I needed to park my car on the street for a few nights and I just discovered someone has deliberately scratched the entire length of the left rear panel of my lovely car. Not down to the primer (i think) and it might hide a bit with some polish - don't know yet.

I'm not really surprised. I live in a lovely, relatively well fed country, but a small percentage feel that if someone else has something nice, they should spoil it. Probably nothing new under the sun really but I am a little pi$$ed off just right now.

I need a few touch ups here and there so eventually I will get the whole car seen to - I'll just add that to the list.

Has anyone else has their car deliberately damaged by someone else? Do you take extra precautions or just accept it's part of the risk owning a piece of rolling art?

 

Sorry to here of your damage. My car had scratches in the clear coat, probably due to contact with a rose bush or similar. If the scratch is not all the way through the color coat you can use clear coat touch up and a fine artists brush to fill the scratch, then wet sand with 2000 paper and polish. All of my defects have disappeared.

 

Sad to hear that, rather spoils the famous words of an airline captain
"We will shortly be landing in Wellington, please set your watch back 50 years"
It's more like 70 years here and I haven't seen this problem yet.
Hope it isn't as bad as you think.

 

Sorry to hear about the damage. I hope it's only the clearcoat and therefore not too difficult to rectify.

Sadly it's been all too common over here for many years.

Graham

 

During the first long trip we took in my new XJR someone "keyed" the right side from the fender leaper to the side mirror. I had just detailed the car and it looked particularly stunning that day.

It happened at a highway rest stop and they didn't do a very good job, I was able to polish it out.

It is really sad that some people are so envious of someone else's nice car that they would do that. Of course, the wonderfully good choices that they have made throughout their lives result in them driving a POS. Good for them. They usually get what they deserve through karma, the justice system or their fellow inmates.

Do you think a jury would rule "justifiable homicide" if you caught someone doing that to your new car?
Vector

 

Neither of our Jaguars has been intentionally vandalized, but some moron keyed the passenger-side bed wall of my Ram pickup about eight years ago. Drove it home, compounded the area, buffed it out, and used my touch-up paint to fill in the places that went down to metal. Let it cure for several weeks, and have kept the scratched line covered in thick wax ever since. It is nearly three feet long, and about four inches of the worst part of the scratch went all the way down to metal....

It doesn't bother me nearly as much as it did the first couple of years after it happened, but I'd still relish getting just two minutes alone in a locked basement with the jackass who did this and got away with it....

 

1. A couple of years ago we bought a new black Honda civic as a daily driver for my wife. We left it overnight in the parking lot of her office. Someone spent hours throwing rocks at it. Dents the size of quarters on every panel, more than 100 in total. every window and mirror scratched and all the trim peeled off. Total damage $9000.
2. 1966 Mustang convertible, red and white 2 tone interior. Strawberry Milkshake thrown into back seat while at the ATM (this happened in 1990 but the pain never goes away)
3. 2010 Ford pickup, keyed down the passenger side while in the grocery

I've only had my XK8 for a week but I fear for her as it is very rare in this part of Canada. The crime rate is almost zero here but we seem to have our share of a**ho**s

This seems to be a real problem in many areas but I think I could solve it with a 12 gauge.

 

Any jury would let you off on a "temporary insanity" defense. Unless they all drove POS cars, lol!
Vector

 

Only if you lived in Texas and it was parked on your driveway, mate.

But in Chris' America... anywhere.

 

Interesting to hear of other's stories. Every country has its a$$holes it seems and it only takes one to spoil a day.

I can relate to the desire of some to harm the perpetrator - that's certainly what I would like to do.







Most of the time I get really positive comments and looks, as I know we all do, so I'll focus on the positive people - for the tiny minority there are panel beaters and spray painters. I'll add this to the cost of ownership - which otherwise comes with so many benefits.

 

I am so sorey to hear that :-( Mine sleeps in a car port and I always worry...

 

What's the correct polish to get from 2000 grit to high gloss? I've been unsuccessful following 2000 grit with the "polish" step using off-the-shelf consumer products. I have a vague haze over my clearcoat repair I can't get rid of. Pros use a progression of two levels of compound and pads, and avoid consumer products.

 

I'd start using a random orbital polisher (Porter Cable 7424 or 7336) with Lake Country(or other quality pad) Yellow, Orange, White, Green and Black pads. You'll learn the aggressiveness of the cut of each of those pads (they aren't in order), and I prefer Meguiar's 84,83, 82 and then 80 in that order to polish(start with the least agressive, lowest numerically, and if it doesn't work, move up and then move back down). Join Autopia.org and they'll help you learn how to detail at a professional level. To buy all the products I listed above is somewhat expensive, and just to get the polisher, pads and polishes would be in the neighborhood of $300-350 US. The plus is you have the materials and some experience to do quite a bit of paint correction in the future.

I don't think that level of scratch, 2000 grit, is requiring a rotary polisher; as I've removed 2000 grit scratches on my factory jaguar paint in quick order with a random orbital. My front bumper was looking a little crappy(had a tiny bit of paint transfer from former owner) and I wet sanded and buffed it back to factory glory.

Remember though that the best paint correction is the one that takes as little paint away as possible, so always try the least aggressive polish and pad combo first and move up if necessary. The polishes are literally grinding away paint, and even though the ones I mentioned are diminishing abrasive polishes, its still paint thats gone. On my cars, I go for 80-90% of surface scratches removed on the idea that I'll accumulate more and can get them next year. You can always use a glaze to help hide the scratches left. I've painted motorcycles and cars, and would much rather not do that lol. The first time I punched through a clear coat I was so pissed, but I learned a valuable lesson, and luckily it was on a 16yo Lincoln Town Car on the bottom part of a door.

 

Well it's supposed to be a jury of your peers, right?
My peers are other XK owners... I'd insist on that.

Sorry to hear about Wellington, though. Never been there
but from my distant remove I have always thought of it
as a nearly-perfect place.

 

I've had a great deal of success going to 2500, then Meguiar's 105 using a Meguiar's wool pad. Follow that with Meguiar's 205 and a grey Meguiar's foam pad. protect it with the Meguiar's #26 carnuba wax.

Just learning Jaguar paint. This was used on BRG (solid) and the clearcoat seemed pretty thick. I did not hit color during this process.

 

This was my experience with vandalism: https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...ed-work-56966/

Mine turned out to have a happy ending.

 

Sadly many of the masses are animals. That type of behavior is similar to a dog or cat urinating on something to mark its place. I could never quite get inside the head of someone who would intentionally damage someone else's nice vehicle. Only slightly less abominable are those idiots who recklessly open their door into your car.

Doug