Clear coat damage

[WyrleyD]

Well, my wife has just managed to put two scratches about 2 feet long on the bonnet of my year old Skoda Karoq. She was putting one of those screen frost protectors on the screen and it has magnets embedded at various points points along the edges and plonked it on the bonnet then dragged it up to the screen. The magnets are covered by the nylon edge of the protector but it has still managed to put deep scratches that you can feel with your finger nail. Not sure whether it's just the clear coat that's damaged or if it's gone deeper than that.

Anybody had any success with products that might be able to cover these scratches or would a detailer be able to do anything?

The car is metallic Petrol Blue if that makes any difference.

[steveo3002]

rule of thumb is if you can feel it then it wont polish out

can sometimes fill in the scratch with 2k clear and give it a little polish to make it look better , needs to be a neat job though

[bucks]

Rule of thumb is if you can feel it, it can't be fixed but without seeing it, it's hard to say.

I'd take it to a proper detailer and ask his opinion as he'll know very quickley.

Anything you're likely to be able to do at home would be only temporary and would need doing again short afterwards.

• I'm not a detailer, just a driveway warrior so I might be talk out my backside*

[bucks]

steveo3002 said:

rule of thumb is if you can feel it then it wont polish out

can sometimes fill in the scratch with 2k clear and give it a little polish to make it look better , needs to be a neat job though

Phew, not talking out my backside so

[WyrleyD]

Thanks for the replies. I think it's what I feared and it's going to need a professional repair so I'll run it down to Finishline near Stevenage tomorrow. Probably not going to be cheap and not what I need just before Christmas, I did get a quote from them a few years ago when I wanted a small scuff on the front valance on my then Jaguar XF and a small dent on the rear quarter (caused by a careless door opener parked next to me) on the same car, that quote was just over £400 for both, their work does come highly recommended though.

[somouk]

Being a metallic i would imagine they will want to blow in to the wings as well or risk the bonnet standing out as being painted.

They may also have a go at it with an aggressive polishing compound and wool bonnet first, or even some wet and dry, can't do much more damage if the plan is a respray anyway.

[WyrleyD]

Well, called in to Finishline yesterday afternoon. He said he'll try and polish it out but wasn't confident but will give it a go, worst case (and probable) is a whole bonnet respray and that will be about £500. It's going in there on Tuesday. Oh, and there's two more scratches high on the front wing in front of the drivers door - same cause!!

[T5GRF]

Finish line are good. I used them a few years ago to repair a Saab 9-3 Aero that had been rear ended, they made an excellent job.

[WyrleyD]

Just got my car back from them (Finishline), really nice people to deal with and they even got someone to give me a lift home when I dropped the car off, all the buses had been cancelled! They managed to get the scratches out of the bonnet and wing and said it was right on the limit as to whether it would be OK but was in the end, total charge £54.

[somouk]

WyrleyD said:

Just got my car back from them (Finishline), really nice people to deal with and they even got someone to give me a lift home when I dropped the car off, all the buses had been cancelled! They managed to get the scratches out of the bonnet and wing and said it was right on the limit as to whether it would be OK but was in the end, total charge £54.

Good news, just be careful if you are polishing it again in the future as the clearcoat will be a lot thinner.

[paintman]

Good result.