Question on deep scratch treatment

[Oro_O]

I picked up a really clean, relatively low-mile older Volvo recently. I had a P2 XC70 I loved and planned on driving a very long time that was rear-ended. This one is an interim until I can find the "perfect" replacement newer model in the future. This car is a 2000my V70 XC in Moondust metallic.

I have the car at Stage 0 + some small suspension mods; it drives nicely and I've refinished the front seats so it looks great inside. Only real exterior issues are:

1) a bad scratch across the hood that someone has tried to fill, and
2) small dent and scratch on the top of the RF fender.

I could just leave things as-is of course. However, knowing myself, I'm probably going to try to fix them if I can. Is that practical? I have done some furniture refinishing, painting, but not like this. My dad has restored some motorcycles and repaired some bad gas tanks - brazing, filling/fairing, painting + clear coating, with lovely results. He could help/advise but I'm not sure where to start or if I should, and this seems a bigger deal and project vs just a gas tank. Here's some pics of the issues and then the car.

There is an auto paint shop I've used before that can shoot the paint and make a better match for it, if the answer is to perhaps polish that mis-match out some and re-color. I think whoever did it bought generic silver, or perhaps Volvo silver (and this car is not silver, though that year/era Volvo had moondust and silver, and you could mistake this for silver in daylight). I don't know.

 

[Danno]

When I deal with my local paint shops, the charge is $400 per panel.

Good paint does cost $.

As for DIY, I'll let others chime in.

 

[joekingcorvette]

I believe the huge scratch on the hood would look much better if you removed the touch up paint and just left the scratch. The touch up paint actually magnifies the problem. It would not be very visible if you removed the touch up paint. For the dent I would fill it in with body filler and buy some color match spray paint from your local auto body specialty company. Have them color match it and buy two spray bombs. It more than likely will not be a perfect color match but I believe it would look much better. I would only paint what you have to and don't go too far over the regular size of the dent. That way if it doesn't match you won't have a large unmatched area. This is not the professional way of doing it however you are trying to spend as little as possible therefore that is what I would do. You could even spray some of the paint in the top of the spray paint can and use a brush and fill in that scratch on the hood. Wipe off any paint that doesn't go directly in the scratch. Then buff it out nicely and it should be barely discernible from 5 feet away. Otherwise as another poster stated pay the $400 and get it done buy a good shop.

 

[SatinSilver]

There’s a good YouTube video by Chris Fix on scratch repair. You can hardly tell anything happened afterwards. The car was heavily vandalized and is a white Chrysler 200.

 

[Oro_O]

I believe the huge scratch on the hood would look much better if you removed the touch up paint and just left the scratch. ....

This sounds like good advice.

This is along the lines of what I was thinking on all points, but I'm not heavily experienced. I also don't know how to get the paint out of the long scratch - I agree the fill made it worse. Is there a technique to take out the paint w/o damaging the paint + clear underneath, or just lightly sanding with very fine grades of paper?

 

[Cujet]

Most forms of touch up paint do not use a hardener. That means, they will dissolve in the appropriate solvent. Likely "real" MEK, lacquer thinner or other similar solvent.

 

[Oro_O]

Most forms of touch up paint do not use a hardener. That means, they will dissolve in the appropriate solvent. Likely "real" MEK, lacquer thinner or other similar solvent.

Gotcha. I understand. I have gallon jugs of acetone, MEK, etc. around, can find something/mix something to soften and remove it.

I've looked at lots of DIY and vid's on this, want to understand the subtleties. The answers here really help (as almost all "how do I..." things I've posted on BITOG for 10 years!).

I lost a lovely P2 Volvo (in my avatar) that was going to be my "forever" driver. Tuned, tweaked, nice. This car is a cheap/affordable driver vs. my others until I can replace that P2 Volvo Cross Country. But I now realize that my be a two year proposition to find the perfect blue/beige low mile car or Ocean Race model. In the mean time, I will want to make this as nice as possible. This will be an April/May project but wanted to get it mentally aligned as I finish the other Stage 0 stuff and minor suspension and accessory tweaks I am doing on this car.

Thanks a lot to all responses. Any others welcome, but now I feel better. I have a handle now on how to tackle it and feel better. I may drive the car longer than I thought when I bought it, so want to be able to get it really pretty.

 

[joekingcorvette]

Yes its a very nice looking car. Start with a very fine grit of sandpaper #400 or finer and wet sand the paint on the scratch. Try to sand on the painted part only and it should come off. There should be some clear coat underneath it anyway and that should serve as a buffer. Start on a very small area and see if it works. You can make almost any car look pretty decent it they don't have dents and rust.

 

[Oro_O]

Ahh - thank you guys.

This is along the lines of what I thought, but wasn't totally sure. This helps a lot. When spring is here, I can lay the car up easily for days or a week, tape off the area and go to work on it with solvent and very fine paper. Before that, of course, drive it to Tacoma to the paint shop and have them photo-shoot the paint and match it. Last time I did that they made me a 12oz spray can for like $21, but that was 10 years ago. Ex-girlfriend still has that Lexus and it still looks great.

This helps a lot and now that I have a plan, I can get it done.

The P80 Volvos are good cars; not as awesome as the P2s, but still worth taking care of. One of these in good shape w/55k recently went for near $10k on BAT, which shocked me. I'm not into this to flip it like that, I just like taking care of things. I have only put ~150 miles on it in the month I've owned it - mostly all test driving after maintenance/tweeks/mild mods. I am starting finally to get used to it vs. my other car(s) and only starting to get comfortable with it. I imagine when I finally have it totally sorted/accessorize (roof load bars, ski rack, summer tires, stiffer rear sway bar), I'll be into it and then never sell it, or push it on to a family member more likely.

I love light tan/beige interiors (cannot stand black and can barely tolerate gray), and the "moondust" metallic color is starting to grow on me. If it were Nautic Blue like my lost 2004, I'd probably for sure keep it forever. I love the softer, but still very muscular, lines of the P2 generation Volvo wagons (2001-2007), but this "turbo brick" shape as it is known is starting to grow on me the more I look at it/have it in the driveway. It is nicely retro, but not so retro that it makes you a little embarrassed, like say a 1986 Buick Grand National.

 

[Oro_O]

I thought I would update this, even though it's been a while. I got good advice from you guys. I finally have all the mechanical, interior, and suspension mods about done and it was time to turn to this.

Today I took off all the old mis-matched, over-filled paint off with a pad and acetone. That left damage and I sanded it 1k, 2k, 3k, 4k with pads and then polished it. Heck, it's just a ton better now!

In the next few days I will clean out the remaining scratch more with lacquer thinner and then fill it with paint. The paint I have is in a spray can (single stage), so I'll have to spray it into a cup and then brush on. I'll do the technique like @Cujet 's video above shows and likely we will be good.

Finger's crossed, this will all come out good and I'll be showing the car the regional Radwood next month (for fun, not really competition)!

I haven't figured out my strategy on the fender dings yet, I guess I'll clean them out, using glazing putty and then mask, spray, and blend.