If you're like me, you drive your car everywhere. But after 15 years of reliable services, dents and rust now cover my car's hood, trunk and doors. I don't want to sell my car and buy a new one, so I decided to take it to an auto body and paint shop. Not only did the shop repair the dents and remove the rust, the technicians repainted it. If your car or truck looks less than stellar, take it to an auto body shop for repairs. My blog shows you where to look for the best auto body services and how to even perform your own repairs at home. Don't sell your car. Give it a makeover instead.
While many drivers will make an extra effort to park their new (or new-to-them) vehicles at far corners of parking lots where they're less likely to encounter errant shopping carts or careless parkers, in less temperate or more crowded parts of the country, this may not always be an option. If you seem to find yourself bemoaning a new door ding or scratch each time you return to your vehicle in a parking lot, you may wonder whether there's anything you can do to improve the appearance of these cosmetic blemishes without spending hundreds of dollars at a body shop. Fortunately, in many cases, you'll be able to mask most of the damage yourself at a relatively low cost. Read on to learn more about repairing door dings and scratches.
How can you repair door dings and scratches yourself?
If the ding or scratch is on one of your vehicle's fenders or the lower door panel, you're likely dealing with plastic or fiberglass rather than metal. Most modern vehicles have lightweight bumpers that are designed to crumple in an accident to keep the occupants safe rather than the impenetrable metal bumpers on older vehicles. Fortunately, this makes scratches much easier to repair. In most cases, you'll be able to use some fine-grit sandpaper and factory-matched paint from an automotive supply store to first sand away the edges of the scratch and then uniformly spray or dab on the paint until it has seamlessly integrated into the rest of the bumper.
Dents or dings that can't be popped out from the inside may be repaired with the application of some automotive putty and paint to cover the repaired spot. For dings in a metal door, you may be able to pull these dents out yourself using a magnetized device that adheres to the metal to pull the dent back in place. These devices are available from a number of online retailers or at automotive supply stores.
When do you need professional help?
There are some situations in which trying to fix your scratches or door dings yourself will only make them worse, whether your fixes result in noticeably mismatched paint or additional dents from trying to pull out a smaller dent. You'll also want to have your vehicle professionally repaired by an auto-body repair service if it has aluminum body panels, as these are notoriously sensitive to DIY repairs and may become permanently damaged or suffer premature rusting if you try to pull out a dent or repair paint scratches on your own.
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