I've read a hundred threads and didn't find a clear answer, so sorry if this is a repeat question. I've got a ding in my door and it's a good one. This f*****g b*****d kid rode into my car with his bike. The end of his bare handlebar hit my door and left a deep dent and the sharp edge took the paint off down to the steel. So here's my question. Am I crazy to try to fix this myself? I'm pretty good with bodywork and with a dab of bondo I could fix the dent pretty well. However, I'm not sure about the paint. Do you guys think I could touch it up with something like duplicolor spray and buff it out with something like a porter cable enough to make it look OK? I would normaly take it to a body shop but I'm currently unemployed (thanks michigan). What do you guys think?? Any D.I.Y. paint tips would help. Thanks!!!!

 

Well if you plan on using bondo, you'll need more than a touch-up pen or paint, it's going to take some blending as it will not be a perfect match, using bondo will force you to repair an area much larger than the damage itself.

What you should do is accept the lesser of two evils until you can afford to have it repaired. Get yourself some touch up paint in a bottle and do your best to apply very light coats of paints into the scratch, using a fine art paint brush or a toothpick, I highly suggest against using the brush that comes with the paint, it's far too wide and soft - it does not spread well without going beyond the width of the scratch.

After you build the scratch up enough, you can locate a PC and some compounds and work that general area, spend extra time on the scratch repair and use that to smooth it out and just improve your work. I would suggest against wet sanding, our clear coats are very soft & thin...but if you do plan on wetsanding, make sure you get atleast 2000 wet grit, soak it for atleast 20 minutes before hand and have a spray bottle with clean water to aid in keeping the area wet and sweeping away the clear you knock off, continually rinse and dip the paper into a clean bucket of water.

DO NOT SAND FOR A LONG PERIOD OF TIME, also use as LITTLE pressure as possible. Save yourself the pain and don't sand to 'perfection' because it's more than likely that you will have a break through and it'll look like your car has a raised section of paint all around the damage.