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Rearranged my garage this week and when parking the Vette I miscalculated the distance and accidentally scuffed the nose against some plastic shelves (see pic). The scuff looks bad, but the surface is completely smooth so I think it may have just damaged the clear coat. I have some VSS and a light cutting pad (orange hex pad from chemical guys) on hand and was planning to see if I could correct the issue without using a random orbital. Will this make a difference? Am I wasting my time? Is there any way I can fix this without going to a body shop?
dont start the machine polish yet. start by cleaning it y hand.
wx and grease remover is a good start as mentioned or any all purpose cleaner/dish soap
you can use use the swirl remover on a microfiber. or grab the pad and buff it y hand.
it looks like the bumper flexed and the paint cracked.. if it lifted/delaminated you dont wanna hit it with the machine you might blow off the paint.
this is worst case, i need better pic dont mean to scare ya.
I don’t feel any residue or anything on the surface so I fear it’s the worst case. If the bumper flexed and paint cracked what is my best course of action?
yeah. i think it flexed and the paint cracked.(its still hard to tell without seeing it in person)
Clear coat is actually pretty flexible compared to the primer/fillers.
looks like the spiderweb cracking is below the clear so you wont feel the crack catch your fingernail.
you can still buff out the scuff that is on the clear, but if it cracked under the clear it wont come out without repair/respray.
does your nail catch on the outward scratches?
if those are not cracks ...
you can wetsand them out with like 2000/2500/3000 grit on a popsickle stick and then orange pad with light cutting compund.
it’s completely smooth to the touch, even the areas that look cracked. So the paint beneath the clear coat is damaged? And the fix is to repaint the whole nose?
but if its cracked, you will need to have the nose tip sanded down.
is dont know if its original uretahne or fiberglass, its likely a poly primer or skim filler that flexed and cracked.
you gotta sand all the way thru that surface and remove the cracked surface.
a shop should be able to repair and color blend just the tip. and reclear the enitire bumper. so its not really a total respray.
i would buff it and live with it. if it doesnt other you.
(edit, based on the second pic, you should have no problem with the polisher and orange pad. slow speed medium/light pressure. i was afraid there was lifted/flaking paint that could be ripped off the surface.)
again this is just my opinion based on the pic.
i could be totally wrong. hopefully i am and its just a clear coat scratch.
If the folks who re-painted the car did not put a flex agent in it for doing the Endura bumper, that's why the paint cracked. If you have any of the paint used for the repaint...or if you have the formula used to make that paint, you can take the car (and formula or paint) to a GOOD paint shop and they can remove the 'wrong' paint from the bumper and repaint it properly.
Or you can just take it to a good paint shop and ask them to give you a quote to repaint the bumper, if you have neither paint nor formula. I doubt that you can satisfactorily blend that damaged area alone.
You should also be well aware that the same condition will happen to that bumper in the future, if you don't repaint it properly this time.
Understood - thanks everyone, I really appreciate the insight. So my gameplan is to clean the area with some dish soap, then try to hand buff / polish and see what I can do. If that doesn’t do it I’ll try to buff it with the polisher and hopefully I can get it to a point where it’s livable. I plan to get the whole car repainted at some point in the next 5 years so if I can avoid paint work before that point that’d be great.
Hi SILVRBLT. I’ll ask before you start taking this on by yourself - who do you have the car insured with?
Thankfully, I don’t have any direct experience with claims, but I’ve read where Hagerty, Grundy, NCM/AM are quite easy to work with, even when damage is self caused. If you have the car insured with one of the collector/classic car companies, you may be doing yourself a disservice by trying to tackle the repair on your own.
They might well cover it. But, I suspect that they will only 'pop' for the bumper strip and repaint. If so, do it. You can still paint it another color later; but it will look better until then.
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Paint Blemish / Scuff Removal
