How would you deal with this?

I've seen repairs done in the center of doors that you would have a hard time detecting. The paint blending tech these days is amazing.

I'd at least give a touch up and blend a shot.

Definitely something for a pro, though.

 

Bring it in to a body shop. If they can touch it up they will. But I suspect they will just paint the bumper. It comes of really easily and spraying the whole thing is your best chance at a less noticeable color mis match.

My front one has been repainted a few times prior to me putting the clear bra on it.

A good body shop can make that scratch disappear for around $400.

 

Be thankful it wasn't an aluminum body panel. Have the bumper sprayed, and it'll be as good as new.

 

A little touch-up paint and some careful color-sanding will make it hardly noticeable.

 

Any decent shop can correct that w/o painting the entire bumper. If it were my car I'd do it my self. In fact on my 308 have made such repairs. A nut dropped on the front of the car. Make a nice chip. Sanded it out a little. Filled with galzing/spot putty, and air brushed. Unless you car going for show car quality painting is very over rated. Certainly the OE paint on an F car isn't that good to start with.

 

Bob, that sucks - sorry it happened to you.

In the old days, the fix would be to only color paint that area but clear the entire panel (bumper).

 

What he said

 

get some touch up , fill it 2 or 3 times so it is a little higher than the surrounding surface , wet sand it level with 1000 grit , then buff it out, will be nearly invisible.

 

Any decent body shop can do it
They call it a spot repair,
In a nutshell the just sand paint that small area with a small gun and use a blending clear to blend it in. Nothing you can do at home best left to a good painter

Honestly cost difference may not be that much to remove the bumper, spot the area in and clear the entire bumper.

Most bodyman or painters would opt to do the smallest least invasive repair possible
As a disclosure I ran the largest chain of high end shops here in SoCal for a few years.





I found this example
This is a 3 stage paint, ferrari is only a 2 stage, color base and clear

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOEaUEg3O3Y[/ame]

 

I agree with everything but this. But I don't see any reason to removed the bumper. Just a spot repair. And if it were done with an air brush it would even be less. Major DIY cost will be materials paint, hardener and clear.

You can get spray primer, color base coat and clear at Spray Paint | Aerosol Touch Up | AutomotiveTouchup

How to vids here: Touch Up Videos | Touch Up Paint | AutomotiveTouchup

Look at it this way, you can only make it worse in which case you take it to the body shop.

One problem, it's too cold to paint in an unheated area at the moment Doc. The other problem might be color match.

 

Next winter I plan to have my front bumper sprayed just to address the normal driving chips.

I will 100% take if off and deliver / pickup from the body shop. No way am I leaving my car with them - not a chance!

I'm sure some good shops are out there but I would rather not risk dust and bondo in my carpets and seats or someone not knowing how to properly drive the car.

 

Hi Dave,

The time to fix the chips is right before you sell it. If you do get a repaint, put a 3M clear bra on the car. The second owner of my Boxster had one put on and the only problem with it is that there are a couple of chips under it from the first owner.

 

Hey John,

Never say never, but I see myself going to the grave with this car. Yes, clear bra for sure after. I might touch up a few chips this winter and try they spray on stuff myself.

 

I have a DIY type repair that I use on motorcycles all the time in my shop. Usually I'm working with chips the size of a pea though.


1) Very carefully smooth the inside edges of the broken paint with a tiny folded piece of 1000 grit sand paper. Try really hard to only feather the edges, removing any paint that's poking up higher than it should.

2) degrease the area using lacquer thinner, or alcohol, and let it dry for more than 10 minutes

3) touch up with a bottle of this General Motors bright red NGGM398
Amazon.com: Dupli-Color NGGM398 Bright Red General Motors Exact-Match Touch-up Paint - 0.5 oz.: Automotive

It's not a perfect match to Rosso Corsa, but it's really really close. Closer, in fact than paints that I've seen which were blended to match the Rosso Corsa paint code. We're always looking for the most red-red we can find for motorcycle touch up paint, and so far, this is it. It also has the advantage that it's a single stage paint. It dries shiny without having to go over it with clear.

4) add more paint to the area if you need to, to make sure that the scratch is fully filled in, with no low spots (high spots are ok, because they'll be fixed in the next step)

5) Next, you can use a blob eliminator to smooth the new paint, without removing any old paint. There are a few of these available, but this is the one I use on the motorcycles in our shop.
LANGKA The Blob Eliminator : Amazon.com : Automotive

I've also tried eliminating blobs with fine sand paper. It's a lot more work, and requires a lot of polishing, and you have the danger of punching through the surrounding paint.

Again, I've never tried this on a scratch that large, so I'm really not sure you can make it disappear. I do know this technique can make pea-sized paint chips much much harder to see.

To get it really perfect will require a bodyshop, or a mobile scratch repair guy with an airbrush.

 

I can do a lot things myself. Fly airplanes, fix sports cars, repair houses, fix driver cars, Install & operate paper machines, resurrect failed companies & repair lawn mowers.

I have tried to do auto body & paint work. I really have. I have painted three (two of them twice). The project goes past engineering and into the artistic world I will never belong to.

There is a gene delivered from God himself to certain people in this world that allow them to work magic from the heavens when it comes to body repairs and painting cars. I have tried and failed miserably. There are few checks I enjoy writing more than the one to a body shop that did a great job.

If you want it to match, they need the car.

If you are worried about bondo dust in your car, or do not trust them with the vehicle, you have chosen the wrong shop.

 

No, they will have his entire bumper to match. Or he can give them the gas tank door.

 

Right - and my car is black - if they can't match that, I sure have picked the wrong shop

And best shop or not, people are human and careless

 

Wow, that's your take...OK. I do my homework and trust people more than you.

 

I think you are taking this wrong, trust from a malicious standpoint is not the issue.

What activity goes on in a body shop? Lots of sanding and painting. The likelihood to properly prevent dust getting into the car is really slim, especially in my area. Do I know every shop - no, I don't. But, I'm not ignorant - I worked in 2 body shops for nearly 2 years, I have seen what goes on just by the nature of the work. No guy is going to put a white suit on before he gets into the car - not going to happen. They usually don’t have huge shops with dust-free storage areas. Yes, I have OCD and am very picky but I like to keep my car as close to perfect as possible and accidents happen. I try to avoid those situations where possible and take as much risk out as I can. Certainly I risk issues removing the bumper too - but that risk is on me and I feel much better about it. Now, if I need to paint the door, I certainly don't plan to take the door off.

And, the F1 is not a simple startup procedure as you know Watson, I'd be concerned about that too.

 

Its a 355 and the car is ruined now. Best sell it for a loss and get out.

 

believe it or not black is very hard to match. black is not black. it not matched coeerctly it will show under bright sunlight.

 

If drbob's car was mine , to maintain the color match , i'd stress to the body shop to only basecoat the side and blend the basecoat around the corner then clear the whole bumper. Due to fade caused by sunlight it is almost impossible to exactly match red. Even if the paint shade is off blending it around the corner will make the blend seamless.. btw. maybe ferrari changed the paint process along the way , but my 348 is single stage as is my friends 97 355. maybe later 355's were basecoat / clearcoat

Of course that's if i went the body shop route.( oh that's right, we do that our self) for that small chip i'd just fill it and buff it. it will be unnoticeable.

Just touch it up and call it patina. it adds character!