Hi LA amigos, My '07 Magnetic Gray has recently collected a few small scratches and one ding....does anybody know any AFFORDABLE good quality repair services for this type of small work? I'd rather not do the whole body shop route, if possible. Best, Justin
Detailing shops can fix minor scratches. Shop around. There is an article on CarTalk.com about how to check out a detailer.
Do you have chips-away or a similar service there? They come to you and fix chips and very minor imperfections in paint. Search auto paint repair in the yellow pages or ask at a local car yard with a good looking batch of cars on display who they use.
You could do it yourself if you wish. I've used touch-up paint and it's all but invisible. You can see the areas where I've covered if the car was just washed, it's sunny and you know where to look (angle helps too). Our paint comes with a clearcoat side to top it off and blend the scratch in. Waxing helps with light scratches. My roof near the antenna was scratched when I backed into a half-opened door. A few wax applications later and it's almost gone (the deeper ones are still visible). Lastly, a good solid polish compound can get the last of the scratches out. If all of the above doesn't work then you have a pretty deep scratch and you're left with the professionals to do it for you.
For fine scratches have a look at a local car parts shop for colour matched polish, it polishes the paint and fills fine scratches with colour matched wax. Works well too. For larger chips there should be some touchup paint in the glovebox.