Monday, Dec 16, 2013 at 16:54
Thanks Garry. I intended to go into more detail, but I got distracted ;)
They make them in a basic colour range. Pick a colour that you think will work, or ask the paint person at your auto store...It can sometimes be deceiving. For example, I found that dark green worked very
well on my metallic purple RAV4, but the black highlighted the scratch. If you have a Dulux Trade Centre near you, ask them.
The point made by Garry about clear coat is also important. Most solid colours do not have a clear coat. All metallics, pearls and micas etc do have a clear coat. If your car is anything other than a solid colour, like white etc then it will have a clear coat. It is called COB or clear over base. Without getting all techo, the purpose of the clear coat is to seal the base coat from the weather. Think of it like a bucket of sand. If you pour water into the bucket, it soaks through the sand. If you spread some plastic food wrap on the sand, the water will not go through. You would have seen those cars getting around that look like they have sunburn peeling...That is what happens when water and weather gets to the base coat. 9 out of 10 of those sunburn peelings cars have been buffed and polished at some point. The buffing compound removes the clear coat exposing the base coat.
It is not all doom and gloom...If your paint is a solid, then using the scratch pen and a good wax polish once or twice a year will see many, many long years of service. If it is a COB paint (again, if not sure, the paint person or the Dulux Trade Centre can tell you just by looking at it) then you might want to use said pen and polish at every wash time.
As a side note. Now that you have a scratch, it is more important than ever, to use ONLY proper car or truck wash or even good old sugar soap. Do NOT use any domestic wash that contains sodium ;)
One more thing you might want to look at. If the scratch has gone through to the primer. The primer is the coat under the base on COB paints and under the top coat on solids. Most primer will last about 3 months of exposure to weather. Even though it is just a scratch, if not attended to, it will cause more problems. If the primer is intact the scratch pen is about all you need to prevent any further damage (if you use it regularly). So just ask the paint person (not just the counter staff, the actual paint person) to have a look, or as I said before, the Dulux Trade Centre. Neither will charge you and either or both will be happy to have a look and give you a first hand professional opinion.
....tooo much typing...beer time :)
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