Scratches on side of bodywork

[AlanR]

Can anyone recommend a product which will remove deep scratches from the side of my Hymer. The scratches are on the aluminium sides, not on the plastic

 

 

AlanR

[fred grant]

drive down a cornish lane alan my old biddy and youll match the other side. saves a lot of hassel and money in the long run.

 

farcelafred

[panagah]

Might be worth considering one of these dent devil type people if it on the alluminium. However vans get used and when they do so these things occur. Fact of life that. I have the odd tree mark on mine, it addds character.

[JohnP]

I had the same problem on a Hymer towed caravan a few years ago when I ran it too near a hedge on a camp site.

The body was not dented but a series of light coloured marks were left. These polished out with a suitable polish and this restored the colour. Worth a try DIY, but do not use harsh abrasives

[Usinmyknaus]

We drive in West and East Sussex a lot and the local authorities seem to have all but abandoned keeping the trees back from the roadside so most trips require remedial action to the nearside's aluminium sides and perspex windows.

 

I use Autoglym super resin polish for the aluminium and Autoglym Fast Glass for the windows. I make several applications/polishings using generous amounts of product and apply using clean, soft cloths and small circles with a finger along each scratch and working out from the centre of the damage. After vigorous polishing, I find the process makes the damage much less noticeable.

 

I have an understandable desire to want to want to return the (almost new) vehicle to pristine condition but accept that would be impracticable and expensive and ultimately futile because the lack of basic road maintenenace by the hedge/tree owners and the councils inevitably mean my van will suffer further damage within 2 weeks or so. I am therefore resigned to living with some "battle scars."

 

I am very glad I heeded advice from my long-term pet mechanic who said if I paid the extra £1600 or so for metalic silver finish I would regret it as that would show the scratches far worse than the standard finish and be harder to remedy. The silver Yaris I recently gave to my son travels similar roads and is now covered with scratches which are proving impossible to disguise.

 

Oh, and if anyone is thinking of driving through East and West Sussex at night - make sure you know where to buy nearside replacement mirrors too!

 

Bob

[Ranger]

Hi AlanR, try Simmonize Colour Bullet, available at good motor accessory shops. It is a wax applicator loaded with coloured wax in many different colours, the thing is finding your colour. It is a hand held plastic gadget with a plastic sponge, the handle is full of coloured wax with a button which when pressed loads the sponge with the coloured wax. It is very easy to use and fills in the scatches very well. You will need to re-do it every few washes. Do what it sez on the instructions and you should be quite pleased with the results. I used it on my 4X4 off roader for years, and was very pleased with it.

[Guest Tracker]

For removing surface marks and paint left by abrading trees, cars and other offending protrusions good old fashioned T Cut is hard to beat, followed by a decent wax polish.

 

What it won't do is replace missing paint or remove any surface dents or imperfections, so as long as the paintwork is only marked and not damaged T Cut will do the job.

 

If there are localised deep dents you might find that a strategically placed ventilation grill panel will cover these and not look out of place. These come in many sizes from any caravan accessory shop.

 

For very long scrapes and if you don't want to repaint and respray you could consider some boy racer stripes along the side (even both sides to match?) and these too come in various widths and colours from Halfords or motor factors.

[ROON]

T-Cut also now do a tube of T-Cut plus colour added. I bought some white for my van and black for my car. It cost £6.99 for the tube. It does cover it but they come through after a couple of days.

 

Re other types of scratches. I reversed into a fence post in a car park :-( but stopped virtually straight away. There was no dent but the paint had come off. I had a little tub of white Plasticote which I carry around with me and dabbed it on the dentybit to stop rust coming through. It was several weeks ago and it is still doing well and you cn't see the scratch now so I feel better.