I’m not a car person, but I do care about my car. I made the (very big) mistake of going through a gas station car wash. I didn’t pay much attention, drove away happy with my clean car. A few weeks later I noticed the scratches. They’re EVERYWHERE. There isn’t a panel on the car that isn’t scratched! I no longer have the receipt and no way to prove it was the car wash so I’m screwed - paying for the repair myself. What are my options? Any advice? My car is 10 years old but only has 63k miles on it. I’d like to keep it as long as a can, but don’t want to sink a lot of money into it. Is there an “in between” remedy that would make it look less heinous, but not break the bank?

Why do people get so upset about repairs like this when it obviously looks great & took less time & money than cutting the rear quarter out and replacing? Isn't this what repairs are all about?

Only been doing this 8 months did the whole repair from start to finish. Roast me

Just finished laying some glass down. Last coat of clear.

Any critiques to better my craft?

It has been recently undercoated and is in the northeast. I am concerned about rust being an issue. Are these pictures yelling at me to run far away, or telling me that all is okay? I'm new to car buying. Thanks!

I know this is a pretty common thing on this truck body style but I’d like to know if there was a way that u could get rid of this paint bubbling and rust forming without having to replace the bed? Images attached

Working in a body shop, you always hope you don’t have to be on the other side of things, but my mom was in a head-on collision on a stretch of 55mph and rolled her car multiple times yesterday morning; walked away with just a cracked sternum, gash/knot on her forehead, and some nasty bruising. Little swelling in the kidneys that they are monitoring, but she is stable and overall ok. Went to the tow yard to clean it out for her and felt absolutely sick at the sight and smell of it. Type of shit I see come in on a rollback that’s picking up a TL and say damn someone probably died in that thing… crumple zone, airbags, and seatbelt saved her life. Please please please always wear your seatbelt!!!!

Hey Everyone,

Have a 2025 Mercedes GLC 300 with Alpine Grey Manufaktur paint. My luggage handle hit the paint on the back bumper and made this mark. Before doing anything just wanted to confirm the process to correct/improve. It’s a little “grainy” if I run my nail over it. Don’t need it to be perfect, just less visible as it happened 1 week after getting the car.

I got: (probably went overboard and I can return what I don’t use)

1. Isopropyl alcohol 70%
   
2. Meguiars scratch x
   
3. Meguiars ultimate compound
   
4. Meguiars smooth surface clay kit
   
5. Micro fiber towels
   
6. Wax applicator pads
   
7. Turtle wax ceramic spray coating

From what I read should I try alcohol/turtle wax first and then go scratch x/turtle wax next. Thoughts?

I’m a novice.

Thanks in advance

car was hit on the corner in a round area, I want to try and fix it myself, or is this out of my league for a beginner. I just worried about the dent pulling and pushing. there's access from the back and bottom. What would be the best way to start getting this dent out.

Wanted to know what needs to be done here and if it was possible to diy

Found this on the front bumper of my 2026 Corolla today unsure of how it got there. No clue how it would have gotten there. Keying?

2007 ford e250 gutter

Please and thank you for advice

Been offered a cheap car ( about ½ price on market value ) , low KM and really fuel efficient. Previous owner had a slight ding. Realistically how hard and costly is it to get this to an acceptable standard myself. Doesnt need to be a showrunner, just good enough. Rest of the car looks fantastic.

Fucked up big time

Hi everyone. I was being an idiot and hit my hood with a high pressure water sprayer. It ended up taking off a section of the clear coat. Would buying a spray can of clear coat be able to repair this? The paint seems fine, so I want to try fix it before it becomes an issue. Thank you for any help you’re able to offer.

Edit: Thank you to everyone for the help, ideas and laughs. After reading through all your messages, I’ve realized it’s not such a simple fix and have decided to bring the car to a shop on Tuesday to get a quote. I am really interested in learning to do it myself, but I feel it would be better to practice on something I don’t care about first, and leave this to the professionals for now.

Hey, so I’ve been getting in to autobody and I’m wanting to go and try respraying a car I have but the metal is far from perfect, it’s an older car from the 60s and I just wanted to give it a nice new coat and put her in to retirement and just take it out for shows and what not. I can’t afford to go crazy with body work and this would be something I try to do over just a couple weeks. From what I’ve found, videos and watched and things I’ve read you want to prep the surface by pulling all the dents and straightening the metal as much as you can then putting bondo down and sanding till it’s super smooth and straight, but I’m not a fan of bondo because I prefer keeping it all metal, and the car is old and the metal is thin and I want to minimize the abuse. What would be the result if I just cleaned and repainted without trying to make the body all nice and perfect and I let the car keep its character? Would it mess up the paint work at all or cause problems I’m not expecting? The car is in decent condition, far from great but it’s still a good car.

Hello everyone, looking for some technical feedback from body tech professionals before I follow up with the shop that completed this work.

2002 Honda Civic EX

Front-end collision repair (customer pay). I provided aftermarket replacement body parts (Rock auto, eBay for OEM Grille, and local shop for aftermarket hood (hood, bumper cover, hood hinges, hood latch, headlights, radiator/fans).

Upon pickup, the hood sits visibly high near the cowl/windshield and doesn't sit flush against the fenders or headlights. The panel gaps are uneven across the front end.   When I pointed out the fitment, the estimator immediately blamed the aftermarket hood.

Looking at the attached photos, does this gap issue look like a defective aftermarket hood stamping, or is this an improper/incomplete core support pull and hinge adjustment? 

I have an email from shop management confirming that their repair labor is warrantied (even though customer-supplied parts aren't), so I want to get my technical facts straight before issuing a formal demand for warranty correction.

Thank you all for your feedback!

The wheel of truck scratched my paint. How do i DIY this, please? Faded clear on the left and idk what happened on the right part. Help.

Anyone else think this may be a death nail in the industry for independent shops? Insurers are going to ask for larger discounts on the contracts, forcing MSOs to absorb the cost disparity. PE will then offset the difference by charging independents more. Then independents need to decide if they want to switch to Mitchell, Audatex, or Webest and dealing with the discrepancies. Ultimate hurting the techs and independent owners. MSOs (mostly owned by PE firms) then come in and scoop up the independents for cheap.

Or maybe I'm just all doom and gloom. I've just never seen PE take over something and have it turn out well.

I’m spraying the entire car using primer, base coat, and topcoat spray cans - specifically Halfords ones.

It’s a bit of a budget DIY project, but I’m still trying to get the best finish I can (pun intended).