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How To Fix Small Paint Scratches

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Even small collisions can leave little scratches and dings on your bumper that you will want to fix. In most cases, even if your blemish is hardly noticeable, it is smart to finish it fix it as soon as possible. This is especially true for scratches on the metal parts of your car body. If these are left unfixed, rust can form and actually deteriorate your car body. So, this article explains how to fix small scratches on your car body.

Priming and Painting the Scratch

If there is any rust forming within the scratch, you will need to use some auto body sandpaper to lightly buff it out. However, if you are fixing a scratch that just happened, you can skip that step. Instead, you want to start by filling the scratch with factory touch up paint and primer. Make sure you buy touch up paint from the actual car dealership so you don't have any problems with the paint color matching. Also, while you are at the dealership, pick up some auto primer. Most often, these will both come in small touch up cans that are easy to apply. These cans are easy to use because they have a tiny brush built into the lid.

Apply the primer first and let it dry completely before painting it. Be sure to paint sparingly because you don't want to alter the actual texture of the car's surface. The paint will dry smoother if you apply a couple of thin coats instead of one thick coat. After you initially paint over the scratched area, it will look much better than before, but it will still not be perfect.

Buffing Out The Painted Area

To complete the job and make your touch up blend in better, you need to buff it out. If you have a cordless power drill, a wool buffing attachment will work the best. You can quickly buff out the newly painted area until it starts to blend in with the old paint. Due to paint normal fading, the new paint might not match the old paint perfectly. However, after buffing it will look much better and it will certainly look better than if you left the scratch unpainted.

Make sure you make these simple repairs to scratches as soon as you see them. If you wait too long and rust forms, your repair will be much more expensive and time consuming. Talk to an auto body tech, like Fenza's Auto Body Inc., for more help.


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