Exterior paint scratch, not sure how deep. What are my options?

4622 Views 17 Replies 10 Participants Last post by Blogson, May 7, 2021

N8theGr8t

Discussion Starter · May 4, 2021

2

Hello,

Went to wash the RAV4 at a coin car wash today. Accidentally nicked the car with metal tip of car wash nozzle (I thought these were usually rubber-tipped?). At this point, I'm wondering what my options are. The scratch is definitely deep enough to be felt with your fingernail, but not sure what layer it's gone down to. This is especially difficult to determine with the lunar rock paint looking a lot like the color of metal. We have very little experience with this and would ideally like to have the dealership restore it to its original condition since this is our "new" car. Any ideas on what this would cost on average? If we chose to take care of it ourselves, do you think the scratch is too deep?

Pictures are below

Thanks in advance for any advice!!

Insect Grey Arthropod Font Wing

Automotive design Automotive lighting Flooring Gas Ceiling

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1 - 18 of 18 Posts

lacsap

· #2 · May 4, 2021

Ouch - usually dealers have a touch up paint for nicks and scratches - it will be visible - but if you want factory look - then a more extensive intervention is needed to the area .. ugh, I know the pain.

Reactions: 1

SLS Artemis

· #3 · May 4, 2021

If you want it perfect your only choice is a repaint at the body shop. Depending on what needs to come off and how much needs to be painted is dependent on the price. I'm having the areas circled in red and blue on both the left and right side painted this week. Toyota is picking up the tab as a "one time goodwill" even though it is a paint defect. My bid to fix it at the dealership bodyshop was $750.

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NameofUser

· #4 · May 4, 2021

Looks like paint got GOUGED to BARE metal. Gonna be pricey given how small of an area it is.

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RENE65

· #5 · May 4, 2021

do a touch up on it NOW before rust get in, You can always decide later what you want to do for it.

Reactions: 2

RTexasF

· #6 · May 4, 2021

I wouldn't even think about going to the dealer to fix that. If you want it done perfectly then seek out a highly regarded body shop. If you want to try it yourself:

Dr. ColorChip |

drcolorchip.com

There are many videos on You Tube on preparing the surface.

Reactions: 2

Big Daddy

· #7 · May 4, 2021

SLS Artemis said:
If you want it perfect your only choice is a repaint at the body shop. Depending on what needs to come off and how much needs to be painted is dependent on the price. I'm having the areas circled in red and blue on both the left and right side painted this week. Toyota is picking up the tab as a "one time goodwill" even though it is a paint defect. My bid to fix it at the dealership bodyshop was $750.

I wasn't aware that the dealerships have body shops, I thought they farmed that work out to actual body shops.

pericles

· #8 · May 4, 2021

N8theGr8t said:
l. We have very little experience with this and would ideally like to have the dealership restore it to its original condition since this is our "new" car. Any ideas on what this would cost on average? If we chose to take care of it ourselves, do you think the scratch is too deep?

View attachment 166454 View attachment 166455

Sry for your misfortune !

Just do your research with dealer, local body shops, others. You mention "our new car" so I know you want the best service.

Any possibility that insurance will help defray the cost ?

Reactions: 1

sam999

· #9 · May 5, 2021

An option is to wrap it.

Some local air brush artist will charge less than $50-100 their time. That's what we did when we had a scratch on a lease we had to return.

If it was my car, I would probably put a sicker over it and call it a day,

.

Chris Fix, DIY: If you want to do it yourself for about under $30:

SLS Artemis

· #10 · May 5, 2021

Big Daddy said:
I wasn't aware that the dealerships have body shops, I thought they farmed that work out to actual body shops.

All the dealerships around here seem to have their own bodyshop. The one I have been using apparently recently became a Toyota Certified bodyshop. Frustrating with my paint issues though dealing with Toyota and getting them to pay for it. Toyota Regional wouldn't even accept what the dealership bodyshop had to say in regards to my issue. And their FTS (Toyota Rep) denies everything. Basically he is the end of the road. I had to show him that the paint comes off. And he still won't call it a manufacturing defect.

N8theGr8t

Discussion Starter · #11 · May 7, 2021

Thanks everyone for the great variety of responses! Seems like we have some options/decisions to make. We're currently waiting on a response from a dealership but will probably get some bids from local body shops as well. If it's too much money, we may just try to touch it up ourselves with an OEM paint pen/clear coat pen combination and call it done.

N8theGr8t

Discussion Starter · #12 · May 7, 2021

SLS Artemis said:
If you want it perfect your only choice is a repaint at the body shop. Depending on what needs to come off and how much needs to be painted is dependent on the price. I'm having the areas circled in red and blue on both the left and right side painted this week. Toyota is picking up the tab as a "one time goodwill" even though it is a paint defect. My bid to fix it at the dealership bodyshop was $750.

$750 actually seems like a decent price for that. It's too bad they're treating that as "goodwill" and not just fixing the defect though.

Reactions: 1

N8theGr8t

Discussion Starter · #13 · May 7, 2021

RENE65 said:
do a touch up on it NOW before rust get in, You can always decide later what you want to do for it.

Thanks for the advice! You made us get this sooner, rather than later.

N8theGr8t

Discussion Starter · #14 · May 7, 2021

pericles said:
Sry for your misfortune !

Just do your research with dealer, local body shops, others. You mention "our new car" so I know you want the best service.

Any possibility that insurance will help defray the cost ?

Unfortunately we have a $1000 deductible, so if it goes past that....then yes.

SLS Artemis

· #15 · May 7, 2021

N8theGr8t said:
$750 actually seems like a decent price for that. It's too bad they're treating that as "goodwill" and not just fixing the defect though.

I'm sure they are referring to it as a "goodwill" due to other cars having the same issue and people are unaware of it and Toyota doesn't want the issue to be made known.

RTexasF

· #16 · May 7, 2021

Big Daddy said:
I wasn't aware that the dealerships have body shops, I thought they farmed that work out to actual body shops.

Some do, some don't. It's becoming more and more rare to find one that has their own body shop.

RTexasF

· #17 · May 7, 2021

There is another angle...most dealerships have a guy that comes in on call to repair nicks, dings, and paint problems at the dealership. When I initially looked at my (then new) RAV it had a gouge & paint scrape on the right front bumper. They called their "guy", he fixed it perfectly and matched/blended the white pearl paint. Now more than a decade later there is still no sign of repair.

Reactions: 2

Blogson

· #18 · May 7, 2021

Dealer auto body repair shops are declining mostly because of increasingly stringent environmental regulations regarding paint, dust generated, etc. and having to prevent environmental contamination, and the cost of equipment needed to do that. Unless a shop has enough volume to make the operation viable economically the profit issue becomes problematic. Also, we once had a Saturn which had been impacted by a driver who ran a red light repainted by the dealership paint shop and within a year the repainted area began to shed the paint.

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