Someone keyed my 4Runner

Someone keyed my 4Runner the other night. Filed an insurance claim but waiting to hear back. I’m kind of concerned if the body shop will be able to get the color match correct. Is Lunar Rock a difficult color to respray? Part of me is wondering if I’d be better off just touching it up with the touch up paint I have (Dr. Colorchip). Not sure what would be worse, having large touched up scratches but factory paint or resprayed doors and anything less than 100% matched. I’m mostly concerned about rust down the road since the scratches are down to bare metal.

Anyone have experience with something like this? Maybe even with Lunar Rock in particular? What was the outcome like for you?

 

I'm sorry to see that this happened.

PEOPLE SUCK!

That being said, touching up will probably make it look worse. Go with the complete respray.

 

a good body shop will match it no problem. they will have to blend it into the other panel. what I'd be more concerned is the impact of the Carfax on resale. Even if you document everything, not having a "clean" Carfax report will have an impact on the resale. I think any DIY job will look like crap. That is clearly thru the clearcoat unfortunately.

I'm sorry this happened to you. It makes me furious. Like the quote from Pulp Fiction when John Travolta had is car keyed and opines that it would almost be worth having the car keyed to be able to catch the guy in the act.

 

They can spray it. It’s not that difficult if you have a good painter.

 

Definitely the complete door re-spray. It is the best and really only good solution to an unfortunate problem. Your truck deserves to look its best.

 

Thinking the same, touching it up would probably make it stand out more.

 

Thanks for reminding me of that scene. Might rewatch it just for that lol.

I debated if I should go out of pocket or insurance based on the carfax issue. I got a quote for $1700 from the local Toyota collision center which isn’t too bad but this happened in the apartment complex I live in that has open access to a main road and there’s no guarantee this won’t happen again. Also I found out that the quote estimate software that body shops use sell the data to third parties which then sell that to carfax so just getting an estimate alone can cause damage to be reported then you have to go through the hassle of convincing them to remove it.

 

You have a few options:

1) Have the door re-sprayed & blended. No, it won't match perfectly. If you paint a body panel AFTER the car is already painted matching it 100% is impossible. But you can get it very close.
2) Touching it up. But this might make it stand out. It's cheaper than spraying it though.
3) Tell everyone that you got this scratch while you were doing some hard wheelin' on a trail that everyone thinks is too tough to handle. Now that scratch is a badge of honor and you can flex on your buddies!
4) Find the person or persons who did this to your beloved 4Runner, string them up by the heals and cut them with 1,000 papercuts. Then, dowse them in alcohol. If you need help, I'm available and have extensive experience with torture methods (the Army trained me!).

 

I understand your feelings, after I got first scratch on my truck I was very upset and spend few hours to buff it off. But then I went off-road again, had to go through thick bushes, got some more scratches and finally stopped worrying about scratches which don't go to the bare metal after few off road tips. So as a variant you can take your truck off road and get some more scratches on it - just give your truck more character.

Or you can try to buff it off with good scratch remover if it's not very deep, you might not get it off completely but it won't be as noticeable. If you live in the area with those low lifes who key new cars it's not worth to spend quite a bit money to repaint whole door in my opinion, if scratch wen to the metal I would try to fix it maybe at some good shop, touch paint might work, but only if you good at that. I used touch paint to fill small rock chips, but on larger scratch it would be highly visible.

 

I'm a retired Manufacturer's paint Territory Manager (PPG). I can't tell if the scratch is deep enough to get through the clear coat into the color basecoat.
If it's in the clearcoat, take it to a detailer, if you don't have the right tools, knowledge and materials. They will wet sand it 2-3 times, each time stepping up a grade in grit. Then polish and wax for an invisible repair. However, that will always be an area to maintain. Your clearcoat, which protects the basecoat from UV and chemicals won't have enough film build. You'll need to reapply a good wax (Meguires #26) after every time you wash it.
If the scratch is through the clearcoat, then you need to sand and prime the scratch. Sand the adjacent panel with 1000+ grit. Then after sanding and feathering the primer, dust in the color, use another paint gun to melt in the over spray edges with blending solvent, and then clearcoat both panels with 2 full wet clearcoats.
Good luck. Let me know what you did.

 

Check the link. Mine was way worse. I did it myself, the pinstripes and the buff job. I thought that the stripes were into the primer and I was wasting my time even trying to fix this mess. Imagine my joy when I was finished.

https://www.4runners.com/threads/pinstripes-ill-show-you-pinstripes.22335/

 

Thanks for the advice. All of the scratches are deep, all the way to bare metal so I’m definitely going to need the primer and paint.

 

Count me in. My dash cam is set to pick up movement day or night. I know it's hind sight, but maybe invest in one of those. My wife's car got door damage while parked in a lot, the cam started recording when the car was hit and picked up the car leaving. We turned the video over to the police and the culprit was found. He paid for the repair along with a couple of citations

 

Sorry this happened......a little bit of this for who did it!

 

There is no factory paint, just a specific color. Toyota doesn't create a color and manufacture 100,000 gallons or whatever it takes to paint every vehicle that comes off the line. They create a color formula.

Any shop can use the same color formulation. Will it always match ever vehicle that comes off the line, no, but neither does the factory. Paint a vehicle one day and another a month later and there will be a difference. So, it'll match better than your eye can see, and they'll blend it within the panel. You'll never see it.

DO NOT use touch up paint. You will f'it up.

 

"There is no factory paint, just a specific color. Toyota doesn't create a color and manufacture 100,000 gallons or whatever it takes to paint every vehicle that comes off the line. They create a color formula.

Any shop can use the same color formulation. Will it always match ever vehicle that comes off the line, no, but neither does the factory. Paint a vehicle one day and another a month later and there will be a difference. So, it'll match better than your eye can see, and they'll blend it within the panel. You'll never see it.
DO NOT use touch up paint. You will f'it up."



Not much of this is correct. Automakers don't create a color. They work with styling and color studios from paint makers. PPG, DuPont (now Axalta), Basf and Akzo are the top OE paint suppliers. German suppliers Spies Hecker, Standox and Glasurit are owned by BASF and Axalta. Car makers don't have paint, chemists or color formulators. Toyota uses Nippon and PPG at the OE plants. You can't use factory paint in a Collision Center/body shop and you can't use refinish paint at the Factory. Factory paint, epoxy sealer, color/basecoats and clear coats are all baked at temps over 250 degrees on the paint lines. They are totally stripped, no rubber, no plastic, no wiring , no Computers, etc. If you did that to an assembled car, it would never start again. Everything but metal panels would melt. OE Plastic pieces (bumper covers, cowls, etc.) are painted in separate paint lines with different coatings that are low bake. That's why many colors that are high metallic look different. Bumpers don't always match the metal. Even in a refinish paint booth, where some can get to 170 Degrees, if you bake cars over 140 degrees, they won't start to drive out of the booth, you've melted electronic chips. Conversely, if you were to use refinish paint on the paint line at the OEM plant and cooked it at 250+ degrees, that paint would blister, yellow and wrinkle.
So, shops that make invisible repairs do so this way and insurance companies, notorious for denying extra processes, will pay for them to do it right. Metallics, Pearl coats and tri coats are more difficult. The proper way to fix yours only involves two panels since the scratch is so far back. If it was in the middle, it would be a 3 panel repair. They would sand down to the metal to remove the scratch. Then, they would use body filler if it was dented, but yours isn't. They would sand it with 2 different grits, Then, they have to use a non-sanding epoxy primer/etch to warranty the bare metal from corrosion. Then a primer surfacer (must be sanded) to fill the sand scratches. Then they clean and scuff the adjacent panels with very fine sandpaper. After sanding and cleaning the car/truck is masked off and covered in plastic to prevent overspray getting in/on anything. Then when it's in the paint booth (you never sand and prep in the booth) they do a final clean wipe, tack it off and apply a wet on wet tinted, low film build urethane sealer. Then they spray the first coat of base color on the repair, staying close to that area, then, they apply a 2nd color coat extending out past the first coat, going past the repair to get full color coverage. Then they extend a 3rd coat into the edges of the adjacent panels, which fools the eye. They melt the dry edges with blending solvent. Wait 10 minutes and clearcoat all 3 panels with 2 coats of high solids clear with about 10 minutes flash time between coats. After baking in the booth, they roll it out, unmask it and then buff and polish. THAT creates an invisible repair, even if you are combing it with a magnifying glass. The only thing that the comment I'm replying to has right, is don't use touch up paint. It will stand out worse that the scratch and will rust underneath, weakening the panel and staining the touch up paint. Call your insurance company. It's at least a $1400.00 repair. Trust me, 40+ years in the Automotive and Aerospace coatings industry.

 

This is enlightening. Thank you. You learn something new every day. Not too long ago I took a rare older BMW into a high end paint shop for an estimate to correct a clear coat burn inflicted by a detailer who didn't know what they were doing. Unfortunately the location of the burn was going to necessitate the blending of 2 panels, pillars, and the roof. The paint shop described the process of matching the paint (it was silver) and it sounded like a nightmare. He said they would have to create multiple "paint cards" to make sure they got the match as close to perfect as possible.... almost trial and error until they got it right.

 

What a dickhead move. Whoever this person is, I'm breaking out the voodoo dolls and will be doing horrible things to them.

 

Haha, you're not saying something I'm not. We're saying the same thing, you're just using more words.

 

They're correct. I can take 1 pint of silver or high metallic colors like Ice Blue, gold or metallic green and get 16 different shades out of that can by using different solvents (slow dry, aluminum flakes sink- fast solvents and they dry too fast and stay on the top.) Air pressure, high air pressure dries faster-lighter, low pressures dries slower and darker. Combine different solvents with different air pressures, and the color is all over the board. Paint formulas for the same color in a shop may have 6 variant color chips. Thow in temperature and humidity differences and it's a mess. There's a reason that a pro painter makes the money that he does. It's a precise process to do it right. Painting a complete car is much easier than matching and blending high metallics, pearls and tri coats.

 

Take it to some brushy trails and it'll blend right in

 

It can be repaired but you aren't likely to find a body shop with people skilled in how to do it correctly. You might have better luck with a detailer or someone that often specializes in preservation.

You're right, a repaint won't often be the same. And most body shops will need to blend because they are butchers.

https://youtu.be/I-YLiNXixTk?si=lSRHZA16wjJxtYWQ

 

This explanation really helps me understand what I should be expecting a competent body shop to do, much appreciated. You were right on the money too, I was quoted $1650 from my local Toyota collision center.

I have another concern about the repair. I applied a paint sealant a few weeks ago (Turtle Wax Seal and Shine) which I believe has silicone in it and from what I’ve read, silicone can cause issues with painting. I’m concerned about it affecting the quality of the repair/paint job. Is there anything I should do before hand to ensure the body shop is able to get the best results? Should I just let them know in advance and let them handle it?

 

No dealer has a paint booth and even if they did those retard clowns would be the last place on earth I would have paint my truck I would take it to maaco before them. They all out source to the cheapest body shop

 

TLDR, but in case nobody mentioned it, it wouldn’t hurt to try touching up a small section to see how it looks.

 

people on this thread said it’s an absolutely horrible idea and I concur it’s like putting a band aid on a giant pimple on your nose it screams attention

 

The best solution is to get some touch up paint, and then offroad it like you borrowed it from your in-laws.

 

Agreed, but won’t hurt anything.

 

If you off road I'd recommend touch up paint, wet sand and polish.

If you want it to stay perfect you may just have to get it resprayed or professionally repaired.
I beat on my rig too much for all that though