My brother also recently bought a Prius but it was previously owned by an older woman. I guess she had really shaky hands because the key area is really scratched up....not sure because the remote seems to be working although he bought it from a dealer(they may have fixed it). I went ahead and bought the paint pen from the dealer but saw a few tutorials that used Bondo Glazing and Spot Putty to fill in the scratches first. They applied it and wiped off the excess with a wet paper towel. Anyone have experience with this? Does it work better or last? I know Bondo isn't the best but I just wanted to make it as least noticeable as possible. I even bought a size 0 paintbrush to get really precise.
I'd show it to a body shop, at least get a quote. More expensive, but they'll do it seamless. Or just wax it and live with it for a while.
It's too deep for wax to work, I believe it's to the primer. My brother is in college and my mom isn't going to pay for a body shop. The spot putty is $4, paint is $10, and a brush was $2. I just want to see if someone has done it this way before.
If you work very slowly you might be able to fill in the scratches with the spot putty. I would apply it very lightly and then use a credit card to wipe off the excess. No matter what you do you will not get a perfect repair doing it by hand. The proper way to paint it would be to use a sprayer, but I doubt you will have access to that. So you will have to resort to a brush, which will surely leave brush marks. Bottom line. If you want it to look right, have a body shop fix it. Otherwise, you will still see flaws and blemishes no matter how well you try to do it by hand. Check around town and see if maybe you can get a hand from a shop to do the work for you on the side. Sometimes you can get work done cheap if someone is hungry enough. It won't hurt to ask. The basic steps are to fill and blend flaws with bondo/putty then sand smooth. Afterwards you apply primer, then paint, then clear coat. All paint work is usually done with sprayers, not brushes. That is how the shops achieve the nice factory looks.
It's important to feather out the paint too. They do 100% colour at the damage, then thin the paint with clear and extend the coverage, repeat maybe two more times, till they're spraying near-clear. This would likely involve spraying onto the rear door panel, the front door handle being so close to the seam.
Yeah, I know it won't be perfect but he's more concerned with the very clear scratches. He doesn't care if it's perfect, just less noticeable. Do you know anything that I can get from a chain store that acts as a wax remover? The dealer tried to buff it but they were just too deep. I know I need to make sure the wax is gone for good adhesion.
