I Scratched my Car

This is Zed Viktor.

And this is what I did to her. Poor Zed.

Well, we can't have that, can we? So I called Daddy and he told me to go to Halfords and get some paint. We did, and we met a lovely woman who mixed up some paint to match Zed's colour and put it in a spray can for me. Then Daddy gave me what was left of the little touch up kit that he'd bought when my old car (Sophie) got keyed.

This takes days. First I gave the door a wash and dried it. 

Unfortunately, the camera I use isn't designed for showing imperfections on a car's surface. The flash is very good at masking these things. So I've tried to pick the photos that show it the most accurately.

There were a couple of little scratches; Daddy gave me some magic cream for these. Put a little bit of cream on a cloth (I used kitchen paper) and rub the scratch with it. Scratch disappears like magic. It works by moving your other paint over the scratch (it's grainy), so if you use it too much you'll ruin your paint job. It won't work if your scratch is deep enough to feel with your fingernail.

Then I applied the primer (undercoat) to the proper scratch.

Then I had to leave it for at least 24 hours to dry. I leave for work at around 8am and this happened at the start of December so, as I don't really want to paint my car in the dark, it was left for several days (I think about three) before I got to the next stage. First I had to sand down the primer.This tiny little sander came with the scratch repair kit that I borrowed from Daddy.

I taped some newspaper around the scratch. Daddy and I had discussed and decided it would be best if I only painted the scratch itself, as the new paint job is likely to be visible (remember I've never done this before). Then I sprayed it. You're supposed to spray about 12-15 inches away from the car, but the wind determined that spraying from that distance would mean painting the drive rather that Zed Viktor, so I opted to go too close. The paint dripped over the tape and paper, but I just mopped up the excess with newspaper. No big deal. I waited a couple of minutes before removing the tape. Long enough to be sure the paint had stopped dripping down the car, not long enough for the paint to dry properly and risk being peeled off when the tape is removed from underneath it.

Then it needed to be left for at least another 24 hours. I think you can add another spray of paint after about 20 minutes (it does say on the can, but I can't be bothered finding it now to check), but if you want to put something else on, or sand it, then you need to wait a day. So by the next photo it is over a week since Zed Viktor's initial injury. I decided that the spray paint didn't look good enough so I did another coat. And I papered it better this time.

The next day was Sunday. I had left the paint for over 24 hours so now I could apply the lacquer (the clear, protective top coat). This comes with a little brush in it. As it turns out, so did the primer. I shall remember that next time I scratch her. First I sand it down, then I paint on the laquer.

I had another thin scratch, too deep to fix with magic cream, too narrow to do with spray paint; I probably would have made it worse. So I painted some lacquer in it, and it looked a little better. I thought after the lacquer had dried that it wouldn't be noticeably improved, but it does look a little better. I didn't get any decent photos of this, but it can be seen in the bottom right corner of the photos above.

The main scratch is still visible, but not especially obvious. It's clearer from some angles than others. I'd say for a first attempt, I've not done too badly. And I'll do even better next time :)

Hindsight be a wonderful thing, especially as my narrow gateway leads me to believe that I will inevitably scratch my car again. Here are my learnings:

• Next time I buy paint for the car, I will get the kind that you paint on with a brush. It would be much easier to stick to the specific scratch that way. It's also cheaper.
• I should have painted another layer (or two) of primer. Next time, I will be sure to find the paint brush for this.
• I will need a new sander - the one I was using wasn't very good. Halfords sell these in the scratch repair section, so I will probably ask the helpful staff which one I want to buy. They're good like that. 
• That magic cream my Dad gave me is EPIC.