Scratches and scrape
 

Story: I bought my 86 exactly 1 year ago, it is black and in stock. It is my daily but I tried my best to keep it as close to a baby. I tried my far best to avoid, bad/bumpy roads and park far away from normal parking when I go to supermarket and mall.

Still thou there are 9+ deep scratches (can see white portion and I can feel with my nail) and 2 days ago I scrapped my car (underneath of front bumper) for the first time on a unknown crappy road.

Just wondering, how about you guys did with your one. Is it something normal and have to live with know that it will happen, or its me only and I am shit.

Teach me.

Talk to a detailer or body shop about the scratches visible on the car. Ignore the underside of the bumper. It'll get scraped again and you'll never see it anyways.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A5010 using Tapatalk

Thanks. I have a plan to check with a detailer but may not possible in recent time. I was wondering are you guys also have similar experience?

Almost a 2 year owneship here. I find these cars have issues to small impacts, got to always be on alert. I don’t drive it in the winter. In those 2 years ive gotten a rock over the passenger door while passing a dump truck leaving a nice dent to the paint, passenger pillar also dented by a rock in my first month of ownership. Bouncing bolt in the middle of the hood leaving a story every few inches. My underbody just under driver’s seat has been impaled with an xtra long tent peg. The latest discovery in November was a 2 inch door dent on the rear panel just before the wheel :mad0260:.

On small scratches cheap car wax works for me. I need to really look for the dent now that the offending vehicle paint is removed. Get touch up paint & use it on the big chips.

Thankfully my incidents did not break windows or flatted a tire.

My thoughts to pass by a detailer or dent repair always end with a new blemish…

Best you can do would be to leave space between vehicles you follow, hunt down end spots in parking lots, back into parking spots will also save the low front end, get a beater vehicle when you think you will be driving in hostile areas….

I just Fix the big damage & live with the small stuff.

With the car getting scratched? It happens. Of course most people try to avoid that but sometimes shit happens and you either gotta live with it, make it as good as you can, or pay someone to fix it. You'll have to decide if it's worth the money. As far as scraping the underside of the bumper. It happens alot. It's a low car. Lots of our cars are even lower. But you don't see it unless you're under the car. To me, that's not with trying to fix.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A5010 using Tapatalk

If you drive a car it will get scratched, dinged and pitted. The more you drive it the more it will have.
Unfortunately black cars show scratches the worst of all!
The underside of the bumper on my lowered lava looked like it had been through a battle. The rest had all the scars you would expect at 100,000+ miles spent on the highway in all weather conditions.
Fix what you can and don't worry about the rest. Eventually you won't even notice them any more

Each scratch and ding is like a wound to the heart lol, but as long as there are no major obvious marks that you can see from far away, you get used to them like TCoat said.

Fix the ones that must be fixed, bottom bumper will be suspect to more scratching over time, so better to not fix it. Where as if you fixed it, a new scratch would hurt all the more.

You can do all you want to reduce the chance of scratches like parking at the back of supermarkets, but there will always be those random times when some dude just randomly parks beside you out of the many free spots closer to the store. Just a tip if you can't find open empty spots, you can park beside "expensive" cars like BMWs or mercs as they are likely to care about door dings like you do.

Thank you all guys. Every single scratches are like soul crushing. Most of the scratches looks very prominent due to black car.

As you all suggested we have to accept it will happen over time no matter how careful I drive. I will try to use touch up pens to reduce some scratches. I wish I could find a pen that can reduce the pain in my heart too :-(

We've all been there

Sent from my ONEPLUS A5010 using Tapatalk

talk to a detailer before going at the car with a touchup pen-- i've always caused more harm with touchup pens than a good detail.

more than likely, most of the scratches, no matter how deep, can at least be minimized to be much less noticeable with the right techniques.





have you made it through your life so far without a scratch, bruise, or broken bone? cars are no different. scratches, bumps, and bruises are a reminder that we exist, even if it means an existence in an imperfect world. be proud that you're using and enjoying your car enough that the scratches could happen. because if they're not happening, it means you're living in a bubble that is not reality.

My car has ceramic coating (even thou it was from dealer but i know it was not done very well), so, can I use touch up pens on top of it?

I believe once there is a deep scratch, it already breaks coating in that area. Isn't it?

Do not use touch up pens until you talk to a detailer and possibly a body shop. If the scratch just needs buffed out, a touch up pen will literally ruin your paint. It's surprising how much can actually get fixed with simple polishing.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A5010 using Tapatalk

I was like that at first when I got my 2016 FRS. It was clean for about 3 months until my son dropped his bike on the side and dinged the fender. I was relieved because now it was not perfect, a lot less stress.

I put these on the front of my splitter, they work great! I recommend them to everyone with a low car now.

https://sliplo

im on the trd lowering springs and yep scraping unfortunately happens quite often, even if i turn into nearly every speed bump/garage curb i encounter. i used to be super anal about scratches on my car until i got a real bad ding on my first frs that wasn't totally pdr fixable. told myself tis a cheap car that i'm having fun in, not worth the agony so I haven't looked back since lol...my front bumper is trashed from all the rocks round here

I exactly did what u said. Went to shop, they told me same like you that most of the scratches will go away with a good polish and buff. Now, I will wait for more scratches and do fix it when I can't stand :D

GG EZ

Sent from my ONEPLUS A5010 using Tapatalk

if it hasn't been detailed since you bought it, then get it detailed. i usually try to detail my cars once a year, though lately, it's closer to 2-3 years between detail jobs. but i also would never own black... there's no reason to have to wait and cringe. it'll only make you hate something you love.

Heya thanks again. I will ask for a quote. :-)

I have a 6 yr old car.
Had something bounce on the hood, left a nice dent.
Got a paintless guy to fix it, great job!
1 week later something else bounced off the hood 2" away.....
It's still there, I gave up, I have a bunch of little dents/scratches.
It's life. Worry about the bigs things in life, not dents or scratches on a car.

Best polishing advice I can give is to use the lightest possible polish. An Ultra-Finishing polish is very light, while other compounds will have more "cut". You want to preserve your clear coat as you get the most gloss from your clear coat having thickness.

Meguiar's M205 is very light for polishing the entire car. And with a good set of Lake Country Green pads. After you've finished the entire car, then you can "spot polish" deeper scratches out with a medium-cut compound like "Meguiar's M83 Dual Action Cleaner Polish" and a white pad.

https://i.imgur.com/Ptr8FWJ.png


You don't want to over-polish the car. Take it from a guy who is nuts about keeping his car clean and scratch-free. One of the greater problems I created when I detailed my car was that I used too-aggressive of polishes and pads - which cleaned and shined the car perfectly but it took down a lot of clear coat thickness, which lowered the overall gloss and "new car look", even with the car covered in several layers of wax.

If you are new to polishing, it is good to get a good quality polishing kit. Not just some random kit from the hardware store or some Amazon / bang good special. Get something like a Porter Cable PC7424XP kit and a 5.5 inch backing plate and pads - specifically great size and power for working gently on these cars.

Thank you all again guys

@alone1i

there's plenty of other defects I've fixed and repaired in 7 years ownership. I've had dents fixed at PDR shops. I've DIY painted over bumper rock-chips with Dr. Colorchip. I've used a heat gun to bend my bumper back in place after damaging it. I've filled in deep paint gauges with sharpee marker!

Thanks for sharing your experience. Actually I really tried hard to keep it safe as much as possible. But then those happened. I looked other beautiful cars on signal and looks for flow. They looks very clean and I felt like like a loser.

I bought a bunch of Avalon King ceramic coating on Black Friday to apply this spring. Will this help avoid the door ding scratches?

I am the same as OP and try to park far away, but they find me...and open their door into the Berz

No, ceramic doesnt do squat against scratches.

You'll need paint protection film for that. I wish i had done it on this car especially the front end, it's so sandblasted after 5 years and 60k some miles.

Well that’s not very reassuring. I guess I’ll have to just accept it may need to be repainted one day

Ceramic helps with very fine scratching. Nothing sizeable. Best thing you can do for your front end, short of clear bra, is to keep more distance between you and the guy in front of you on the highway

Sent from my ONEPLUS A5010 using Tapatalk

Well said. The scratches I am getting right now are only clear-coat deep. But I agree with you on the social distancing.

I don’t think I can “thank” yet, but thanks!

I have ceramic coating and it can't stop scratching. The only benefit i believe is washing is bit easier.

I find that with my ceramic coating light scratches show up even more since it is such a slick sheen they stand out.
Ceramic coating does nothing at all to protect paint. It is a very small molecule that fills in the almost microscopic spaces between the paint molecules. It does not cover the paint at all. The whole idea of it is to give dirt less surface to stick to which results in it taking longer to get dirty, being easier to clean and have a nicer shine without waxing. It is in no way a protectant for the paint beyond those features.

Are you sure?

Ya sorry I was so eager to say how it fill the gaps I sort of was misleading about the surface. Yes, it does leave a very very very thin layer on the surface of the paint. We are talking a layer in the molecular level though. This is why the word "nano" is used in many of the names of the products. That layer is very hard but so thin that it will still scratch relatively easy.
I guess the point I am trying to get across is that people hear "ceramic" and they picture some sort of heavy, impenetrable armour coat on top of their paint and that simply is not what it is or how it works.


Is it worth doing? Hell ya! Just the ease of cleaning alone will reduce the risk of swirl marks and light scratches since you can simply rinse most dirt right off.

I wish i could read your comment 1 year ago. Dealership told me in a way that they definitely deserve oscar winning award.

But i do not regret because it was heavy discounted offer and yes cleaning the car is way way easier now.

My dealer was very clear on what it would and would not do and even sort of tried to talk me out of it. I wanted it because I wash my car at least 3 times a week through the summer and anything that makes it easier is worth it. What they neglected to tell me was that it took a couple of weeks to fully cure so at first I was disappointed in it's performance. After it cured though I knew I would never get a new car without it again. If you go into it knowing what it really does it is wonderful but if people think it is some sort of magical forcefield they will be disappointed.
When I picked it up there was a door ding and the coating was visibly streaky so they took it back in the next day and fixed the ding and redid the coating. It came out perfect and I even got to see it in their inspection bay.

https://www.ft86club.com/forums/atta...1&d=1585100657

https://www.ft86club.com/forums/atta...1&d=1585319723

https://www.ft86club.com/forums/atta...1&d=1585319723

The spray on ceramic waxes are pretty damn good too, yeah they dont last for years (more like 2-3 months) but they make cleaning the car super easy. For me i'd go paint protection film and top it with a spray ceramic like the Griots teenage mutant ninja turtle juice or the Turtle Wax Ceramic stuff is good too.

Totally agree.

If I didn't live in a winter climate I probably wouldn't bother with a coating. Nothing else will last.

With a bigger heated garage you can rise rinse less wash and add sealants. But if you can't coatings are the best option.


Most modern Sio2 and graphene sealants have near identical hydrophobics now, you just don't get the UV and chemical resistance that lasts.

So, my dealer also told me, this ceramic coating should last for a very long time but did not mention a specific timeframe. Just in assumption, shall I re-do it 5 years later?

Coating lifespan can vary from one to six years.

Generally the stuff that lasts longer recommend some form of maintenance yearly to maintain peak hydrophobics.

I would ask what coating they used.