Park my z at work yesterday morning, no problem. freshly washed, clayed, waxed, and finished inside and out this past weekend. (I look at my car alot more than i probably should...). Work for 4 hours. Lunch break. Come outside for a smoke, and stroll around my ride. Lo and blow holes, there is a nice solid key scratch dead freakin center in my passenger door. deep enough that buffing is not going to repair this. What do you guys think? can a good repair shop make me forget that it ever happened? Think about it. if this was your z, is it possible to get this repaired without noticing it was ever repaired?

The scratch is about 8-10 inches long and a pretty good dig. Think the entire panel would have to be repainted? I am more of a minimalist, hoping that if the entire door panel does have to be repainted, then that should be it. dont freakin paint the adjacent panels to match... I don't know. I am livid enough to spit fire at the moment.

Any thoughts, or suggestions on a really really really good shop on the gulf coast? somewhere near Mobile, AL. would be great...

 

all day and not even a sympathy reply?

seriously, has anyone had to have any part of their beloved z's painted? I am wondering what to expect if i have to do this. I saw a shop today for a quote. my scratch is about 8 inches long, and dead center on the upper passenger door panel. They said that even though its in the middle, they would still have to paint the adjacent front and rear quarter panels to feather in and blend the paint.

So i asked a simple question: You can't really match the paint color well (silverstone). They said they could. So I asked again: Then you shouldnt have to paint the surrounding two panels, just the door panel.
answer: No, we have to in order to blend the color correctly.

I am very confused and upset here. Should I go ahead and paint it? (i dont think i could live with it, its so big...) If so, what should I be expecting? Do I really need to have my other two quarter panels painted also to blend in and feather the paint? I hate to have anything done to those two panels, as they are completely spotless and beautiful just the way they are.

I was going to consider trying the deep scratch repair method from autopia first on it. Figure i cant hurt it any worse than it already is at this point...

Any tips, words of encouragement, advice, something to bolster my low spirits from any of the gurus here?

 

I'm no guru at all, so I'm sorry to hear that happened to you man. I'm fearing the day when I come back to my car and it has been keyed. You know it's some little punk teenager, who's pissed that mommy & daddy couldn't buy them a Z, so he/she rices-out their Civic.

My knowledge of this is nothing, so here goes nothing: Can you fill in the scratch (since it's deep) with some filler, sand it, apply touch-up paint, then buff it out???

It might look worse if that body shop has to paint the entire door.

Sorry if my advice seems lame!

 

I appreciate the response nonetheless I figure if I put on my super-duper ****-retentive obsessive-compulsive hat, I might give a shot at filling in the scratch ala autopia's general process and see how that looks. figure i cant really do any more damage, right?

nobody else has had to paint a part of their car to match a stock color?

 

I got a noticable chip on my driver's side door a while back. Around here dealers have paint chip repair sevices come and repair chips and scratches on their cars. I got the name and number of the one my Nissan dealer uses and called them. They repaired my chip for $100 and you can't even tell its there. They buffed off around the chip, primered it, then resprayed it with Nissan paint. Might want to contact a Nissan dealer in your area and see if they have anyone like this.

 

Thanks muscleknight. Figure its gotta be worth a shot! I did contact my local nissan shop about PDR, and they got me to a really good guy. did a great job massaging out a door ding on my wheel well.

I was figuring if i cant find someone who will repair the scratch, i might have better luck at a custom car garage. maybe find someone who is passionate about painting and car care to help me out...