Though I'm not sure whether this can be efficiently done by hand. Basically there's this compressed air gun thingy and an attachment where you wrap the lamb's wool and some wax substance to do the buffing. Anyway, like you say the guy in the body shop should be able to sort something out for you and I can't see it costing a lot of money, well hopefully not. It may be that he'll have to do some rubbing down and apply some filler in places where the buffing hasn't worked.

[trinamick]

Well, I tried the wax suggestion, and it took out all the minor scraping. There are really only three noticeable scratches now, two of which are completely through the paint. It looks a lot better now, but the husband of my coworker says he'll take a look at it. He thinks he can get most of it out. Here's hoping!