So the other night I was at the gas station and tripped and fell onto my open passenger door. The door swung all the way open and hit the corner of a brick wall... So, there is now a 2.5-3" cut in the paint that goes down to the metal for about 2" of it... Also a slight dent.

I'm thinking theres no way to fix this to prevent rust without taking to a body shop and having the door bondo'd and painted. Any thoughts? Also.. this totally sucks, but what should I expect to pay if thats the case? 300? 400?

I'm actually furious right now, but at the same time I do have to come to the realization that its just a car..

Seek a professional paint shop, that's all there is to it.

Any idea of a price range? My week is totally booked and I dont have time during regular business hours for a quote. I'm just dying to know a potential range for the repair cost.

Sorry, I have no clue.

Sounds similar to my son flinging his rear door open into one next to us and bending the egde of the door enough to crack the paint! I pulled off the loose paint and added some expensive ($20 for a bottle) color match paint to the area. Its obvious there is damage there, and its not a "perfect match". So its not the greatest idea...but it was only $20.

Estimates to repaint the door, and blend it with the surrounding area, a tick under $800.

With two kids who WILL put more dents in my car as it sits in a tight 2 car garage and driveway...I couldnt drop $800 on this.

I can't mention anything about the bump because that takes actual bodywork. As for the scratch, try this:

I was excited last night after I fixed a scratch in my wife's Civic's hood. It was bothering me. It was too deep to buff out (as I could feel the scratch with my fingernail) but I could not justify painting it again because of a scratch. I decided to take a chance.

I taped off the scratch. In other words, I only taped the edges of the scratch, so when I went to go put touch-up paint on it, it would fill in only the scratch, and not the surrounding paint. I used blue painters tape for this because of its superior bendability.

I then painted the scratch, making sure there was no rust in the scratch, using touch-up paint. I let it dry about 30 minutes, and then took off the tape.

After three days of letting it dry, I then wet-sanded it, in one direction, using MeGuier's Instant Detailer and 2000 automotive use sandpaper. I went very lightly on the surface as to minimize the damage to the surrounding clearcoat.

After it was perfectly smooth, and I could not feel the touch-up paint bump any more, I wiped away the debris using a microfiber cloth.

I then used MeGuier's Ultimate Compound to buff away the wet-sanded marks. I was amazed when the scratch had disappeared. I was excited. I went into my house jumping up and down, because I had never done that before.

Me: "I'm so excited honey! I just fixed a scratch on your car! You can't even tell that it was even there!"

Wifey: (Blank stare.)

Me: "You owe me some action."

Wifey: "I'll call the dog over."

:worthless

:worthless

I took some pictures, but forgot to upload them. Maybe today and tomorrow. PM me to remind me.

^^^

LULZ, Awesome.

I've always wanted to attempt this, but have been to chicken to do so...the paint, not the wife

^^^

LULZ, Awesome.

I've always wanted to attempt this, but have been to chicken to do so...the paint, not the wife

LOL.


Actually, I discovered an even better way to do this, but it seems to only work on scratches, and not dings or knicks in the paint (like stone chips).

When you mask off the scratch, and only the scratch, and once you paint the scratch over, you should see a VERY thin line of paint that hopefully only painted the scratch. You have to remove the blue painters tape about 10-20 minutes (depending on the temperature) after the paint was applied. This is crucial.

Next, you have to let the paint dry at least a day, hopefully two days to give the paint a chance to dry.

It should be a given that the paint scratch surface must be washed and any wax or contaminants must be removed from the scratch surface.

Once the touch-up paint has a chance to bond to the surface of the scratch, take your trusty Dremel, with the polishing discs and drums (the ones made of a soft, cloth-like material) and using the MeQuier's Ultimate Compound, polish (more like polish-sanding) the paint. If you did it right, the paint that is above the scratch should be removed, and only the paint that filled in the scratch should remain. I have done this twice, and to my amazement, only the paint in the scratch remained! I will try to take a video of this in the next couple of days. No wet-sanding needed!

Besides the painting of the scratch and the waiting part, it took literally 30 seconds to remove the paint from the scratch. I was astounded!

After three days of letting it dry, I then wet-sanded it, in one direction, using MeGuier's Instant Detailer and 2000 automotive use sandpaper. I went very lightly on the surface as to minimize the damage to the surrounding clearcoat.

I then used MeGuier's Ultimate Compound to buff away the wet-sanded marks.

No wet-sanding needed!

So did you wet-sand it or not? I'm confused.

So did you wet-sand it or not? I'm confused.

Sorry. The first time I did a scratch, yes, I wet sanded, and it came out pretty good, but it wasn't absolutely perfect. You could still see a very slight bump in the paint, but you could not see the scratch any more in direct light.

With this new method I discovered, I could not visibly see anything that resembled the scratch I was trying to fix, even in bright LED lights.

Here are two pictures of the scratch.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a162/gatrhumpy/DSC04027.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a162/gatrhumpy/DSC04027.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a162/gatrhumpy/DSC04028.jpg


With the scratch (and only) taped up.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a162/gatrhumpy/DSC04030.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a162/gatrhumpy/DSC04031.jpg


Applying touch-up paint.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a162/gatrhumpy/DSC04032.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a162/gatrhumpy/DSC04033.jpg


Waited five minutes for the paint to semi dry, and then removed the tape.
This is what it should look like.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a162/gatrhumpy/DSC04034.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a162/gatrhumpy/DSC04035.jpg


I will show you the end results once the paint dries, maybe Saturday night. I need to wait for it to bond with the scratch.

Any idea of a price range? My week is totally booked and I dont have time during regular business hours for a quote. I'm just dying to know a potential range for the repair cost.

I kind of have the same thing, but I got a quote, and at least my shop- they need to remove the door and repaint it. He gave me a price of 300.00

So probably the same price range.

any updated pics?

I bet it didn't come out right... :paranoid::D

How did it go? :)

Sorry everyone. Still letting it cure and bond with the scratch. I should have pics by tomorrow night or Tuesday morning once I buff it out. Will let you know.