I’m pretty sure this happened away from home and I’m just now noticing. The scratch is really deep hitting the metal in the deepest part. I have full coverage but I’m worried a claim will raise my insurance too much to be worth it. I’ve wrenched on cars before but never painted anything because it scares me.
Is it time to start watching chrisfix videos or should i just deal with insurance?
Vandalism would normally be covered by comprehensive coverage, and won’t affect your premiums; you’ll just have to pay a deductible. If you tried to do it yourself, you’d never get the paint to match quite right, so you’re better off taking it to an auto body shop to have it professionally repaired.
Yes, I had this happen to me last year. Insurance covered it under comprehensive, no noticeable change to my insurance rate.
Depends, how much do you care, and how good does your car still look?
If you drive a pristine car that you plan on selling eventually: get it done at a bodyshop.
If you drive an older car or plan to keep it until it dies, and dont care about the looks too much: chrisfix has some good videos on working with a paint penIf you drive a 20 year old car in the rust belt: lol
It’s somewhere in between. A 2012 ford mustang. Some minor scratches on the driver’s side that i bought it with. The passenger side was perfect. I care a good amount but I’m not made of money. I’m definitely considering some DIY rn
Definitely repair. If you have comprehensive coverage, then double definitely!
My deductible is $500 though and that feels like a lot to spend on a scratch.
Basically any bodywork job involving painting panels is going to cost at least $800. And if it’s multiple body panels it will be more.
If when you run a fingernail over it, if your nail catches in the scratch, the scratch is very likely too deep to fix with paint correction(like buffing/polishing).
A proper fix will require prep, painting and blending, which you shouldn’t try to do yourself. You could buy a touch up stick that matches your paint to cover the scratch. It won’t look perfect and won’t last forever without clear coat on top, but it will prevent rust.
Before you decide how you’ll deal with this, you can bring it to a body shop for an estimate, most shops will do that for free. Most shops can give you an estimate from photos emailed or submitted to their websites.
If you’re in the the US, file a police report. If for anything documentation (and local crime statistics). I’m sure there won’t be any real investigation, but it does help identify patterns.
Also, when/if you choose to file an insurance claim, you’ll have a police report number. Which may or may not help grease the wheels of the claim.
In the European countries that I am familiar with, a police report is mandatory for an insurance claim, and a formality.
acab
My local pd lets you submit police reports yourself online. I’ve done maybe 10 or so in the past for work. No cops required lol.
If you’re just worried about rust I’d say do it yourself it’s not that hard
Chrisfix has a couple videos on fixing deep scratches and scuffs. This one seems most relevant to your predicament
Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/watch?v=Zl_iSYYGBiY&pp=ygUTY2hyaXMgZml4IGtleWVkIGNhcg
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source, check me out at GitHub.
