Your car is most likely the second biggest investment you will ever make, surpassed only by the purchase of your home. Since you have spent a lot of money on it, you naturally want to keep it in as good condition as possible.
Unfortunately, scratches and door dings are a fact of everyday life. You can protect your car’s paint by waxing it regularly, but damage will still get through occasionally.
Luckily, just because your car gets a scratch — or worse, a dent — doesn’t mean you have to live with it. Professional scratch removal and paintless dent repair can help you to maintain your car’s appearance and extend the life of your paint.

Scratch Repair Kits and Why You Should Avoid Them

Of course, the first thing you will probably think is that you can do this yourself. While everyone appreciates a can-do attitude, the truth is good scratch and dent removal requires a lot of patience, experience, and expertise, and not everyone can be an expert at everything.
There are a lot of scratch removal kits on the market that claim they can remove scratches from the paint, but the cheaper kits will only make a small problem worse, and the better kits are only as good as the person doing the scratch removal. Here are a few types of scratch removal kits on the market:

  • Touch-up paint: Touch-up paint can be tempting. It is said to match your car’s original paint color, but it’s made by aftermarket companies, and their idea of a match might not be exactly what your car manufacturer’s idea was. Also, it’s actually a different kind of paint, so it may look different than the paint around it once it’s on, and in any case it’s hard to fill a scratch without getting lots of paint on the surrounding area — potentially turning a tiny scratch into a glaring repair.
  • Scratch repair pens: These sound like a good idea in theory, as they should resolve a lot of the problems posed by touch-up paint. The pens generally cost less than $10, and how much damage can you do with just a little pen, right? Unfortunately, if the paint color isn’t a good match for your original paint, or if your hand isn’t steady, or if you overfill the scratch, you could still make the repair look worse than the scratch did by itself.
  • Scratch removal kits: Many companies sell more involved kits that require multiple stages of painting and sanding, resolving the problems of touch-up paint and scratch repair pens, but the quality of your repair depends on how well you know what you’re doing. These kits attempt to mimic the results of professional scratch repair by walking you through the basic steps, but most do-it-yourselfers lack the experience and expertise to do a professional-quality job. Especially when you’re working with a high-speed rotary buffer, you can quickly turn a tiny scratch into a much bigger problem.
The Value of Professional Scratch and Dent Repair

Dollar for dollar, the best results for your money will be by hiring a scratch and dent removal professional. An expert will be able to determine how deep the scratch is, use paint, primer, and/or filler to repair the damage, and blend the repair with sandpaper and clear coat to restore the original smooth finish. A professional scratch removal job will be difficult, or even impossible, to detect, helping you to better maintain your car’s appearance, and ultimately, its value.
At ColorMate, we offer professional scratch and dent repair services at very friendly rates. We also offer same day car paint perfecting services, headlight restoration, rim repair, paint and bumper repair in Miami-Dade, Broward and West Palm Beach County regions. Schedule an appointment today for a free estimate from certified paintless dent repair specialist.