Not having much luck with my Focus lately. Two bits of bad luck, dreading the third...


So the second bit of bad luck is that I came back home from work Friday night and discovered something had hit the side of my Focus. Looked far worse than it turned out to be at first: seems to have been a big tyre so probably lorry/truck etc squeezing past when they should have waited as there was like a film of rubber which I managed to rub off.

However, underneath the paintwork is badly scuffed and scratched along the driver side wheel arch, and I have a long scratch on the driver's door. Bit of a dent as well in the wheel arch but nothing massive. I thought I'd try Autoglym paint restorer so bought some of that on Saturday, washed the car, dried it off, gave the paint restorer a go, and it did improve a bit but there's still a lot of scuffing/scratches left (finished it all off with a coat of the high gloss after I couldn't get any more improvement).

Any ideas on what to do with this? Am I looking at a massively expensive respray job? Here's what it looks like:

 

If you can feel the scratches with your nails then it's going to need painting
If not you maybe able to flat with 2000 and mop back up using a compound eg 3m fast cut

 

Yep, it's down to the primer from the looks of it
I know it's a finger in the air but any idea what sort of price I'd be looking at for a paint job at the local independent garage (tis Ford approved one)?

 

You may be lucky and get away with double figures but I suspect nudging three figures may be the case.

It sounds bizarre but if you don't fancy stretching to it just at the moment try rubbing a little black boot polish into the scratches when you next detail the car that go over with your normal LSP to seal it in. You will need to re apply when you normally clean the car but it can lose the scratches until you are ready

 

Thought id post a quick update - took it in and was quoted 150 for the job inc getting rid of a small ding in the wheel arch so wasn't too pricey in the end.

 

Sounds a fair price