Ol' Timer
26-10-2005, 10:47
I recently discovered a scratch along the bottom of the door on my Ibiza. It was about 2 feet long and, although not terribly deep, was really noticeable and annoying.
Rather than getting the entire door resprayed I decided to see if there were any alternatives. A bit of research uncovered the existence of a Mer Chip and Scratch Repair Kit, which looked interesting. I couldn't find the Mer kit at any of my local car accessory shops but I did find a Farécla kit which looked identical and cost about £23, so I decided to give it a go, although I didn't hold out too much hope for good results.
The kit consists of: a tube of rubbing compound; a nylon brush for cleaning out the scratch; a neoprene rubbing block and fine wet or dry paper; paint application sticks; a buffing wheel backing pad and foam buffing pad; a bottle of clear lacquer. You have to provide your own coloured paint if required. Full instructions and a video were also included. All in all quite comprehensive.
I choose a warm dry day to do the repair and started by cleaning the scratch with Autoglym Intensive Tar Remover (you can use white spirit). My car is finished with Flash Red paint which has a clear lacquer top coat and as the scratch disappeared when wet, it showed that it was only the lacquer which was damaged. The next step was to carefully fill the scratch with clear lacquer, using the applicator sticks. The idea is to use several coats until the lacquer sits proud of the surrounding paintwork.
After allowing the lacquer to dry thoroughly, the next step was to gently and carefully buff the excess lacquer away, using the wet or dry paper on the neoprene pad with plenty of water and working ACROSS the scratch. You have to be very careful not to damage the surrounding paintwork doing this (it is probably worth using masking tape to prevent any accidents). I kept checking progress every few seconds by lightly running a wet finger over the scratch, which is surprising effective at feeling any high spots.
When the lacquer was completely flat I washed and dried the area and inspected the results. It looked TERRIBLE as all the gloss had disappeared and the scratched area was a lot bigger than before. On the other hand the actual scratch was now level with the surrounding area.
The next stage was to restore the gloss using the Rubbing Compound. You can either use the buffing pad in an electric drill or do it by hand. I chose the latter method as I didn't have any power readily available. I applied a small amount of the compound to a clean, wet, soft cloth and rubbed fairly gently but rapidly along the scratch. I kept cleaning off the repair and inspecting it and repeating the process until the gloss was fully restored.
After a final clean and polish I stood back to inspect the repair and was staggered to find that the scratch was completely undetectable! I repeated the process on a couple of stone chips but spotted in first with red paint before the appying the lacquer as the white primer was visible. The results were equally impressive.
So all in all I am extremely impressed with this product. It requires a fair amount of care and it is probably not suitable for damage in the middle of a panel (my scratch was at the bottom of the door near the ground) but in my case provided an excellent, cheap repair without resorting to a respray.
The Mer kits are available from Halfords online or QVC (!) and my local Wilco car accessory shop happened to have the Farécla in stock but I don't know where else you would buy it from.
Highly recommended. :)
Rather than getting the entire door resprayed I decided to see if there were any alternatives. A bit of research uncovered the existence of a Mer Chip and Scratch Repair Kit, which looked interesting. I couldn't find the Mer kit at any of my local car accessory shops but I did find a Farécla kit which looked identical and cost about £23, so I decided to give it a go, although I didn't hold out too much hope for good results.
The kit consists of: a tube of rubbing compound; a nylon brush for cleaning out the scratch; a neoprene rubbing block and fine wet or dry paper; paint application sticks; a buffing wheel backing pad and foam buffing pad; a bottle of clear lacquer. You have to provide your own coloured paint if required. Full instructions and a video were also included. All in all quite comprehensive.
I choose a warm dry day to do the repair and started by cleaning the scratch with Autoglym Intensive Tar Remover (you can use white spirit). My car is finished with Flash Red paint which has a clear lacquer top coat and as the scratch disappeared when wet, it showed that it was only the lacquer which was damaged. The next step was to carefully fill the scratch with clear lacquer, using the applicator sticks. The idea is to use several coats until the lacquer sits proud of the surrounding paintwork.
After allowing the lacquer to dry thoroughly, the next step was to gently and carefully buff the excess lacquer away, using the wet or dry paper on the neoprene pad with plenty of water and working ACROSS the scratch. You have to be very careful not to damage the surrounding paintwork doing this (it is probably worth using masking tape to prevent any accidents). I kept checking progress every few seconds by lightly running a wet finger over the scratch, which is surprising effective at feeling any high spots.
When the lacquer was completely flat I washed and dried the area and inspected the results. It looked TERRIBLE as all the gloss had disappeared and the scratched area was a lot bigger than before. On the other hand the actual scratch was now level with the surrounding area.
The next stage was to restore the gloss using the Rubbing Compound. You can either use the buffing pad in an electric drill or do it by hand. I chose the latter method as I didn't have any power readily available. I applied a small amount of the compound to a clean, wet, soft cloth and rubbed fairly gently but rapidly along the scratch. I kept cleaning off the repair and inspecting it and repeating the process until the gloss was fully restored.
After a final clean and polish I stood back to inspect the repair and was staggered to find that the scratch was completely undetectable! I repeated the process on a couple of stone chips but spotted in first with red paint before the appying the lacquer as the white primer was visible. The results were equally impressive.
So all in all I am extremely impressed with this product. It requires a fair amount of care and it is probably not suitable for damage in the middle of a panel (my scratch was at the bottom of the door near the ground) but in my case provided an excellent, cheap repair without resorting to a respray.
The Mer kits are available from Halfords online or QVC (!) and my local Wilco car accessory shop happened to have the Farécla in stock but I don't know where else you would buy it from.
Highly recommended. :)