jrotsaert

Some idiot decided that my Spyder looked too good and decided to key it.
What are your thoughts on repair of the scratch?
It's located on the left of the rear bumper - which I can confirm is black plastic under the (very) thin white paint

TIA
JM

Marine Blue

That can be touched up but it won't be 100% perfect. Still I think it would look better touched up than respraying the entire bumper and possibly blending into the body.

Do a search under my screen name, I've done a write up on how to do it and get very good results.

s2ktaxi

Sorry that happened. Very annoying. Better on plastic than on metal.

Macster

One hopes there's a particularly hot corner in H*ll for b*st*rds that do this.

I'm not car paint expert so I'd advise you to check with a highly recommended body/paint shop in your area and get advise on what needs to be done to bring that bumper back to like new condition.

Given the car is white and new the right shop should be able to sand and prep and respray and smooth sand and clear coat the bumper and the color should match the other adjacent panels so the eye can't detect any difference.

But a shop would have to tell you this.

Sincerely,

Macster.

Marine Blue

If you do intend to leave it to the professionals I would recommend talking with your dealer to determine if they can recommend a good PDR Guy/Gal. I personally am not a fan of just any bodyshop unless I have seen their work and they come highly recommended. Many do more damage than good including getting carried away with the rotary buffer or failing to remove overspray etc.

00r101

Insurance? If so go to the dealer.

KrisPKreme

I agree 100%. As a professional show car paint polisher and detailer, that thing aint buffin' out. It needs paint. Even good body shops can cause you problems down the road if it's not repaired correctly. Get it done right and you will have years of trouble free enjoyment.

jrotsaert

No plan to use insurance for something like this... I'll have to see what I want to do, in some ways, it doesn't bother me too much. Feels like it has its first battle scar. I sure do hope that I can catch someone doing something like this one day. It would be VERY fun to make sure they can never do it again -for lack of functioning fingers and hands!!!

Skeptikal12

That is horrible and one of my biggest fears with leaving the car alone in public parking lots.

Filling in the scratch with touch up paint -> letting it harden -> some wet sanding -> some polishing would be a possible solution. Problem is finding someone in your area experienced enough to do a good job of that.

Anyways, I hope all the people who do this are caught. Really low of someone.

zellamsee

Bummer. The same thing happened to me with my then new BMW a few years ago (it wasn't even a week old at the time). My BMW dealer had a paint guy, who was able to touch up the bumper, someway/somehow, by spraying the area of the scratch only. It looked absolutely perfect (you literally couldn't tell) and cost was around $200 or so.

Macster

You might catch someone. Years ago a co-worker told me on his way to work and one section of the road (880 south of I-280 in San Jose area) the road passes under a railroad trestle. The tracks run past a high school.

Anyhow without warning the windshield caved in. Seems some highschool dumbass had thrown a rock down and this co-worker had drove into it and in doing so the rock smashed into his windshield. (Co-worker got confirmation this common in that area cause highschoolers used the railroad bridge as a shortcut to the school grounds and occasionally one used it as a launching point for rocks onto cars below.) Thankfully, the rock didn't come through but of course it very well could have and I can't remember if the rock was on the driver's side of the vehicle or the passenger's side. Regardless it was scary enough. Co-worker reported the pressure jump when the windshield caved in was not only scary but painful.

Skip ahead a while, at least several weeks. Co-worker came in and reported while moving along in slow going traffic he spotted another vehicle in which a rock had struck the windshield -- the car was pulled over on the shoulder -- and then he spotted a guy just wailing away on another guy in the brush on the slope of the freeway. He likes to believe it was the driver of the vehicle beating the bejeezus out of the punk that threw the rock.

Sincerely,

Macster.

winkingchef

The guy who perpetrated the scratch, was a Coxster.

cvazquez

Sorry this happened... get yourself a good body repair shop and hopefully you'll be pleased with the results.

Carcam

Better than a Chixster.

tinman

I wouldn't stress, it's done, insurance will probably cover, but it may be close enough to your deductible you may want to pay out of pocket. The body shop will tell you the only way to do this right is to paint it after removing the bumber from your car, for a front bumper he was estimating around $400-600 total. Blending is when they say they spray some onto the adjacent panel so that there won't be any noticeable difference, since your car is brand new, I bet they'd charge you for it but not actually do it. You should find a really good auto body shop that works on Porsches because of the bumper off/on....I used the body center for my VW twice, and the work was great. Don't use Joe Schmo's body shop, or someone's cousin, find the shop, go over what they will do, and only proceed if you have confidence in them.