How to Repair Scratches on your Car | Save Hundreds of Dollars

How to repair scratches on your car and Save Hundreds of Dollars

I repaired the scratches on my 2017 Jeep Cherokee for cheap.

**Note**
Some of the comments suggested to use 2500 or higher grit sand paper after the paint is dry right before buffing to make it shinier and smoother and also to use *wax after buffing with compound and polish. Thanks again for watching! Good luck on your projects!

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*Wax was not used in the video but some comments suggested to use wax after using the compound and polish.

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[mustafaaljumayli]

I actually tried this myself, this was an awesome process and I fixed my car completely. My Front Bumper looks like it is brand new. Some tips and pointers that I can give to anyone else watching this is make sure you don’t spray too close or too slow. We’re all beginners, we will make mistakes and that’s okay. Just be prepared to do a lot more buffing if you make blobs of paint or primer. Try to use lower grit sandpaper to fix your errors and gradually smooth out w/ 1500 grit and 2500 grit. Also when you mix the body filler. Put a small amount of hardening in the mix. Your mix should be gray colored and not pink. If it is pink, it’ll harden fast and get chunky, you may need to buff it down and try again. Also TAPE EVERYTHING, the spray paint works very well in the way it costs and reached places, I didn’t think it would. Hope you can learn from my mistakes. Enjoy! Excellent video!!!

[toddlawson]

I tried this following this video. These are the important things I learned:

1. This IS harder than it looks.
2. Bondo (body filler) is only needed if you have deep scratches in the bumper. If your fingernail falls into a groove when you scratch it, it needs body filler.
3. The body filler’s only purpose is to fill the groove (deep scratch) so that it’s a level surface. You don’t need it anywhere else.
4. Less is more! If you spray too much of the primer, color, or clearcoat, it’ll pool up and drip. If that happens, there’s no turning back. DO NOT TRY TO DAB IT OR REMOVE THE DRIP.
5. Spray more layers of paint. The primer will show through lighter colors and will require a few more layers.
6. Possess a godly amount of patience or else.

[FrancesBledsoe]

I cannot think Thomas enough. This works beautifully. I'm a 74-year-old woman who bought my first new used car in 15 years. My sporty 2022 Honda is lower to the ground than my previous car so I have unfortunately scratched low frontal parts of it a couple of times. Following Thomases instructions no one could tell that anything had been damaged. I am so grateful.

[NIO]

I was a professional dealership detailer for years and the work you showed on the video any dealership would welcome and hire you as a detailer employee and paint and body shops. Great work. High quality brand name with Carnauba Wax or liquid glass would be good to bring back a shine base match to original paint coat shine then a nice electric high speed buff to make that shine sparkle again. Awesome job

[gustavocarleon]

After doing it my self, It's important to note the following experiences:
1) Be prepared for at least 6 hours of work
2) Try to put as little filler as possible but the right amount or else you will be sanding half a day.
3) Don't overdo the paint, cause once it drips and try to fix it, ur are gonna end up leaving little bumps on the paint and there's no going back unless u want to sand and paint again and again.
3) For sure wear a mask and glasses
4) be extra patient.

[Gunnnnn]

Who is watching this after they scratch they car 😂😂😂

[stevet]

Followed every step and am delighted with the finish. Saved me hundreds of pounds on a bumper, wheel arch and door!! Great video!!

[arnesbeganovic]

To make it 100% correct, you should not jump sanding papers more then 1/2 of previous size. So if you start with 80 grid, next one is + 1/2 or 80 + 40 = 120. After 120 you go to 120+60=180. By skipping you leave small irregularities on surface area that can not be removed by higher grid number. You probably used high quality spay which filled those irregularities and help you with good finish. It's always a risk to jump from 80 to 180 by skipping 120. Great job anyway.

[jessicalanggamez]

You’re amazing. Ever since I learned to change my own tires and replace my air filter I had never felt this powerful

[charliepow]

I got 3 days to fix a massive scratch on my mum's car before she comes home. Wish me luck guys 😭 or cya at my funeral

[blakley]

You, sir, are a national treasure, or at least a you tube treasure. Your presentation was concise, informative and accurate—a rarity on the internet! I have done patch jobs in the past, with indifferent results, but your video filled in the holes in my knowledge and I now fill confident in tackling the paint repair on my son, s car. Thanks a lot.

[alexandernabung]

This is the best video out there. Only problem I had was I oversprayed the primer so it left marks on my car. The best way I removed it was using tea tree/eucalyptus oil to remove the primer and it came off amazing. You’re the best my man

[zachtoburen]

Just a helpful tip, when you apply body filler, you MUST cover the area around the scratches as well. The reason for this is if you don’t do so(meaning if you only fill the scratches), when you go to sand it, the sand paper will dig out all the remaining body filler and you’ll be back to square one

[martinmbuthia]

Borrowed my friend's car and someone scratched it in the parking lot 😒. I haven't told my friend yet coz it's a HUGE scratch covering almost the all the driver and back passenger doors. Didn't even want to ask how much that would cost to fix professionally, so here we are!
Can't wait to fix it and then tell him about it.
Thank you so much for this!!

[jerbsherb]

This is a very important video. Not everyone is skilled with machine buffing and knowing how to do this by hand can make a huge difference. I've seen too many people use the tool and end up gouging into their own hard work.

[Zonker]

Dude, awesome job. We seem to have less people every year that can fix their own things. Much respect.

[edelacruz]

How many of y’all are crying right now because something happened to your vehicle. 😢🤚

[kimberlymitchell]

The Holy Spirit led me to your video, just scratched my car and dredge paying to have it fixed. Thanks to your instructional video I think I could do this on my own. I am pretty handy, however, I’ve never done anything like this before. You’re helping me save more than a few coins. Great job!

[AmazingSmart-ngth]

"Wow, this video is a lifesaver! Thomas not only showed us how to save a ton of money by repairing car scratches ourselves but also made it look so easy. The step-by-step instructions and materials list were incredibly helpful. Thanks, Thomas, for empowering us to take car maintenance into our own hands!"

[_J.P._]

Nice DIY but it has a few flaws (no hate just helping):

- When you apply a base primer (or any spray layer) make sure to press the spray head firmly to avoid any drops, spits or spills (as seen on 3:22). Sometimes you can get away with it as it may stay hidden under another layer or get sanded down later.

- When reaching corners always spray "over" the corners and away from the car. That way you won't create visible overlaps you'll have a hard time to work out the overlay so it won't be visible. The same goes with lines and edges. If you want a clean finish you gotta paint up to a specific line or edge where your stop won't be visible. You can try this yourself on something else. Like an old door or other stuff you can train your skill. If you stop halfway you will have visible overlays.

- Spraying your color code might disappoint you in the end. Some spray colors tend to look different from what you have on your car. This may come from the light you are using (LED, tungsten, dayling, etc...) and angle (some metallic paints reflect light differently making it hard to hit the right tone of your color. Another thing is your primer. Spray primers come in a lot of colors. White, yellow, brown, silver, gray and black. And maybe some other colors. The reason is simple - using a specific primer color will help you to hit a different tone with your color spray paint. If you have for example a red car and it has been standing outside for some years you'll be on a road to hell getting your paint right. Silver is also complicated.

- *Using putty* - use only as little as nescessary. The more you apply the more you have to sand down later. Meaning the space you demand in your 1st step will increase in each step. Suddenly you gonna find yourself working on almost a space 10x times bigger then you were looking at the beginning :D Reason is simple again - when you have to smooth out your previous step you have to blend it with the surrounding. And that blending in takes space.

- When using *clear coat* ALWAYS use 2K clear coat paint cans. BUT BE AWARE!!!! ALWAYS WEAR HIGH QUALITY FILTER MASKS WHEN PAINTING WITH 2K SPRAYS!!!! If you inhale 1K spray aerosols you are pretty much safe. It will take some time to get out but you'll be fine. 2K on the other hand MIGHT KILL YOU!!! 2K means it contains not only the paint itself but also a hardener. Usually the hardener is separated and you have to press some kind of button before you can shake the can so both compounds mix. And when you inhale that stuff it may very likely glue your lungs stiff. Google it if you don't belive me.

- Once you've done everything and the 2K clear has dried out propery then give it about a week or two to get back and polish it. Yes it may be dry to the touch but since you probably won't have a UV lamp to speed up the process then let nature do the work for you and wait. Once that time is up you are ready to finish your work by polishing it. Depending on your skills (or how much you trust yourself or how much you bother to get it done) you can take: 1) a simple polishing compound and just polish the hell out of it or 2) very fine sand paper for wet sanding to remove most of your orange peel look and then polish it with some compound to a shiny clear coat finish. You can see in the video that the finish is very matt finish which is not what you are looking for :) but Thomas of All Trades did a good job of using his camera at angles where it doesn't look that obvious :D but if you know what to look for you will see it instantly :) again - no hate just tips to help. If I wanted to hate I'd just press thumbs down and left some negative one line comment. But why would I do that?

- Last point - *price*. Why do paintshops charge you 800 USD when you can do it for 200 USD? SImple - 200 is for the rent, 200 is for tools and material, 200 is for taxes and 200 is what is left over. When I say rent I mean literally everything that is building- and property wise included not just the actual rent itself. The same goes for other "200" bits so please don't go into details here as this is not the point. And now what is left for you is the last 200 and here you have to really look out where you can save some cash. Lets say material. You work a lot so you can afford to buy bulk. BUT you gotta give your customers some guarantee (which you want for yourself as well because who doesn't want happy customers right?). Thus you gotta buy high quality stuff only. Now you gotta find the line where cost and quality is on par so you still save some bucks but you still maintain quality. But don't worry. As soon as you found your golden sweet spot the supplier will increase his price one day leaving you to consider what to do with that. Stick with your prices or raise accordingly to level out the buy price? The same goes for material, rent, taxes... everybody will at some point want more. And you have to play ball or find other ways how to cope with that so you don't lose customers. All that and more is something you DO NOT have to consider when you think "this is too expensive I can do it cheaper". Yes you can. And the paintshop could too. If the paintshop would not have to pay all of the mentioned above :D There is a reason for some prices being where they are. Do not disrespect it just because you are not ready to pay it. In most cases there is a story behind it that you just don't see (and now you got a glimpse of it). If you are not willing to pay for something then that is absolutely okay. Go and do it yourself but please do not disrespect people that have to do your one time job for a living each and every day on a highly professional basis with a lot of unknowns and risks to take care along the way. This I am telling you as a person who is doing almost everything on my own because in most times I do not want to pay others to do stuff I can do myself :) BUT sometimes I do go all out and simply pay someone to do something for me. And I do enjoy the result as well as the feeling that this time I didn't have to do it myself.

Allright.... now go out and do stuff :) take care :)