Slight body damage, bottom side below passenger door. Need advice!
 

I'm not an expert with paint\body or any of that sort at all with my car. Basically, long story short, a 2-post lift ended up scratching my car in this picture below. It's dented a little bit as well:

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...ps35b8dfd0.jpg


Is there any way I can successfully repair this myself or will it require a sanding it down, and a good number of tools? Should I have a body shop repair this instead? Looking for some positive advice on this one. You can't see it standing up so that's the good part, but knowing it is there is what bothers me. Like I said, complete novice with paint and body work.

seems like u will forget it after a few weeks.

Matt - did this happen at DIY Texas?

You can fix it yourself and get a decent result. Due to the face subyota chose to tape off the chip guard giving you a nice place to hide the edge of the repair without it being noticeable!

First off tape off the rocker and quarter panel surrounding the door to protect it.

Then tape off the edge where the chip guard texture ends on the door so just the bottom edge where the texture on the door is left showing.

You going to need to feather out the area where the damage is by sanding it. Lightly start with some 220grit and work the edge around the scratch knocking the chip guard down and smoothing it. Other wise your repair is doing to have a halo around it showing where the damage was.

Move onto 320/400 grit and feather it out slightly further. 1-2 inches further

Mask off the front of the door, using a SELF-ETCH primer light dust any bare metal showing after sanding. Very light coat just enough to let it cover. Unmask the bottom texture part of the door. Let dry as per can.

Now take a fine gray scoth-brite pad and scuff the entire textured part of the door until is is dull. This will give the paint something to bite onto.

(When OEM/bodyshop do this they first apply texture then paint the entire door. We will do the opposite due to the DIY aspect.)

Take your color matched paint and spray the areas that are not blue. After a couple coats Pull the can back and do a light dust coat over a larger area to help blend the paint and hide any difference. Just a light mist. Let sit 10-15 min or so. Remember were only trying to cover the small damage.

Now time for the texture, "SEM's 39803 CLEAR Chip Guard" will work perfectly. (online or order from O'rielys.) Shake very, very well. First test on a piece of card board. By playing with the distance and speed you spray you can get different texture amounts. -Fast&light=fine texture, Slow&heavy=lots of texture. -

After you feel use to it spary a bit just over where the damage was. You will have to apply a couple layers (wait 5min or so between coats) to the area where you scraped it off to build up the thickness. Once happy pull back and do a bit larger coat fading it into the exiting texture. Let dry as per can.

Clear coat the entire textured part with urethane clear, or "SEM 13003 High-Gloss Touch Up Clear Coat" rattle can clear would due fine for this purpose. Let sit and unmask. Don't let it sit long as the chip guard will want to peel if you let it dry before unmasking.

Doing it this way you will end up with a fine line where the texture starts but, will save you the cost of having the damaged repaired and having the whole door clearcoated and taken apart.

Wow, thank you for the detailed advice.

Yeah, it did. The 2-post lift slipped on the front right and dented the bottom of the chip guard and scratched the paint.

Wow, was it your fault or one of theirs? I feel vulnerable :'(

No, it was not my fault. I did not even know it happened till they informed me about it. They could have just brushed it off and not said anything, but they let me know about it. I think I'll stay on the 4 post lift from now on. They offered to fix it as well, but I touched it up with touch up paint and you can't even really tell because it's lower on the chip guard. I'd still like it repaired though back to like it was.

4 post lift seems to be the best, unless you'r doing some suspension work obviously. at that point there really isn't even a need to go to DIY texas.

Yeah, it's easier to work on a full headerback though standing up. Having the lift the passenger side engine up some to work the Nameless downpipe is much easier when there's a transmission mount. Plus being lowered, it's a pain getting up on all 4 jacks.

Agreed. Good luck getting this fixed. If it were me.. I'd be pointing my finger at DIY texas. No matter how great of guys they are and how much I like their business, you should take advantage of them offering to pay.

Just clean it with alcohol and touch it up. Untill you ge a professional to fix it and who scratched it? A repair shop?

They fixed it up nicely. Their body guy pulled the dent, repainted, clearcoated, and polished. Never looked like it happened.