Help!!!

Last night I was working on my car and had a razor knife in my hand. The knife slipped outta my hand hit the roof panel and of course scratched the heck outta out of it. Well I grabbed some rubbing compund and made a bad situation worse. Now I have a scratch and swirl marks to go with it. I had the car painted as I am no body man. So is there anything I can do to fix this or can a pro get the swirls and scratch out.:mad:

A "pro" can do anything. It might require repainting something, but they can do it. First, is it single stage or a base clear? If it's single and you can hang your fingernail in the scratch, there's a good chance you're screwed. If it's a base clear, then the scratch might only be in the clear. If that's the case then it can be fixed with some judicious massaging.

Adam....thoughts?

Thanks Runner,

Paint is single stage, if it needs repaint can they blend the area or will they have to do the entire roof?

69's telling you right. As to whether they can blend the area or have to do the whole roof, if it needs painted, let the guy painting it tell you. Odds are you will need the whole roof painted. Trying to blend in a small area almost always leaves a cloud of some sort. If you do the whole roof, it can be taken to rolls in the body that helps the blend, plus, a blend does need area to blend into, sort of like a fade paint.

Gonna depend on how the color was applied too, even things as small as air pressure can affect the shade and toning of the finish.

Well I took the car to a friend of mine Le Hodge (Hodge Restorations). He got out the scratches and swirls I put in the paint w/o repainting. Had to pull off the stobe stripe to get at it the right way. Now I don't know if I want to put a new stripe on or not. It was not orginal option to the car anyway.:no:

Glad you solved the problem. FYI if it happens to be a BC/CC and your fingernail catches on the scratch as you drag your fingernail across it (as 69 runner said) it is risky to try and polish as burn through will likely occur. If repaint is out of the question, filling the scratch with catalysed clear (careful brushing) and allowing to cure (couple of days)then wetsanding and polishing is an option. Depending on colour this can be very effective. I recently did this on my wifes new black mettalic R/T on the hood and unless I point it out you would never likely see it. This works only if it's in the clear. Remember, properly applied paint is only the thickness of a sheet of typing paper, 3-5 mils thick, and the clear is usually 2 mils of that amount.

Good point 66. Le said they wet sanded the entire roof and polished and sealed the entire car. Actually the paint has not looked better and the body work is less than a year old. But he said any deeper and we would never get it out w/o re-spray.