Scratch Removal

[Mattitude v1]

I have a scrape on my car from contacting a hard pole. It went right through the paint. It's about an inch wide at its widest point (see circled area in picture below). I put 3 light coats of touchup on it, and compounded it, but it doesn't blend in well and the surface is not smooth.

How do I go about fixing this myself? What specific tools and techniques, like wetsanding, should be used to achieve a smooth surface of the same color? Or must this problem be fixed at a body shop? Please help.

 

[miteclgst]

Honestly your best bet is to simply go to a shop and have them "blend the paint". This is a plus on the side of basecoat/clearcoat paint systems. What the shop will do is they will wetsand the surface of the paint making it all nice and smooth again and do any spot body work that is necessary. Once they have the area prepped they will wetsand with say 1,000 grit paper an area a bit bigger than the damaged area. They will tape off of the existing bumper line and also back tape an area larger than the sanded area. By back taping I mean they will roll the edge of the tape back, this will result in an indefinate line as opposed to just masking regularly. Next they will apply a few coats your base coat and begin clearing. On the last coat of clear they will reduce it heavily making a "hot" mixture, they will remove the back taping and spray the clear over a bit larger area. This is the easiest way to fix such damage. Providing your new base coat matches the old base that is on the car you will have a repair that only you will know was done.
I can honeslty say that attempting to blend an area in with touch up paint and wetsanding will more than likely result in a bad finish. The metallic will not lay right because it is being brushed rather than sprayed and the fix will probably be noticable. So do yourself a favor, save the money in supplies and have a shop fix the damage for you, if the paint dosn't match or something you can always take it back. Also I would suggest having a dealer do the work, chances are they are pretty experianced in blending paint. The method that I described to you is very much in use today, anytime a new car comes off the carrier with an imperfection the damage is most likely spotted and noone is the wiser. Good Luck.