Scratches Fix

[DrumAce]

Hello friends,
A few days ago I did a terrible mistake and accidentally closed the garage door on the tailgate of the Explorer. Unfortunately now there are some scratches on the paint and the black plastic trim (see attached photo). I tried to contact some Ford service centres but they referred me to collision centers as they don’t do paint touch ups.
I thought I’d ask you what would be the best way to get this fixed so there’s no way to tell something happened to the tailgate.

Thank you

 

[2020FordRaptor]

Hello friends,
A few days ago I did a terrible mistake and accidentally closed the garage door on the tailgate of the Explorer. Unfortunately now there are some scratches on the paint and the black plastic trim (see attached photo). I tried to contact some Ford service centres but they referred me to collision centers as they don’t do paint touch ups.
I thought I’d ask you what would be the best way to get this fixed so there’s no way to tell something happened to the tailgate.

Thank you

Those are some really deep scratches. Ford used to make touch up pens, they still might and you could use that on the actual paint. I’d search for those. You’ll probably need to replace the rear emblem, but you could get a black emblem set (front and rear) from Ford for $110 and they will look a lot better too! The pens should make it look a little better, but it’s hard to tell if they’ll hide it well depending on the thickness of the scratches.

 

[cheetoduster]

You might try something simple like Dr Color Chip, or just a touch up pen. If you want to get really fancy you can try something like this:

You'll need to replace the emblem/trim piece.

 

[EDWYER]

@DrumAce Try some Chemical guys VSS w/ an orbital on the paint.

 

[Drsobczakst]

Hello friends,
A few days ago I did a terrible mistake and accidentally closed the garage door on the tailgate of the Explorer. Unfortunately now there are some scratches on the paint and the black plastic trim (see attached photo). I tried to contact some Ford service centres but they referred me to collision centers as they don’t do paint touch ups.
I thought I’d ask you what would be the best way to get this fixed so there’s no way to tell something happened to the tailgate.

Thank you

So there are a few things here.
1. Do you have a white G-door? some of this looks like pain transfer vs scratching down to the metal. There are for sure scratches going to be there regardless. Yeah i know this sounds silly but trust me, my wife did this to het XLT years ago and it wasn't as bad as it looked. Run your fingernail along the area left to right, if you only feel a slight drag then it could be paint transfer from the door and not as deep as you think.
2. Get a clay bar kit from Walmart or your fav auto parts store. Wash the area softly to get and trash off if and try it off. apply the clay bar lube and then clay bar the area. this will pull all the trash out of the paint and should take off any paint transfer that might be there. Then wipe the area with a micro- fiber towel. (paint transfer can be anything by the way, it could be the coating on the door hinges of the Garage door.
3. Now you have a clean true surface to inspect. This will tell you how bad your scratches are.
4. From here you can determine if you want to try and buff them out yourself or have ship do it.

 

[BrooseDaMoose]

Emblem and trim definately need to be replaced. You could always use the black overlays for the emblems also. I've had the carbon fiber ones on for about a year now.

 

[J368]

I'd get a mobile paint guy to fix that. They can fix the paint part of it for $100. I've had it done a couple times over the years on different vehicles. You'll never know it happened.

 

[DrumAce]

So there are a few things here.
1. Do you have a white G-door? some of this looks like pain transfer vs scratching down to the metal. There are for sure scratches going to be there regardless. Yeah i know this sounds silly but trust me, my wife did this to het XLT years ago and it wasn't as bad as it looked. Run your fingernail along the area left to right, if you only feel a slight drag then it could be paint transfer from the door and not as deep as you think.
2. Get a clay bar kit from Walmart or your fav auto parts store. Wash the area softly to get and trash off if and try it off. apply the clay bar lube and then clay bar the area. this will pull all the trash out of the paint and should take off any paint transfer that might be there. Then wipe the area with a micro- fiber towel. (paint transfer can be anything by the way, it could be the coating on the door hinges of the Garage door.
3. Now you have a clean true surface to inspect. This will tell you how bad your scratches are.
4. From here you can determine if you want to try and buff them out yourself or have ship do it.

This was caused by the rubber seal at the bottom of the garage door which wasn’t clean obviously and had some tiny stones on it (which might explain the white colour).
I received an estimate for the repair and I was blown away. They want around $1300 USD because they say they need to paint the entire tailgate because of its shape and lines. Needless to say, I’m not going to go that route and an insurance claim is also not an option as the deductible is more than half of that amount and next year the premiums will go up if I file a claim.

 

[BrooseDaMoose]

Even having to paint the whole tailgate, that is very high! Two hours at most of prep work, an hour to paint and clear, couple more hours to polish and reassemble, that’s $625 using a shop rate of $125/hr. Add in for a new trim piece and emblem at about $200, plus paint at about $150. That’s $975 out the door and that’s a very high estimate! I’m sure they could have it off, stripped and prepped in under an hour! I would go to a couple more shops and tell them you are paying out of pocket. They always jack up the estimate when insurance is paying! But if you tell them you’re paying for it they will give you a better price.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk