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It's hard to be sure, but that looks like single-stage paint (without a hard-wearing clearcoat).
If so, it is relatively soft paint that could easily be scratched. Judging by the angle of attack (and prior knowledge of feline behaviour), I would say that those are scratches made by cats that went into hill-descent-control mode.
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My experience with cats is that they do enjoy sticking their claws into something soft to sharpen them. Cats will completely destroy furniture this way. The scratches you are showing are on hard metal surfaces, so not likely to be cats sharpening their claws.
Also, the pattern of the scratches makes it unlikely that they were left behind by a cat climbing ...
7
It will most certainly be more expensive if you get a professional to repair this bumper for you. However, it will be a safe investment on your trade-in if it is restored professionally. We cannot discuss price on this platform, but, the cost to do this yourself versus taking it to reputable shop will be substantial.
If you decide to do this on your own, it ...
6
tl;dr: if you are new to cut and polishes, I would recommend starting with mild cleaner wax by hand.
From looking at your pictures, you don't have major paint damage. More importantly, I don't think anything in those pictures is something that will polish out as such.
My recommendation if you are super new to this is to start small and easy. Many vendors ...
6
You can use this method to pull certain types of dents.
Here is one method to resolve the dent issue.
Dent Pulling
glue these plastic ding tabs to the center of the dent. You can find them by googling "plastic ding tab"
You will use a hot glue gun and hot glue them to your dent.
Use a dent puller slide hammer. The tip should screw into the ...
6
If this bumper isn't made of metal, then it won't rust. You can try some paint repair magic kit.
If there's a scratch, than you won't be able to get a brand new looking, smooth surface by just painting over. You should repair the scratch properly: sand it, prime it, repaint all or blend in and apply lack, polish.
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There are a few ways to resolve this dent issue as the others have indicated.
Another Possible Method
glue these plastic ding tabs to the dents. You can find them by googling "plastic ding tab"
You will use a hot glue gun and hot glue them to your various dents.
Use a dent puller slide hammer. The tip should screw into the plastic ding pullers.
...
5
The key to understanding the differences lies in how car detailing and paint restoration works.
The key word here is aggression, referring to the "rate of cut" of the pad.
Here are the pads rated from most aggressive to least aggressive based on the information provided by 3M.
1. Compounding pad
Compounding refers to the process of "levelling" defects in ...
5
tl;dr: It depends on the ding. Try some cleaner wax, though: it won't make the problem worse.
Did you scratch down to the primer or just leave some paint behind?
If all you did was trade some paint between cars, you're going to need to polish it off. That said, if you're not comfortable with power polishing tools or abrasive polishes, I would counsel a ...
5
A photograph of the scratches would help immensely here are light scratches and damage in the paint can be removed with just abrasives such as T-Cut or Rubbing Compound.
The bumper will only rust if it's metal and most modern cars use plastic bumpers.
If you were to get the panel professionally painted, the painter would not simply paint over the scratches ...
5
Yes, you did indeed apply an abrasive "compound". Polish materials come in coarse and finer grits just like sandpaper. To polish scratches left by a polish of a course grit finer grits are used to polish out the deeper scratches. The good news the clearcoat can, very likely, be restored to a normal smooth surface shine.
You have two options: You can take ...
5
I saw my sisters cat attempt to jump up on my car and then slide down the side leaving scratch marks where there were non previously, so to answer your questions, yes, without a doubt cats can scratch car paint with their claws...unfortunately :(
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It would help to see a photograph of the damage. For small scratches, some cutting compound followed by polish and wax should yield good results with no need to apply any fresh paint.
Edit
Having seen the damage, I'm afraid that the car will need more than just a polish. It looks as though she's dented the wheel-arch so the car needs, at best, a dent ...
5
What is the mistake a rank amateur at this is most likely to make?
Honestly.. it's attempting to do it themselves. You mention:
I am an OCD type
I can pretty much guarantee that the result of doing a touch up will be just as noticeable (if not more so) than the original mark. As a fellow OCD type I can certainly sympathize and it's because of this that ...
4
If you want the job done right, then yes: grinding, filling, sanding, priming, and spraying are your best option. There are alternatives out there. Duplicolor makes color matched kits which allows you to paint in the smaller chips (it has an abrasive, color paint brush, then a clear coat to go over the top). I haven't used them, but the product looks like a ...
4
Yes, you should try to remove it as soon as possible.
When a bug is smashed into the front of your car all of its guts are allowed to mix together. Most bugs will result in an acidic goop that sticks to your car. You can see it on your windshield, but you won't see it very well on your front grille until the damage starts to accumulate.
This acid will etch ...
4
Those scratches cannot be taken out using WD-40. It's a very good cleaner and lubricant, but is not a magic panacea for fixing paint scratches.
You may be able to take it to a body shop where they would have to strip the bumper and repaint it (could possibly blend the area through sanding and repaint as well). They'd have to make the call on that.
If the ...
4
As has been mentioned in the comments, most bumper covers are plastic. Usually (I think) they're injection molded ABS which is black. So the black may just be that plastic. It is also possible that the black is from whatever you bumped, and is on top of the paint (I can't really tell for sure from the pictures). If you take ~1 hour to work with some good ...
4
Primer helps the paint stick to the bare metal, clean or not. Primer also gives it a good base for smoothness and matching. There's really never a reason not to use primer.
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It's not the application technique, but the material being applied.
Chrome plating is a process where actual molecules of chrome metal are attracted to a surface using electrical current. It covers the surface of the parts with a layer of real metal. Of course metal is very hard, and will be difficult to scratch.
The strength of paint will be limited to ...
3
If it's a scratch just in the clear coat, then you can wet sand it with 2500 or 3000 grit paper and then use a buffer with a fine polish like in this video.
If it's more serious, like down to the plastic you'll need more aggressive sanding together with spot repainting. Here is a tutorial on how to do this.
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If the car is covered in superficial scratches then a good polishing job will work wonders. Take it to a reputable shop and behold how sexy you car has become. You can do it yourself if you have a polishing machine, it will be a huge chore without it.
Note that it won't help against deeper scratches, it is hard to tell from the photo how deep they are in ...
answered Dec 3 '15 at 9:00
I have no idea what I'm doing
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The sheet metal on your door isn't terribly strong (which is why is is fairly easy to dent). Here's how I would approach the problem if I were looking for a "good enough" solution:
Remove the door's inner panel. This will involve undoing a variety of car-specific screws (e.g., in the door handle), disconnecting some electrical hardware for the power windows,...
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The only two things we can say for sure are:
These scratches were caused by something harder than the paint, and
The thing that caused these scratches moved in the direction of the scratches.
Beyond that it's whatever you feel like imagining that meets those constraints. We can't even say if these scratches happened at the same time or not.
You can rule ...
3
Yes, they technically can, but no, it's not the case in your pictures.
A cat does have sufficient power to scratch a car (given certain criteria are met), but it will not do that unless the cat lands from high up and tries to 'claw' the car to get a support point. In the presented case, the marks are inconsistent with any type of cat scratch, so that ...
3
In some cases, it may be acceptable to do only half of the bumper. Color changes in the middle of the bumper are usually less visible than at the sides of the bumper.
When I had bumper damage, my bumper was repaired and half of it was repainted. The result was entirely acceptable. No complaints about differing paint color.
If the car is really old, you ...
3
Toothpaste is basically calcium carbonate a coarse material like a sand paper. i have used it to clean the car headlamp and rear view mirror.It gets ultra clean.though I have not used it on any painted surface by myself but some articles suggest that it can remove minor scratches from paint.Refer this
According to Ryan Dube of MakeUseOf, ...
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It's rusty already so this isn't easy task and you should consider if you are ready to do this by yourself. Might be easier to disassemble the doors and take them to the paintshop. This might cost you a bit, but you'll be sure it's done properly.
But, if you are ready...
There is a proper way of doing this and a cheap one.
Preparation
You'll need some paint. ...
2
Pressure wash to remove loose clear coat, brush on clear urethane varnish to seal the edges and replace the clear. I have done this on the cap on my pickup, and where edges are coming loose on our Taurus.
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Fiberglass and Bondo. You will need lots of sand paper and strong arms if you don't have access to a compressor and air sanders.
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