Brian1037

So when I bought my 2005 civic from Honda, the woman who owned it before me had put some ugly stripes and "chrome" (really just soft plastic). You can see what I'm talking about in this picture:



The stripe is just under the windows (it's actually two stripes close together), and the "chrome" is just above each wheel. I removed the chrome without problems (It was so cheap that it just peeled off without leaving residue). The stripes on the other hand were harder, presenting me with hours of work. After about 2 hours and a lot of goo-gone, the stripes were off. However, the stripe was covering a long, perfectly straight "scratch". I put scratch in quotations cause it doesn't look like a normal scratch. It was almost as if the paint overlapped and I could see white in the crack it formed. It's clearly not a body/metal problem, just paint.

So I went to Honda to see if I could get a free fix out of them since it's still my first month with the car and they said no because the first month doesn't cover aesthetics. So I forked out $6.36 for some touch up paint.

I went home and tried this out. Oh boy does it look worse than before or what. You can see where the white was because the didn't really get it between. This was my first time doing something like this.



What can I do to make it look less shitty and hopefully fix it? The paint is all lumpy and unprofessional. Help please

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

well you need to try and cover the white better, then let paint dry overnight. get some meguiars scratch-x and keep rubbing that on til it smoothens out the paint. it will never look perfect tho like a body shop repaint.

grendel

I wanna facepalm that dealership for selling a car with **** like that on it in the first place...

Brian1037

Thanks for the advice, I'll go get some scratch-x when I'm not sick with this damn cold.

Yeah looking back I should've told them to take it off while they prep the car for me to pick up. Well you live and learn I guess.

Nosepicker

Perhaps you can find some kinda blender paint and buff the hell outta it? IDK.

Keep us posted.

lowlife9

using touch up paint on that was a bad idea if i was you i would cover it back up with a another pin stripe and just deal with it. when you removed the pin stripe did you use a heat gun or did you just rip it off ???

Brian1037

Once side I just peeled off without any heat or anything except goo-gone. It took hours gently scraping at it with a credit card. For the other side, I used a steam gun like this one:

http://247electrical.co.uk/media/cat...x/elxz350a.jpg

The sticker peeled right off without any issues. It's obvious that the scratch was there before the sticker, and the sticker didn't cause the scratch.

Here's another pic of the chrome and the pin stripes that I found on my cell.

http://img830.imageshack.us/img830/2392/img00142c.jpg

I'm not going to put another stripe... it was pretty tacky. I'd rather keep this scratch as is than have the stripes, so I'll just try to fix it up again.

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

i have that same problem on the roof around the molding area where paint is peeling off. im just waiting til i can afford bodyshop work cause i dont think it will match even if i try to spray it.

02civicsi02

Something you could do if you are good at it is get some like 2000 grit sand paper and wet sand it very lightly and I mean lightly to get some of that touch up paint or scratches off and then get a buffer and buff it up.

04 Honda Civic

iTrader: (2)

^^That would only work if the scratch is in the clearcoat, if its in the paint wetsanding, buffing, waxing, and/or compounding will never work. At best using a compound will make it lighter but it will always be there. Unfortunately the only thing that you can do is try your best with the touchup paint given, however it is hard to make look good I have tried. Last hope is to go to a body shop and ask them how much it will be for them to fix. Btw assuming you bought it from a Honda dealer they should really have helped you in some way to fix the problem.

Brian1037

Yeah I think so too. They just said "aesthetics" are not covered for free in the first month. Absolute crap... some dealer...

Mad Dog Tannen

If it is in the clearcoat then use rubbing compound to try to buff it out. If that doesn't work the try some very very fine grit sandpaper (like used for color sanding).If that doesn't work then you probably need new paint.