Scratches on Hardtop: Advice?

[Sandman]

Re: Scratches on Hardtop: Advice?

Try this first. Works great on most scratches and can be purchased at most auto supply stores for about $5. Worth a try!

[SugarDaddy]

Re: Scratches on Hardtop: Advice?

Paula,

Good to see you posting here again.

Bunny Lou had good advice, but Spence (Gobird) is right. You can probably get the job done with the "Fix the Scratch" repair. A good auto body shop can do wonders with your repair.

It's so expensive because it's in the Bay Area, most expensive place in California, which is already too expensive! Nothing is cheap here! CAL/EPA regulations drive up the cost of painting in California immensely.

Have you tried auto body shops a little further away from San Francisco, say Fremont, Milpitas or in the South Bay, such as San Jose?

[Randall]

Re: Scratches on Hardtop: Advice?

The Kit Scratch Out is what I use. Does a wonderful job.. It is worth a try... Good luck.....

[SugarDaddy]

Re: Scratches on Hardtop: Advice?

The "Kit Scratch Out" won't do anything for the divot that's missing. You need an auto body shop to repair that.

[Vintage Merlot]

Re: Scratches on Hardtop: Advice?

Suggestion. Use the search function to search prior threads. Visit the following thread before doing anything drastic:
http://www.thunderbirdnest.com/forum...uch+techniques

[lasuvidaboy]

Re: Scratches on Hardtop: Advice?

What about one of the re-paint chains like 1-day Paint and Body? A woman in my office had her 7-year-old Jaguar XJ repainted (in the same color) w/their 'premium' level (I understand there are several levels of quality and cost) and the car looks very good. I don't know about painting the entire 'Bird at one of these shops but I might consider painting the hardtop there. You can pay $400.00 to $500 painting the top or far more at an expensive body shop. If the prep work is good and they use the correct paint, why spend the extra money?

[sdman]

Re: Scratches on Hardtop: Advice?

Last Aug a deer ran into my left front end and cracked the front bumper and the left fender with a scrape down the side door. They replaced the bumper repaired the left fender crack, painted the hood, front bumper and door. Also replaced all the crome trim on the door and around the fender well with factory ford paint. Total cost was $1875.oo took them 3 days. I carry O deductible and Insurance paid for it all. Looks brand new. I think you need a few more estimates.

[PBocciardi]

Re: Scratches on Hardtop: Advice?

Well, you folks who posted about San Francisco prices were so right. I took the car down to a highly respected auto shop in San Bruno today -- just a few miles away -- and they told me that they could re-paint the whole hard top for about $600 -- less than half the cost of the SF place!! But he also said that I should just get some touch-up paint and try it myself, and then have an auto detailer buff it out. Of course, Ford no longer carries the touch-up paint, but luckily my old bottle hasn't dried out yet! Still, I'm a horrible person to try this -- I just tend to foul thiings up. i wish someone would just do it for me! :( I can try the Scratch Out, but it won't work on the little divot.

[SugarDaddy]

Re: Scratches on Hardtop: Advice?

Paula,

Maybe you could have your San Bruno auto body repair shop do the touchup job too? But, filling the divot may require some additional work on their part.

Talk to auto body shop people in San Bruno or little further south on the Peninsula. Lots of auto body repair shops down toward San Jose if you don't want to deal with S.F. prices.

Several places on the Internet have touchup paint for your T-Bird. Just check with them for the touchup paint, and clear finish:
http://www.automotivetouchup.com/
http://www.paintscratch.com/

Good Luck with your repair/paint project.

[PBocciardi]

Re: Scratches on Hardtop: Advice?

Well, I ended up taking my car to a detailing shop in San Francisco and skipping the auto body shops altogether! And luckily, even though Ford does not supply the yellow touchup paint for this car any longer, I found an old bottle I had gotten from Ford back in 2002, and it hadn't dried up! So the detailer filled in and buffed the scratch for $60, using my paint. Now, you can still see some of the scratch, but it's not as visible, and at least now it won't rust. I just didn't want to spend money to re-paint the entire hardtop.

[Gobird]

Re: Scratches on Hardtop: Advice?

Paula, Glad you got it fixed but........your top can't rust. It's a composite/fiberglass.

[PBocciardi]

Re: Scratches on Hardtop: Advice?

Oh -- thanks, GoBird. I had no idea!

[tbinil]

Re: Scratches on Hardtop: Advice?

Paula,
Good to hear from you again. I remember enjoying reading about your trip home down old route 66, and all the adventures you had. I think our car was built in the same batch as yours, and I seemed to remember the serial numbers being close. Remember WixomPooh keeping us informed as our cars went down the line?
Cal

[Greg S]

Re: Scratches on Hardtop: Advice?

Not only is the top fiberglass, but so are the fenders. Found this out the hard way. How about the rest of the body panels? All fiberglass???

[V8 Cat]

Re: Scratches on Hardtop: Advice?

I think the hood and trunk lid are also. Doors and quarter panels are steel.