2009 Sonata. Owner telephoned and asked if there was something to repair a “scratch”, hopefully same color, but mainly to prevent rust. I remembered that there used to be touch-up paint, and said I would ask on CarTalk.com. “Send me a picture.” Here it is.
To me, that’s more than a “scratch”, and I would go for professional repair. I welcome suggestions, even “Sand it and spray it with primer.”
I’d hit that with rubbing compound to see how much of that will come off. Then paint the scratch-through with matching touchup paint from Hyundai or an internet touchup paint source. Then finer polish and wax.
Would look OK and for an 09 Hyundai should be good enough. If the owner cares, advise they take it to a body shop for fill prime and paint.
If the owner wants it to look good after the repair, it needs to go to a body shop.
Tester
Are the doors really misaligned as the picture seems to show? How hard was this door hit?
Good observation!
I’m assuming that the damaged door is the right rear, and–hopefully–this is just a case of the right front door not being securely closed.
I had a scrape similar to that, concrete post in a parking garage. Most of the scratches buffed out and a little nail polish type paint on the 2 8" long scrapes. Think 1 quote was at least $1400 to remove, repaint, so a 6 year old car looks fine to me. If you look really hard you can see the touch up paint needs some smoothing and clear coat, wife thinks it is fine so I will let it go.
Thanks for the advice. (I don’t know if anybody in the owner’s circle is going to do the amount of work for a DIY fix.)
Re: “Are the doors really misaligned as the picture seems to show? How hard was this door hit?” I THINK the misalignment is actually a plastic molding on the back edge of the front door. Every time I drive this car I get tricked into thinking the door is ajar, but it’s just the optical effect of that molding.
The reporting owner said “scratch”. I think it was some kind of scrape. I expect to see the car tomorrow and get clearer info.
If you run one of your nails over the scratch’s and you can feel it, then it probably won’t come off with compound. but it might take off a lot of the whiteness.
The yellow areas in the picture will need to be painted.
Thanks again for all the good advice, which the owner has also seen. I saw the car today. The scratches are not as bad as they look in the photograph, but one or two do fail the fingernail test. Owner will probably decide to have a body shop touch it up some time when the car will not be needed for a day or two. (The door is not misaligned.)
Yeah! That’s what it’s called.
Just to answer the original question, if the local auto paint supplier doesn’t have the right color in a spray can, you can order an exact match from automotive touch up.Com. Primer,color, and clear. Not cheap. It would help if someone knew how to run a spray can though.
Would need to confirm they stock the actual color but Autozone, Advance Auto Parts, Napa, & Oreilly auto parts carry Duplicolor paints. Even the little bottles have to be shaken with some trial and error to end up with the right shade.
Just be careful with duplicolor. The small cans are ok but the large cans can be lacquer and wrinkle the original paint depending on what it is. Just use the small.
This conversation reminds me of a color-matching problem I’ve experienced. 30+ years ago truck’s tailgate rusted to the point buying a replacement used tailgate seemed the best option, which I did. Good rust-free tailgate, but wrong color. I found a rattle can at the hardware store , color appeared to match rest of truck. So I sprayed a rattle can coat of primer, then 3 coats of the matching color. A little sanding, buffing, waxing, looked pretty good, color matched rest of truck nearly perfectly. At the time anyway. In 5 years, the rattle-can tailgate color sun-faded and became much whiter than the rest of the truck.
Spray can paint is not the same quality as mixed paint with the hardeners and a thicker film. Then again it doesn’t cost $100 or more a pint either.
If you’re looking for a little more than touch-up paint from the local auto store, I’ve had very good experience buying from https://www.automotivetouchup.com
They’ll match manufacturer color codes, plus their website has lots of great information for getting optimal results.
