Advice on fixing this?

[aygowhereugo]

Ended up with an unexpected argument with a Victorian looking streetlamp while trying to parallel park in a single-lane street during a school-run today morning.

What would the experts recommend here?

Would it be worth taking it to the dealer who also run a Toyota authorized service center?

The horizontal scratches are the damage, rest is me running my hand over the wet surface creating the messy look.

[Dave the aygo]

I would try one of these mobile body work people I remember getting a price before  you send them a photo and they send a quote back worth a try 

[flash22]

Most of that should buff out with  some mild compound, don't take it anywhere near a dealer unless you like to give money away

[Vandals01]

Use this:

https://www.halfords.com/motoring/paints-and-body-repair/scratch-repair-and-paint-restorers/t-cut-colour-fast-light-red-500ml-399808.html

[Shared]

General rule of thumb is that if you can feel them with your  fingernail you wont be able to completely remove them by polishing but you'll almost certainly be able to diminish them, It will be extremely laborious by hand though.

You can buy cheap backing plates that will fit a drill and you'd then ideally need a polishing pad & some compound as advised, if you go that route use a very light touch.

I suppose it all depends how perfect you want it, I'd certainly agree with Flash and stay away from the dealers unless you want to spend several hundreds of pounds.

 

My bonnet had horrendous stonechips, dozens of them, some down to bare metal, I cleaned them out, filled them with paint and wet sanded them with a 1" pad, 1200/1500 grit then did a 2 stage machine polish to remove the sanding marks. This was just a quick job to help prevent rust spreading.

[152bobby]

Try T Cut from Halfords, but don't buff it to death, make sure the area is clean and dirt free and then just apply it gently and then buff off with another cloth.  I tend to apply the first buff T Cut to the paint and leave it for a couple of minutes and then buff off.  Do it a couple of times and hopefully most of that will disappear. 

Worst scenario is it will need a paint job, there's no harm in trying the above first.

Mr T will rob you blind for this small job and probably will say the whole front bumper part will have to be painted.  A good paints prayer (like I was many years ago) could spray that damaged area and blend it in.

Try some smaller paint spray shops and possibly Chipsaway, they did a excellent job very similar to yours on my silver metallic RX300 years ago.....however, not all Chipsaway guys are the same, mine was excellent. 

[Roker]

4 hours ago, Shared said:

General rule of thumb is that if you can feel them with your  fingernail you wont be able to completely remove them by polishing but you'll almost certainly be able to diminish them, It will be extremely laborious by hand though.

You can buy cheap backing plates that will fit a drill and you'd then ideally need a polishing pad & some compound as advised, if you go that route use a very light touch.

I suppose it all depends how perfect you want it, I'd certainly agree with Flash and stay away from the dealers unless you want to spend several hundreds of pounds.

 

My bonnet had horrendous stonechips, dozens of them, some down to bare metal, I cleaned them out, filled them with paint and wet sanded them with a 1" pad, 1200/1500 grit then did a 2 stage machine polish to remove the sanding marks. This was just a quick job to help prevent rust spreading.

Don't forget if you put paint 0n you need clear lacquer over it to give a hard shine, also if the marks go through the lacquer  

[aygowhereugo]

Thanks everyone. Will try to get a couple of quotes from Chipsaway and other local mobile works. DIY (T-cut) is not necessarily off-limits but this being my first car, would like to not make the damage worse.

[152bobby]

You really cannot make it worse.  You may make it better and having it looking better than it is when you get quotes, may work in your favour.

[Dave the aygo]

12 hours ago, 152bobby said:

You really cannot make it worse.  You may make it better and having it looking better than it is when you get quotes, may work in your favour.

Ditto 

[flash22]

We all make mistakes, it's all part of learning - if you don't try something, how do you know you can't do it, you learnt to drive and passed a test didn't you

[152bobby]

The trick (which comes with experience and/or training) is how much pressure to use products like T Cut, because some people will polish through the top coat clear lacquer or in some case through the paint to the primer, especially on the corners or sharper defined creases on the panels, however, as mentioned, you cannot do anymore damage than what is already there, so it's an ideal "practice" exercise for you 👍

[Shared]

2 hours ago, flash22 said:

We all make mistakes, it's all part of learning - if you don't try something, how do you know you can't do it, you learnt to drive and passed a test didn't you

A great tip for anyone contemplating paint correction or minor repairs that might cost several hundreds of pounds to fix a relatively minor problem is to search eBay for something like "breaking totota aygo", narrow it down by "nearest first" and buying a second hand panel, if you're lucky you might even find the same colour, bonnets are usually good but any panel really, try and replicate the damage on your own panel and practice on the used one, it can pay dividends if you intend to try your hand with a DA/Rotary.

 

You could end up "wasting" £30/£40, but you could potentially save yourself multiples of that and it can be very rewarding, as well as theraputic.

 

 

[152bobby]

3 minutes ago, Shared said:

A great tip for anyone contemplating paint correction or minor repairs that might cost several hundreds of pounds to fix a relatively minor problem is to search Ebay for something like "breaking totota aygo", narrow it down by "nearest first" and buying a second hand panel, if you're lucky you might even find the same colour, bonnets are usually good but any panel really, try and replicate the damage on your own panel and practice on the used one, it can pay dividends if you intend to try your hand with a DA/Rotary.

 

You could end up "wasting" £30/£40, but you could potentially save yourself multiples of that and it can be very rewarding, as well as theraputic.

 

 

That's one of the benefits of the expensive cheaply constructed body panels on all the Aygos.  Most panels if not all are bolt off bolt on.

[aygowhereugo]

Thanks everyone for the advice.

While waiting on T-cut to arrive, I gave the surface a good wipe with some iso-propyl alcohol.

Surprisingly, the initial image has more paint transfer than paint loss.
A bit of careful wiping with a soft cloth, and a bit of careful scraping with a fingernail, most of the transfer just came off.

There are a few deep gashes though (see pictures), am I ok to leave this exposed till Saturday (when T-cut arrives)
I would think this panel is not metallic, so rust is not an immediate concern?

[152bobby]

Although T Cut will not get those deep scratches out, I'll be very interested in seeing a BEFORE and AFTER comparison 👍

[dads Taxi x3]

In small scratches like this I use womans nail polish as there hundreds of reds blues greens  

An if you get a match  they have a small brush in the nail polish an just uses that .then t cut it smooth.  

[Shared]

10 hours ago, aygowhereugo said:

Thanks everyone for the advice.

While waiting on T-cut to arrive, I gave the surface a good wipe with some iso-propyl alcohol.

Surprisingly, the initial image has more paint transfer than paint loss.
A bit of careful wiping with a soft cloth, and a bit of careful scraping with a fingernail, most of the transfer just came off.

There are a few deep gashes though (see pictures), am I ok to leave this exposed till Saturday (when T-cut arrives)
I would think this panel is not metallic, so rust is not an immediate concern?

It wont do any harm to leave it if it's plastic, see how you get on with the T Cut, what makes a scratch more noticeable are the sharp edges, If you imagine a scratch as a letter "V" rounding off the two sharp edges at the top of the "V", or the scratch will make the light react differently and make them less noticeable.

T-Cut has changed since I first and last used it, I think it used to contain a lot of ammonia but doesn't anymore, I'm pretty sure it contains some fillers though, so bear in mind if the T-Cut appears to diminish the scratches then dont wipe it with IPA as this will remove any fillers, It's no big deal because you can just reapply the T-Cut, just something to be aware of.

There's a company called Paints4U, I've never seen a single complaint about their colour matching, they will supply 30ml each of your base colour & laquer for less than £10,  Obviously you'll need your paint code if you go that route but there ought to enough in 30mls to fill most of those scratches, certainly the less deep ones.

https://www.paints4u.com/ProductDetails.aspx?productID=6930 

 

Thanks for the update, Keep us informed :)

[Derek.w]

After T cut try a wax polish with added colour to match your car.

[flash22]

Be careful with IPA and modern paint, neutralize it with water after use

It's a plastic bumper so no rust 👍