How can I cheaply repair this curb damage on the fender?

June 24, 2016 11:37 AM

Whoops... had a bit of a scrape this morning: http://i.imgur.com/2rVDhM6.jpg I can simply buy some touch up paint and paint over this? Or are there other steps I should take to make this better? It's about the width of a dollar bill.
posted by Mushroom12345 to Travel & Transportation (9 answers total)

Response by poster: Whoops, forgot to link the URL. Here it is: http://i.imgur.com/2rVDhM6.jpg
posted by Mushroom12345 at 11:38 AM on June 24, 2016

Don't just paint over it. Sand the area nice and smooth with 220 grit sandpaper. Try to get rid of most of that black and red stuff, whatever it is (paint scraped off a curb?). If any bare metal results, apply metal primer to those spots. Then the touch up (spray) paint, several thin coats.
posted by beagle at 11:44 AM on June 24, 2016

I would try using a buffer and buff it out first. Not sure what you hit, but I would bet against it being the curb.
posted by AugustWest at 11:47 AM on June 24, 2016

Best answer: Try to get rid of most of that black and red stuff, whatever it is

Looks to me like the red stuff is paint picked up from whatever you scraped, and the black stuff is the plastic of your bumper with your car's paint gouged completely off it. Sanding to remove the red stuff and smooth out the scrape before spraying will get you a much less noticeable patch job.

If you're not already practised in the art of touch-up spraying, practise making nice thin coats on some random piece of scrap metal before attacking your car. Your coats want to be thin enough that you can still see the underlying black plastic showing through after two of them.

YouTube is, as ever, invaluable.
posted by flabdablet at 12:24 PM on June 24, 2016

First thing I would do here is hit that with a Scotch-Brite pad and see what comes off. Some denatured alcohol to ease the process wouldn't hurt.

The white surface is your car is plastic there, correct?
posted by humboldt32 at 12:47 PM on June 24, 2016

before you do anything else, carefully rub the area with a damp cloth or a magic eraser. That looks like it's more something smeared on the bumper than actual damage. After you've cleared it off, you probably have less damage than you think. You could probably touch that up with a small color match touch up brush.
posted by cosmicbandito at 1:02 PM on June 24, 2016

Response by poster: Some answers to some questions:

1) It was definitely a red curb
2) I'm pretty sure this is all plastic in the fender
posted by Mushroom12345 at 1:16 PM on June 24, 2016

Could have been worse.
posted by flabdablet at 9:55 AM on June 25, 2016

I have used Dupli-Color PS100 Prep Grease and Wax Remover Prep Spray using a soft cloth to remove paint and other oddities. This stuff should reveal the actual scratches underneath without damaging the clear coat.

I have also used Meguiar's Smooth Surface Clay Kit.

I'll have to try the magic eraser.
posted by RotaryPhone at 12:00 PM on June 25, 2016