Originally Posted by
GTI_PAPA
By now you've probably read about the scratches as a result of the dealer washing my car. What advice would you suggest regarding what they should do to fix the scratches? I do know that one of the scratches is deep enough to stick my nail into. Would a simple cut and buff be satisfactory, or would it need respraying?
Originally Posted by
GTI_PAPA
Took car back to dealer yesterday for a look at scratches. Manager acknowledged there were scratches straight away, but when the service manager came to look, tried to tell me that it was something on top of the paint, and that his continuous scratching with a fingernail was making it better. After telling him several times to stop digging his nail into them further, he went away and came back with some sort of lit magnifying device and looked at the scratches further. Eventually admitted to scratches, but dismissed them as deep, and a bit of compounding would sort it.
Should I trust this evaluation? Or should I get a second opinion? My thoughts are to allow them to cut/buff, and if still unsatisfactory/visible, demand a respray.
It's too hard to give/get reliable advice over the internet, so I'd get a second opinion from a good detailer or paint shop on just how bad these scratches really are.
The problem with using an agressive compound to polish out deep scratches is that it may wear away most of the clear coat (top layer of paint), leaving you no material to work with for removing future swirls and scratches. If they are really deep (and if you can get a fingernail into them it sounds like they are) they may even go into the colour layer, which means if you polish really deeply the integrity of the whole paint job will be compromised in that area (possible failure of the clearcoat in the future).
If you do go down the polishing path insist on getting some paint thickness readings before and after to see what they have left you with.
Having a respray on the affected panel is not always a perfect solution either, as it is difficult to get a really good match for the factory paint job (particularly with metalflake, and even my solid yellow Octavia was giving some repairers some concerns when I was getting quotes to have mine fixed).
2017 MY18 Golf R 7.5 Wolfsburg wagon (boring white) delivered 21 Sep 2017, 2008 Octavia vRS wagon 2.0 TFSI 6M (bright yellow), 2006 T5 Transporter van 2.5 TDI 6M (gone but not forgotten).
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