How to Fix a Car

The automotive industry is one of the largest in the entire world, and tens of millions of cars and pickup trucks are produced and sold every year, new and used. A car owner will have expenses beyond the financing, however; vehicles are complex machines, and they sometimes need maintenance, repair, or tuning. Some car owners are enthusiasts who can handle this work alone, while other car owners are urged to visit auto shop and hire crews to take care of this work. A car might need dents pounded out of its body, for example, or it may need a touch up job on its coat of paint. An automotive touch up paint kit is used to fix a damaged patch of the car’s paint, and such paint is available for many different brands. The owner of a Mazda, for example, may invest in Mazda touch up paint work, and Mazda touch up paint will make a car’s paint look like new. Jeep touch up paint may be bought and applied by Jeep owners, and a Dodge paint kit is useful for a Dodge pickup owner. What might happen to a car so that Mazda touch up paint, or other brands, is needed?

Cars and Their Paint

A car is not truly finished until its coat of paint has been applied, and any car that comes off the assembly line has a coat of paint with sealant on its body. Paint comes in a wide variety of colors, but more neutral and soothing colors may be more common. Some cars may be cherry red or vivid yellow, or may even have exotic shades such as violet. Car customers, though, are more likely to find cars in the industry’s established “neutral” colors. That is, the industry officially recognizes white, black, gray, and silver as the industry neutral colors, and they may be the most common shades for cars, SUVs, and pickup trucks. As an example of this, a color marketing specialist named Nancy Lockart recently determined that white has been the most popular car color in North America ever since 2006.

Cars and trucks may suffer trauma to their paint jobs, however, even with paint sealant in place to protect the paint layers. For reference, there is a scale to measure the extent of damage done to a car’s paint job. On this scale, the most minor damage is considered class 1A, while classes 1B, 2, 3, and 4 are progressively more serious cases of paint damage. Class 4 paint damage is the most severe, and may require some real work to fix up on a car’s coat.

What is causing trauma to these car paint jobs? When is it time for Mazda touch up paint, for example? Sometimes, a heavy tree branch might fall on a parked car, such as during an ice storm or after a lightning strike. These heavy tree branches may not only dent the car’s roof, but the branches and twigs may scratch the car’s paint all over. A car that suffers a glancing blow against other vehicles or property may get paint scraped off, such as grazing a fire hydrant or another car. And of course, vandalism is another threat to car paint. It is a common practice to “key” a car; that is, to deliberately drag a key or similar item across a car’s paint job to put ugly scratches on it. A recent Direct Line survey has shown that as much as 52% of all reported car damage is because of key-based vandalism or other scratches.

Paint Fixes

One option is to order Mazda touch up paint or a similar brand online, and the car owner can touch up the paint alone. The owner can check a label on the barrier between the engine compartment and the passenger compartment, and that sticker will explain the car’s paint color code. Once this paint is ordered, the owner may sand down the affected area, then put down primer, paint, and sealant in that order. In other cases, the car’s owner may opt to send the car to a shop for touching up work, and the costs may vary based on the extent of the damage and the part of the car where the damage is found.