How to touch up some paint...gulp

[anselgator]

Can't believe I'm making this sad post. I've had the car for a week. Yesterday I was at the kia dealership to pick up some items they missed giving me (late night delivery, was too tired) and I must have parked in a funny angle b/c when I reversed (even very slowly) I heard that dreaded scrape against the curb. Got out to look and i saw the bumper pulled a tiny bit (I think it's fine but now I'll always wonder if a clip broke), but now I have a big black mark where the paint was. Maybe it's b/c its a white car, but I'm genuinely shocked there is no paint. I thought I would just compound it out.

1) Is this b/c of thin paint as I'm hearing here?
2) What's the best I can do to make this not so noticeable? I'm not taking it in to repaint a whole bumper.
3) Is there anything I can do now to help w future issues? I see folks talk about ceramic coat, but didn't know if this was protection or more a look.

Appreciate any insight. sigh.

 

[Kamauxx]

What did it scrape against? Is it possible that's paint from whatever you've hit? If not, it'll need to be repainted. Can't think of any other way to hide that.

 

[westcoastGT]

Can't believe I'm making this sad post. I've had the car for a week. Yesterday I was at the kia dealership to pick up some items they missed giving me (late night delivery, was too tired) and I must have parked in a funny angle b/c when I reversed (even very slowly) I heard that dreaded scrape against the curb. Got out to look and i saw the bumper pulled a tiny bit (I think it's fine but now I'll always wonder if a clip broke), but now I have a big black mark where the paint was. Maybe it's b/c its a white car, but I'm genuinely shocked there is no paint. I thought I would just compound it out.

1) Is this b/c of thin paint as I'm hearing here?
2) What's the best I can do to make this not so noticeable? I'm not taking it in to repaint a whole bumper.
3) Is there anything I can do now to help w future issues? I see folks talk about ceramic coat, but didn't know if this was protection or more a look.

Appreciate any insight. sigh.

I have virtually the same damage , caused by weaving to miss hitting a dog and his owner on a bike , I took the car to a body shop ,they said it required complete bumper removal to repair and quoted $1000 , I contacted a local company that does spot touch ups , they quoted $350 ..................I'm pretty handy so I have ordered a spray can of custom OEM paint and clear coat and will mask it off and do it myself ( sand , fill , prime ,paint and clear coat ) , I'll be happy to share the results. But I'll likely wait till Spring to do it .

 

[westcoastGT]

The only way to fix that is respray.

...........I agree but I can also suggest that sanding down the rough area and covering it with white 3m Auto vinyl would provide a "decent" fix as well !

 

[anselgator]

What did it scrape against? Is it possible that's paint from whatever you've hit? If not, it'll need to be repainted. Can't think of any other way to hide that.

Not paint...wish it was....was a curb (I was parked on end spot). I was going really slowly pulling out.

 

[jatleson]

Plastic bumper vs concrete curb - paint didn't stand a chance. Same would have happened in any car, not a Kia paint issue. Good thing it was just paint and not body damage. You could put a lip on the car to act as a sacrificial layer, that is about it. Ceramic coat, PPF, all that other stuff doesn't protect against curb rash.

 

[nhcowboy28]

Bottom line. Do as westcoastgt suggests.

You are lucky it is white. You’ll be able to match close yourself. Being low... even if your self-repair is far from perfect, no one but you will notice.

Sh!t happens. Rims, bumbers, etc. eventually get tagged.

Odds are the front will get paint chips/scrapes. Wait till it is bad then repair.

Imagine if you pay to get it fixed now and then a month later fk it up.

She’ll survive.

 

[westcoastGT]

Bottom line. Do as westcoastgt suggests.

You are lucky it is white. You’ll be able to match close yourself. Being low... even if your self-repair is far from perfect, no one but you will notice.

Sh!t happens. Rims, bumbers, etc. eventually get tagged.

Odds are the front will get paint chips/scrapes. Wait till it is bad then repair.

Imagine if you pay to get it fixed now and then a month later fk it up.

She’ll survive.

I've actually got front splitter winglets on order , they'll finish off the front nicely and help hide some of the area damaged ,but I'll repair and repaint the scratch first before putting them on .................who knows what else can happen between now and Spring ???

 

[MerlintheMad]

Not paint...wish it was....was a curb (I was parked on end spot). I was going really slowly pulling out.

I hope, hope, hope, that you learned the one thing you are supposed to take away from this: back out entirely, THEN turn.

You are lucky that it's down low. Once you touch it up it will hardly show. You'll know it's there every time. But other people won't see it, especially from five or six feet away, which is the criteria for a car's appearance, imho (don't want to get OC, much less OCD, about cars; the world is a battlefield).

Here's what I would do: take my wet/dry 2000 sandpaper and gently go over it, keeping only to the immediate damage (don't dull the clear coat beyond the damage, easy to do!). Once it looks smoothed down, get some touch up paint on a good quality, flat brush, probably 1/4" wide is big enough (don't want to use bigger than necessary). Go over the black in a single pass, don't over work this. Let it dry twenty minutes and walk up to it. Then look close up. If it needs a second coat to cover the black plastic, repeat as necessary. Once you have enough paint on there to match the surrounding pristine paint, you can let it dry a full day and then, if it looks not quite smooth enough, gently apply the wet/dry again. You'll possibly muff it up and start seeing black coming through the white. Stop. Clean up. Apply a single pass of touch up to the darkening spot. When you are satisfied with the level of white and it's as smooth as you're going to get, use a hand buffing compound on the entire spot, including the immediate surrounding area, which you will have managed to scuff and dull out the clear coat no matter how carefully you do this. The hand buffing compound (Meguiars is good) will restore the clear coat sheen. If you must, you can put on clear coat. But I have found that applying several coats of hand wax does a good enough job matching the surrounding clear coat. In either case, you'll want to wax it.

I see what looks like a long, thin, black line at the very bottom edge of your bumper. This should be the easiest to hide with a touch pen or using the extreme end of your brush; just a light drag of brush/pen along that high ridge and you'll hardly know it was ever scraped.

 

[nhcowboy28]

I hope, hope, hope, that you learned the one thing you are supposed to take away from this: back out entirely, THEN turn.

You are lucky that it's down low. Once you touch it up it will hardly show. You'll know it's there every time. But other people won't see it, especially from five or six feet away, which is the criteria for a car's appearance, imho (don't want to get OC, much less OCD, about cars; the world is a battlefield).

Here's what I would do: take my wet/dry 2000 sandpaper and gently go over it, keeping only to the immediate damage (don't dull the clear coat beyond the damage, easy to do!). Once it looks smoothed down, get some touch up paint on a good quality, flat brush, probably 1/4" wide is big enough (don't want to use bigger than necessary). Go over the black in a single pass, don't over work this. Let it dry twenty minutes and walk up to it. Then look close up. If it needs a second coat to cover the black plastic, repeat as necessary. Once you have enough paint on there to match the surrounding pristine paint, you can let it dry a full day and then, if it looks not quite smooth enough, gently apply the wet/dry again. You'll possibly muff it up and start seeing black coming through the white. Stop. Clean up. Apply a single pass of touch up to the darkening spot. When you are satisfied with the level of white and it's as smooth as you're going to get, use a hand buffing compound on the entire spot, including the immediate surrounding area, which you will have managed to scuff and dull out the clear coat no matter how carefully you do this. The hand buffing compound (Meguiars is good) will restore the clear coat sheen. If you must, you can put on clear coat. But I have found that applying several coats of hand wax does a good enough job matching the surrounding clear coat. In either case, you'll want to wax it.

I see what looks like a long, thin, black line at the very bottom edge of your bumper. This should be the easiest to hide with a touch pen or using the extreme end of your brush; just a light drag of brush/pen along that high ridge and you'll hardly know it was ever scraped.

And for the love of god back into every spot

 

[MerlintheMad]

And for the love of god back into every spot

I agree, mostly. With mirrors tilted down, this is almost foolproof against curb rashing your rims. Just watch the yellow and blue position markers in the rearview camera, to make sure that you are parallel with the curb, because if you're not, it is easy to get your rear rim too close to the curb, even while watching the spacing of the position markers. I like to keep the red at the base of the curb or even slightly out from the base of the curb. The reality is that you have a half a foot or slightly more if you don't put the red on the top edge of the curb; and, you are parallel, of course.

But nosing into an end spot works too if you go wide, wagon wheel turning to line up with the curb first, then make sure you have plenty of room. You can always back out and pull in a bit closer if you are too far away (closer to the line than the curb).

 

[Chark]

Dr. Color Chip makes an easy to apply product that hides road rash well. I had a 2002 Subaru WRX in Sedona Red Pearl and that car chipped like crazy. You dab it on, smooth it with your gloved finger tip and then polish. It's not expensive, but if that's the case, there's always a bottle of white-out! drcolorchip-dot-com

 

[AV8R]

Get the bumper painted..period.
If you stuff around with pearl paint it will look worse believe me. A good repairer can do it without painting whole bumper. I had an Optima swp with a similar bumper scrape from an idiot who backed into me. I found a good repairer and you would never know it was there.
I reckon take the $350 deal.

 

[forzanerazzurri]

Stop being ghetto and get the bumper refinished properly. If you need to break out the rattle can on a one year old car you couldn't afford it in the first place.

 

[westcoastGT]

Can't believe I'm making this sad post. I've had the car for a week. Yesterday I was at the kia dealership to pick up some items they missed giving me (late night delivery, was too tired) and I must have parked in a funny angle b/c when I reversed (even very slowly) I heard that dreaded scrape against the curb. Got out to look and i saw the bumper pulled a tiny bit (I think it's fine but now I'll always wonder if a clip broke), but now I have a big black mark where the paint was. Maybe it's b/c its a white car, but I'm genuinely shocked there is no paint. I thought I would just compound it out.

1) Is this b/c of thin paint as I'm hearing here?
2) What's the best I can do to make this not so noticeable? I'm not taking it in to repaint a whole bumper.
3) Is there anything I can do now to help w future issues? I see folks talk about ceramic coat, but didn't know if this was protection or more a look.

Appreciate any insight. sigh.

Here's a "short term" hide until you figure out what youre going to do . As I said I'll fix mine in the Spring cuz its possible additional damage could occurr during the winter .................I'll peel this off then , but given our cars are white this is a decent "hide" UNTIL FIXED

 

[anselgator]

Here's a "short term" hide until you figure out what youre going to do . As I said I'll fix mine in the Spring cuz its possible additional damage could occurr during the winter .................I'll peel this off then , but given our cars are white this is a decent "hide" UNTIL FIXED View attachment 18284 View attachment 18285 View attachment 18286

Duct tape really does fix everything lol

 

[westcoastGT]

Duct tape really does fix everything lol

.........its how I'm rolling till Spring and standing up 2 ft away you cant even see it ...............it helps for the OC in all of us !

 

[forzanerazzurri]

Here's a "short term" hide until you figure out what youre going to do . As I said I'll fix mine in the Spring cuz its possible additional damage could occurr during the winter .................I'll peel this off then , but given our cars are white this is a decent "hide" UNTIL FIXED View attachment 18284 View attachment 18285 View attachment 18286

Why does the paint look like its coming off in chunks? It looks like one of those old wooden patio chairs that is flaking badly. That is not how properly adhered paint should look after a scuffing.

 

[nhcowboy28]

.........its how I'm rolling till Spring and standing up 2 ft away you cant even see it ...............it helps for the OC in all of us !

That chit don’t work with hi chroma red dammit.

 

[anselgator]

Why does the paint look like its coming off in chunks? It looks like one of those old wooden patio chairs that is flaking badly. That is not how properly adhered paint should look after a scuffing.

Hmm...it did surprise me. I go to the dealer maybe tomorrow for something else...you think there is any argument here? I have scuffed up from a curb other cars, and never had something like this. My head went to the paint issue sometimes described on this forum.