FTO AUSTRALIA

Hey guys
My sisters selling her car soon and has asked me to fix these scratches. She was taking it to a panel beaters and got quoted a ridiculous amount. So I said I'll do it.

It's a pretty simple really all I need to know is can I just sand it back abit and paint it or will they still show or the paint not stay on?or Do I need to sand that whole bottom bit of the door back then prime and paint etc?
Also
How hard is it to take off a door? Seems like only 4bolts but there's wiring in there aswell. Would be much easier if I could get it off.


Oh and if anyone's interested in an excellent daily, I can tell you this car would be perfect my nan bought it new for my sister, and they have never ever missed a service. Extremely reliable, can guarantee no problems for long a time.
It's a 2002 Mazda 323 Astina with 115 000kms
She is leaving for uni in a couple months and will be leaving it with me to sell. She wants 6500 Ono so I'm thinking 7k after looking at most going for around 8k on eBay. Not forsale yet though :/

Back to the scratch. What should I do?
Thanks

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Part it out

Depending on how deep the scratches are, you should be able to get away with a good cut and polish and a decent buff. Okay, how handy are you with a cordless drill?

If the answer is along the lines of "I know which end screws things" then you're set! You will need:
1x Waffle Pad
1x Lambs-wool (or similar) buffer pad
1x Cut + Polish product (I'd say Meguiars, but really whatever works)
1x spare day.

Follow the instructions on the back of the cut + polish product, and you should be set. Alternatively, here's a youtube link:

Big job, just sell it with the scratches.

The scratches look like they are also dents. You would have to sand back the lower section of the door (from the side trim down), bog the indents, spray primer filler, sand, paint colour, paint clear. I would leave the door on and just cover the rest of the side of the car with paper/tape. Sand and bog with door open, paint with door closed.

The biggest problems would be colour matching and blending in the new paint with the original paint work.

I'd go buy another door from a wrecker.. that is the same colour.. its not rare like an fto lol

Too much effort. Unless the cosmetic damage is significantly decreasing the sale value or if she is getting a big amount from the sale which covers the cost of fixing it and some more, I would try and sell it as is.

Panelbeater could probs do it for cheap if they just spray bottom half of door

Also keep in mind that if you do try and fix it, you could end up making it worse and look like you're trying to cover something even worse up.

Sahin wrote:I'd go buy another door from a wrecker.. that is the same colour.. its not rare like an fto lol

doors are a bitch to hang properly though. As Shadowarrior said, if it's not going to decrease the sale value too much, then just sell it with the scratches.

Just sell it in the dark

Just polish them. Will hardly notice.

silverGPX wrote:Just sell it in the dark

Bennoz wrote:Just polish them. Will hardly notice.

They are fairly deep scratches though, not dented but deep.

She really wants them gone before sale, dunno why exactly but really wants me to have a go.
And yea I'm worried that ill make it look like something worse then what is there. I could see this happening only if I have to use filler,.

You can try using a bit of touch up paint and then wet sand with some 2000 or 3000 grit wet or dry, followed by a good buff.

Vectose wrote:You can try using a bit of touch up paint and then wet sand with some 2000 or 3000 grit wet or dry, followed by a good buff.

Yep I'm thinking that's probably the easiest, cheapest and most effective way too do it. Cheers
Now I gotta tell her she doesn't need the $40 can of paint she had mixed up for me

fraz91 wrote:Depending on how deep the scratches are, you should be able to get away with a good cut and polish and a decent buff. Okay, how handy are you with a cordless drill?

If the answer is along the lines of "I know which end screws things" then you're set! You will need:
1x Waffle Pad
1x Lambs-wool (or similar) buffer pad
1x Cut + Polish product (I'd say Meguiars, but really whatever works)
1x spare day.

Follow the instructions on the back of the cut + polish product, and you should be set. Alternatively, here's a youtube link:

This is handy. Thanks!

destinationtoby wrote:

Vectose wrote:You can try using a bit of touch up paint and then wet sand with some 2000 or 3000 grit wet or dry, followed by a good buff.

Yep I'm thinking that's probably the easiest, cheapest and most effective way too do it. Cheers
Now I gotta tell her she doesn't need the $40 can of paint she had mixed up for me

Use the paint that's in the can to touch up, spray it into a little container.

Vectose wrote: Use the paint that's in the can to touch up, spray it into a little container.

I like the idea of just replacing the door. Shouldn't be too hard to find.

Alternatively you could try and respray the whole strip underneath the black part to make the colour blend in better.

Daniel2019 wrote:I like the idea of just replacing the door. Shouldn't be too hard to find.

Alternatively you could try and respray the whole strip underneath the black part to make the colour blend in better.

Would be hard to find the car at the wreckers the same color. Only have have two wreckers nearby and both seem to be full of rusty commo's and rav 4 's etc so would be have to be lucky to find one, then probably get charged a sh*t load for it.

Yeah that's what I planned to do
But the scratches being so deep probably means that ill have too use filler, which I'm not all that good at and could seem as though I've tried to cover up something bigger than scratches so not really going to risk it.