Re: Scratch Removal

[Gfbourcier@aol.com]

Jeff sent me this message today so I thought I would clarify some things I 
said yesterday:

I bought my 95 A6 used and the rear bumper
cover has quite a few deep scratches, probably from parking by feel by the
PO.  I was going to follow your directions and apply some touch-up paint,
and then hand rub (?? Is this correct?) with a towel and some Meguilars
Medium Cut cleaner.  Do I need a buffer to do this?  After that, I'll apply
the clear coat.  But, wouldn't I need to buff that down also?  I did some
quick touch ups with the clear coat already, and find that it does not go on
smooth.  Or is it not possible to buff this down smoothly and still keep the
shine?  Thanks for any advice you could provide!
Jeff
95 A6Q 5sp

Jeff,
A couple of different scenarios:
1.) If the rear bumper scratches go into the bumper cover (plastic) and are 
numerous, the only way it will look right is to have a body shop sand it, 
then paint it.  The darker the car, the more likely additional panels will 
have to be "blended," or partially painted so that the new paint doesn't 
cause a sharp color change when compared to the original paint.  Figure a 
shop will charge $28-$32 per paint hour, 3 hours to do the bumper, and up to 
2 hours per adjoining panel.  Having been in fleet operations for the last 10 
years and having a bumper painted here and there, you're looking at close to 
$450 to get it right.  If you have that beautiful pearl effect paint, figure 
$650.
2.) If their not too deep, most auto parts stores with the tubes of touch up 
paint also have in the same rack a gray scratch filler/primer which is 
difficult to use but fills in nicely.  Build up the scratches with that and 
let it dry.  Use as fine a sandpaper as you can find to delicately sand the 
ridges out of primer (it's OK if you scratch just the edges of the 
surrounding paint, since you have clearcoat.)  Touch up paint and, YES, hand 
rub the new paint to blend to surrounding area.  The clearcoat needs the 
polish without wax to flatten it out.  Think of fine cut cleaner as #400 
sandpaper and polish as #600 sandpaper.  

Points to remember:
1.) Be gentle.  It's easy to fix a small mistake, but paint problems grow 
geometrically.
2.) If you have a nonmetallic paint (no metal flake sparkle in the sun) it is 
not a clearcoat paint; therefore, just polish the paint.
3.)  These repairs with touch up paint are going to be detectable and will 
NEVER be perfect.  My experience with my own cars has been helped by staying 
away from coffee on the morning I'm attempting this stuff.  The main purpose 
of touchup is to protect the underlying surface from further deterioration 
and to keep the edges of the exposed paint from flaking further, spreading 
the problem.  The front edge of my hood looked like it took a blast from a 
shotgun and now, from 10 feet away, you can't really see it.  From 5 feet 
away, you can tell that the paint has some small irregularities.  Up close, 
you can see the spots, but the metal is protected and, darn it, that's good 
enough until I repaint the car sometime...................

Hope this helps,
Gil Bourcier
Columbia, MD USA
87 4kcsq -- 84k mi.