Paint repair

[Yari213]

Hey all! New to the forum. I purchases a used '09 Yaris Sedan two weeks, and I'm very happy with my purchase with the exception of a few minor scratches & dings that came along with it.

I'm wondering if anyone knows if I can fix them with just regular touch up paint or more serious work is needed. Here's a pic of the most noticeable on th passenger's side door. DSC00547.JPG

[xbr3akd0wnx]

is that bird poopie or discolor sap?

[RedRide]

Yeah..... WTF is that?
Pan back a bit and take another pic so we can se how big it is.

[TickleTimeTim]

looks like paint chip and light rust. sand and repaint whole door, or at least that's what i would guess

[yaris2010RS]

i believe toyota does 8 years no rust or they will replace pannel

[big lo]

Sorry but with that pic you can't tell what the hell that is,lol

[JumpmanYaris]

treat it for rust then use some bondo and with a razor wipe off the extra sand a lil with 1000 sand ppl and then use touch up paint but make sure you cover up around it. where is this located at? paint looks ruff man.

[Yari213]

It's definitely not bird poop. It's paint that's been chipped past the primer. I was hoping I wouldn't have to re-do the whole door. I might just leave it if it's going to cost a lot.

[JumpmanYaris]

Dude its no much when you do it ur self plus if you leave it like that chances are high to get rust, and rust its a Bitch

[big lo]

we still need a better pic too

[mazilla]

You can always buy a can of color match spray paint, spray some in a small cup, and use a cotton swab dipped in the paint to fill in the chip. It may not be perfect(the smaller the better obviously) but at least it won't stand out as much. I just touched up some dings on the bumper of the 07 I bought...actually they were two nickel sized holes with sloppy edges. I used some stick epoxy to fill the holes, then sanded them to match the contour of the bumper and then painted them the way I described above. It's not perfect, but it took about 20(plus dry time) minutes and you can't tell unless you're about 2 feet away and looking for imperfections.

[Red Horse]

put a vinly sticker on it

[jruerph]

Checkout craigslist in your area under automotive services. There should be many freelance body repair people that will come to you and remove your dings/dents for around $100. You can also consider a place like Dentpro for a little more money.

[AppleJacks716]

Originally Posted by Yari213

Hey all! New to the forum. I purchases a used '09 Yaris Sedan two weeks, and I'm very happy with my purchase with the exception of a few minor scratches & dings that came along with it.

I'm wondering if anyone knows if I can fix them with just regular touch up paint or more serious work is needed. Here's a pic of the most noticeable on th passenger's side door. Attachment 40743

It's too deep for touch up paint since bare metal is showing. I'm surprised the dealership didn't do anything for that, the chip looks rather larger. Like the other users said, it will have to be sanded down, primed, and have color resprayed. You will want to do the whole panel it was on, and possibly surrounding panels to blend the new color into the old color.

[.Kevin.]

Masking tape it off with newspaper, sand it abit prime it 3 layers, 3 layers of dupli color whatever your color code is, then just clear paint spray it (clear coat).

[henry98]

why don't you take the service of paintless dent repair for the dings and scraches. i think it is good for you.

[lablab]

Let the expert handle it, go to the nearest auto shop and let paintell dent repair touches your car,.

[robkay]

Originally Posted by Yari213

It's definitely not bird poop. It's paint that's been chipped past the primer. I was hoping I wouldn't have to re-do the whole door. I might just leave it if it's going to cost a lot.

If you just leave it it's going to cost a lot more in the long run. Once the rust starts it is a bad, bad situation because it never stops.

If you want excellent results and cannot DIY, then you need to take it to a pro. Check a variety of places and get some ideas and prices, then make your best decision.

Your other option is to fix it yourself. The results may not be professional looking but, I'll tell you, in the long run it will be better than letting the rust take hold because it will eventually eat a hole in the door.

I had a spot like that on my previous car. Fortunately, it was in a spot that was not very visible, so beautiful results were not critical to me. What I did was use some liquid rust remover to remove the surface rust the best I could. That's about all you can expect from a liquid. I then noticed some deeper pits that the remover would not take out. So, I took a Dremel tool and very carefully ground the rust out of the pits. I then used some Bondo Glazing and Spot Putty (this comes in a tube) to level the chip the best I could. I cut a strip of plastic out of a gallon milk container to make a flexible spatula to apply the spot putty. Wipe excess off immediately! Next, (when hardened of course) I used a Mothers California Gold Paint Chip Repair Kit to level and feather the edges of the repair. (These are hard to find, but they work nicely once you get the hang of it. That's if you can find one. I believe it's the same thing as Langka Blob Eliminator. See http://www.langka.com/) Now, the Mothers kit is intended for leveling paint chip touchup blobs, but I tried it on the spot putty spot and it did work. I then primed the spot and, of course, painted it. Then later waxed it.

Another tool that is very handy for chip repair is a Prepen. You can get them on Amazon. Also, some 3M Fine Cut Rubbing Compound is handy to have on hand. There are some decent videos on Youtube on chip repair and using glazing and spot putty. Here's one pretty good one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pv5gT...eature=related (No, I'm not associated with the appliedcolors people. It's just a good video I found on technique.)

You may not feel competent to do the job, but you will likely be your harshest critic. You can do this. The best you can do will be better than leaving it. Do what you can now, and if you aren't happy you can always have it redone by a pro at a later time when you have the funds.