First Scratch/Dent

I discovered this just a few hours ago:

I'll be parking in the far far corner of my work parking lot from now on.

I want to know what I can do to "repair" the damage? I'm mostly interested in preventing any future rust. If possible, removing some of the "black" (I assume the other cars paint) from this scratch. I don't expect it to look like new. I honestly don't even care that much. It's a truck, so whatever.

I won't be making an insurance claim on this damage. I don't want a body shop to fix it. But I am curious on what I can do to improve the look of the damage and reduce chances of rust happening at this spot in the future. Do I have to worry about rust at all?

 

No longer a virgin! Congrats!

 

Firs, congratulations. It's an important milestone in truck ownership, that first scratch or dent.

From your photo I am pretty confident that scratch went through the clear coat, so no hope of buffing it out. You'll need touch-up paint. And you'll always be able to tell by looking really close, and that's assuming you are good at touch-up paint. They sell these pen-sticks now and those work great for this type of repair.

And, if that is not acceptable to you I'd recommend professional body shop. Probably cost about $1000

 

You can get a color matched pen stick really cheap. For example site HERE

This site sells the base coat separate for the clear coat. So, you'll need a stick of each. About $20

You can buy this with a single stick that has an integrated clear coat. But the separate ones is preferable.

Post up some pics of your repair.

 

Easy for you to massage that out since you have easy access from the back side. Buff out the black mark and add some touch up paint where needed.

 

Do this:






Put on enough 'mall armour' and you'll survive.

Cheers!

 

Someone hit mine in the same place so hard that my back bumper dented the OTHER side of mt truck. $3500 in damage. Am looking into building rear sliders now.

 

First, find a reputable pointless dent repair shop, go see what they think.. The lines you see could be from whatever caused the damage (and may come off).. You'd be surprised what they can do in PDR, that is if their good.. Do that before taking it to a body shop and having them re paint etc.. That's not too bad of a dent at least by the pics, of course it's hard to tell by pics.

 

I'll give the touch up pen thing a go at it. From 10 feet away I can barely notice the scratch. I'd love to use this as an excuse to armor up, but my wallet will not allow. Speaking of armor, I'll be picking up my SOS sliders tomorrow!

 

I miss read, you said something YOU can do.. If you're gonna use a touch up pen. Get some paint thinner or reducer and wiper over the area, to see if the marks come off, if it's the other vehicles paint there's a good chance it will take it off, you could also try rubbing it with rubbing compound.. You may not even need a paint pen then. But of course you'll still have the dent..

 

Hey, you broke your cherry!

 

The only scratch that bothers me is the giant one on my hood I got from a branch. I might even do something about it

 

Agreed with the touch up pen

Won't be perfect but at least it will be a same color not perfect

I've had a few on my trucks over the years and it helps. Some more then others

 

I ALWAYS park way away from people for this very reason.

 

I am pretty sure what you are seeing in that picture is the primer coat. For that paint color Toyota puts on an almost black-grey primer and I believe that is what is being seen.

 

Well it's always hard to tell from pictures.. I'm familiar with body and paint work etc.. To me, just from the pictures, it looks possibly more like what came off what caused the dent. I could be wrong, you could be right. There again really hard to tell from pics.

 

I think your probably right. The "scratch" feels more raised then indented. There is still the dent, but the actual black mark is raised. When I find the time I'll see what I can get off just by cleaning that area and using a little rubbing compound. I'm sure there is still some paint damage, but I bet once I remove the black from the area it will look fine.

 

That scratch looks like it will come off with rubbing compound. I would make an attempt to massage that from the back side after carefully heating the painted area with a hair dryer.

 

I know this was a while ago, but wanted to post an update after did the paint touch up pen fix. Pictures never really show the detail like in real life, but it looks better than it did.



Ignore the dirt. If you look carefully you can see the dented spot still, but from 10 feet away you can't see it at all.