How do I fix these scratches?

Dude youre fucking stupid. It's going to look like ass no matter what you do.

just buff the paint marks out as best you can and leave it.

shes fucked mate, take her to a spraypainter

No. Don't sand it. Don't do anything that will damage the top coat on the remaining original paint just fill the scratches in with the color matched paint let it cure completely (don't get eager on this step either wait like a whole day, leave it with sun on it if possible) then once it's fully hardened go back and buff the shit out of it. Not sanding, not even "polishing". BUFF with a soft pad. Then WAX the fuck out of it.

This but wait a week or two until you buffer. I tried it three days after and fibers from the buffing pad went into the touch-up paint. Deep scratches take a while to cure to the point where they can be buffed.

They're going to be apparent no matter what you do using your plan, this is going to look like shit unless you take it to a professional.

Thanks for the tip but I don't even know the difference between buffering and polishing, I thought it was the same

Buffing is more abrasive than polishing.

Above poster made it sound like polishing was more abrasive

it is the same hes retarded. you use a buffing pad when you polish.
you use a cutting pad when you cut.

nothing he said will work. you're wasting your time.
you should get a panel from a junkyard and color match it.

Functionally, they're the same. But they use different pads and liquid compounds to do it. Buffing is more aggressive to smooth out bumps and wrinkles, polishing is to get that mirror gloss.

Well he's wrong.

It's not an expensive car and it's 10 years old, there's no point in changing the panel or going to a professional. Btw those professional aren't magicians, that's why I wanted to know how they would do it.

It's fucked you need a new transmission

I'm wondering if I'm asking in the right place. Is there a discussion forum dedicated to car paintjob?

What you want is the cheap easy way to do it. You could do it right but you obviously don't want to so just fill in the scratches and blend then put a thick layer of clear shit on top.

I also wanted to know the depth of those scratches. They are white, what does it mean?

The only thing I'd say for sure is that you're through the base coat.

Do you think it would be smart to fill these scratches with putty or touch paint would do the trick?

You can't unless you redo the panel. Best thing, as many have said, is just strip, fill, clearcoat, then buff and wax. It won't look as bad, but it won't be seemless or look like the original. Even that process with all the tools and materials will cost 200-400$ depending on where you go. You're better off taking it to a professional and coughing up some cash before you make it worse.

Alternatively, don't drive like a jackass.

>How do I fix these scratches?
There are "proper" ways, there are "workaround" ways, and there are "stopgap" ways to handle the problem.

But since you are asking how to fix, this means you are not using your insurance to take it to a body shop. First things first, the metal should be massaged back into proper shape using PDR (paintless dent repair) techniques. PDR doesn't mean touch up paint is never used, but refers more to not having it go through a formal idealistic ivory tower body shop paint process.

Before touch-up type painting, the surface should be clean and free of dust, grime, waxes, silicone oils, and cleaning agent residue. Any debris from side-swiping the object should be removed from the scratches with a wooden toothpick. The rounded toothpicks from the dollar shop are good for cleaning and painting.

If the scratches are deep and have very vertical sides, they are good candidates for an area fill approach such as the approach in the picture I've attached to this post. You can do it manually by putting paint into the scratches and swiping horizontally across the top of the paint surface. This means removing the paint on the top surface but not the paint within the cracks. It's similar to troweling very thin plaster across cracks but not leaving any on the top surface. Microfiber fails since its fine fibers reach into the cracks, but stiff absorbent expensive paper towels made of 100% virgin fiber such as Bounty work well.

For stopgap approaches, you are using the paint to physically fill in as much of the scratches as reasonable. Let the paint cure a good while before applying sealant followed by wax. The wax will do a good job of hiding imperfections.

As others have said, do not sand, cut, or polish. You will ruin the nice sharp scratches that help hold the touch-up paint. Polishing rounds off the sharp cliff-like edges of the scratch so now you have a rounded off scratch making area-swipe method harder.

They would repaint it, you stupid faggot.

*continued from *
Before you use an area-fill approach, remember to fill in the deepest wide scrapes using the round-tip wooden toothpicks. Those make nice paintbrushes for thin scratches as they also allow you to work the paint into the scratch before you swipe off the top. Since you have not fixed the scratches for a long time and allowed them to weather, you'll probably need to work the paint in so that it has a firm grip.

Remember to swipe before the paint dries on the top. When properly swiped, there is no paint on the surface because it is only in the scratches. Thus there is no "paint bump" or lumpiness.

Wash your hands BEFORE you paint to remove skin oils. If you have the habit of touching your face a lot, wash again. There's way too many people who mess things up when detailing a car, cleaning windows, or doing touch-up painting simply because their hands are grimy. Some people wonder why their microfiber stopped cleaning windows. Well, they cross-contaminated the microfiber with all the grime on their hands.

>fill these scratches with putty
Putty fails without primer. And it is not for filling in those kinds of narrow scratches.

>fill in the deepest wide scrapes using the round-tip wooden toothpicks. Those make nice paintbrushes
I was considering using a small paint brush, isn't a toothpick too rigid?

>swipe off the top.
I thought it wasn't recommended to swipe the paint but rather just dip

>Since you have not fixed the scratches for a long time and allowed them to weather
The scratch is one month old, I think the edges are still sharp

>I was considering using a small paint brush, isn't a toothpick too rigid?
It's too rigid if you are thinking in terms of painting or brushing. But the purpose is twofold. ONE is to get paint into the scratches without being too wide. TWO is to be stiff enough to gently push the paint into the scratch without causing a large blob on the surface above the scratch.

Sure, there are very fine brushes used for scale miniature painting. I've used those. If you also have them and are used to them, use that. I suggested the wooden toothpicks because they work for most people including myself. Importantly, they allow me to put a daub of paint from the container onto a bottlecap or hard surface. I seal up the container after that because if I am using the official dealer touch up paint, those small bottles dry out easily.

>I thought it wasn't recommended to swipe the paint but rather just dip
You are thinking differently. After getting paint into the scratch, there will be paint on the surface above the scratch obviously. The horizontal swiping motion is a way to remove the paint from the surface without removing the paint that is already within the scratch. If you dip into the scratch, you'll be removing the paint in there.

>The scratch is one month old, I think the edges are still sharp
Then make sure you clean them out of any grime and oils and give enough time to dry. Don't use a pressure washer that forces more liquid and soaps into the pigment and primer layers. That can also cause moisture to get underneath the paint which is a cause of that infamous rust bubbling on some cars.

You get a miata.

God you're so autistic but you own a Peugeot so it's not like it wasn't obvious in the first place. Want to know how to fix it? You sand it, respray the base coat, then clear coat you can't fix this any other way. You're unlucky because you damaged your rear quarter panel so it's gonna be hard to fade that in.

>You sand it, respray the base coat, then clear coat you can't fix this any other way.
What you said is true. He cannot fix this any other way. BUT he doesn't want to fix it. Instead, OP wants to have a cheap workaround method applied to it to make it far less obvious there is any damage. For OP, that approach is good enough due to the car's age and value. Plus any damage repair in a body shop will be reported into carfax and other car history damage databases.

One more question. Should I use the toothpick to touch paint and swipe, or only to swipe?
Also I'm not sure how I'm supposed to do it, does the toothpick have to be vertical or parallel to the surface?

>swipe with toothpick.
No. Swiping is done with a horizontally stiff yet soft paper towel such as Bounty.

>Microfiber fails since its fine fibers reach into the cracks, but stiff absorbent expensive paper towels made of 100% virgin fiber such as Bounty work well.
It seems that I could have written that section to be more explicit. The toothpick is NOT used to swipe. You get some paint out of the manufacturer-supplied touch up paint tube. That paint can be put into a plastic cap from a water bottle. Dip the toothpick or brush and daub it into a section of scratches. Then swipe across the surface with the paper held horizontally (parallel) to the surface in a slight rolling motion. If done lightly and before the paint dries, the paint on the surface is removed but the paint in the scratch remains.

Obviously, that means doing the scratches a section at a time since you have to swipe the paper across the surface before it dries and leaves a paint bump.

Swiping is not done with the toothpick. It is done with the paper towel. Don't use microfiber as it will suck the paint out of the scratch.

Look for someone that does Sprayless Scratch Repair in your area.

youtube.com/watch?v=0TyaYEtc-Sk

>Sprayless Scratch Repair
First time I've heard of that term. Around here, it's all lumped into PDR.

Thanks, that's exactly what I need. However , as you can see it doesn't require any skills, I only need those mysterious compounds.

It looks like another version of only dressed up with more hype so that it can sell at a higher price.

Just synthetic sealants by synthetic wax would conceal scratches as long as some paint was laid down first to get rid of the metal or primer colors.

Daren is that my fucking truck. I swear to god if I get home and you scratched my truck I'm going to fucking tan your hide.

A trick I always use when my paint gets fucked is brake cleaner. Just apply it with a soft washrag and let it sit overnight. Next morning, take a sponge and smear it around. By the next day you shouldn't be able to see any scratches.

"synthetic sealants by synthetic wax"
what does this mean?

>How do I fix these scratches?
You can also practice touch up painting technique on painted scrap metal, a junk car, or whatever else before doing it on your car.

>what does this mean?
The poster probably left something out due to typing on mobile i bet. If you think about it, you can answer it yourself cuz you know what to do.

so

just synthetic sealants FOLLOWED by synthetic wax

was prolly what he means

I was genuinely confused, english isn't my language, and every advice is contradicting the other here.