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Totally ticked off!

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Main Forum' started by nudriver, May 28, 2020.

  1. nudriver

    nudriver Member

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    What is this garbage? Did I scrape against a curb that was marked red? Since when does the red paint come off onto cars and how do I get this crap off? Any help much appreciated. Even more appreciated would be stories of similar things or worse situations to make me feel better!
     

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  2. 2012 Prius v wagon 3

    2012 Prius v wagon 3 Active Member

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    In this case, you can probably get a long way back to good again by buffing it out. Buy some rubbing compound at your local auto store, and follow the instructions. It should get rid of the other guy's paint, without damaging yours.

    2gbftf.jpg
     
  3. KennyGS

    KennyGS Senior Member

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    I accidentally rubbed a curb a while back, which scraped/gouged that same area. Bought some filler, matching paint and clearcoat. With careful application of the filler, sanding and painting, it's nearly impossible to tell it happened, especially that low on the car. The total cost was less than $20.
     
  4. nudriver

    nudriver Member

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    Hang on. You think this may have come from another car?!
     
  5. nudriver

    nudriver Member

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    Nice! I assume I can get that all on Amazon. Any recommendations on specific products?
     
  6. Grit

    Grit Senior Member

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    Glad that you walked away safely, could have been worse like car body damage or trip to the hospital. Trading colors was the best case scenario from car accidents.
     
  7. KennyGS

    KennyGS Senior Member

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    Just in case you're a perfectionist, this is a pricy choice, and probably way too much for what you need
    2012 Toyota Prius Colors of Touch Up Paint


    I went to a local auto store. With the location of that damage being close to the ground, it doesn't need to be perfect.
     
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  8. nudriver

    nudriver Member

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    Bro- there was no accident. I think I hit a curb but still confused how the color could come off onto my car.
     
  9. 2012 Prius v wagon 3

    2012 Prius v wagon 3 Active Member

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    Car, curb, or something else. Not clear whether you hit it, or it hit you. (*) None of that really matters at this point.

    Paint transfer during impacts like that is definitely something that happens.

    Being so low on the car, it may be a location where perfect reconstruction is not needed. Really, I'd start off with the rubbing compound and see how good you can get it. Nothing to lose by doing that.

    Working up from there, you can do some simple body work and some matched-color spray paint if you want to do it all yourself. But unless you have skills in that area that match your desire for perfection, you may not be happy with how it comes out. And unlike the rubbing compound, which can only make things better, you could make it worse with a botched body work experiment.

    (*) If I had to guess, just based on that photo, I'd guess you were making a U-turn (full lock to the left), so the right front corner was dipping, and you barely scraped a red-painted curb, while running from the cops, following a bank robbery. Close?
     
  10. nudriver

    nudriver Member

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    It just occurred to me that since the main thing that bugs me is the red paint because it shows up so strongly, maybe just applying paint thinner will be enough? Again, does anyone know if red curbs give off color and how strongly it sticks?
     
  11. The Electric Me

    The Electric Me Go Speed Go!

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    I'd stop worrying about "how" it happened. Just focus on trying to fix it.
    Whatever that red is, and however it got on your vehicle, you're going to discover yourself how strongly it sticks. Who cares whether red curbs give off color or not? I think we're not even exactly sure how this happened so the speculation is worthless.

    My assumption, is that it got on your vehicle, it can be removed.
    There seems to be other scratches, damage in that area? Was there pre-existing damage?
    The red is probably very recoverable. The areas where the paint seems totally gone? Or the paint is missing down to the primer..different story.

    Covid Crisis might make this more difficult, but a good body shop/detailer could probably pretty quickly buff that situation down to it's baseline damage. Then you could decide whether you can live with it. Or whether you want to pursue more cosmetic work.
    If you try yourself, with any compounds, just be careful and spot test small areas first.
     
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  12. Leadfoot J. McCoalroller

    Leadfoot J. McCoalroller Senior Member

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    If the curb was painted very recently before you applied your curb detector, sure. It would transfer very easily.

    On the other hand, the particular shade of red really makes me think I'm seeing filler from a previous repair on this bumper cover- not paint transferred from street furniture.
     
  13. nudriver

    nudriver Member

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    I think someone finally figured it out! Yes, that makes sense. A few years ago I was in a front-end collision and that bumper area was replaced. I now suspect that the red color is not paint external to the car, but paint revealed under the top coat due to the gashes. But why would the original part have been red? It's important to know this is the cause because, contrary to some of the people here claiming it doesn't matter how it happened, I now know I can't clean it off.
     
    2012 Prius v wagon 3 likes this.
  14. Leadfoot J. McCoalroller

    Leadfoot J. McCoalroller Senior Member

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    Some auto body repair substances have certain colors. The red bits on your bumper look somewhat like red glazing putty. This putty is used in conjunction with plastic fillers in body repair. It is available in several "speeds" relating to how long they take to set and harden, each grade dye-marked with a specific color. Red is medium, and as such, very common.

    Bumper covers are very dark gray, almost black when manufactured; they must be primed and painted for every use. My auto body experience is largely limited to classic vehicles which pre-date the modern plastic bumper cover. I understand that there are different substances intended for use on those flexible covers, so I can't say if glazing putty is an appropriate prep layer.

    Regardless of the base material, the way you'd prove that it is old filler vs. transferred curb paint is to try removing a bit with some solvent on a rag. Working from an undamaged area into a damaged area, you'd fairly quickly see which layer was on top. It does not translate well to a photo on the internet.

    In other words, the certainty you seek lies in taking the step you are trying to avoid.
     
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  15. nudriver

    nudriver Member

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    I'm not trying to avoid anything other than taking off surface paint by using thinner on it. I don't follow what you mean by "Working from an undamaged area into a damaged area, you'd fairly quickly see which layer was on top."

    Also, did I post my picture correctly? The only way to post an image on this site seems to be to make that little thumbnail which enlarges when you click on it, so how did that first person who responded get a large image of that beat-up car on there like that?
     
  16. Leadfoot J. McCoalroller

    Leadfoot J. McCoalroller Senior Member

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    You won't damage your properly-applied ordinary finish by rubbing a solvent-wetted rag on it with fingertip pressure. My apologies, I had not realized that this was your concern.

    Transferred paint residue (as by scraping a curb) will come off much, much more readily than the properly cured stuff on your bumper. (It came off the curb easily enough, right?) This is the reason for only using fingertip pressure on a bit of rag- that's enough to lift foreign paint without damaging yours. The thinner/reducer/mineral spirit allows you to use even less pressure without adding much risk to your good paint.

    So if you work the wet rag in a coin-sized circle at the threshold of apparent damage, you would quickly notice that you were pulling up a lot of color in the case of a scrape/transfer, or essentially none if you are seeing a lower layer of your own paint. A quick test like that lets you know whether to continue the cleaning effort.

    If you upload pictures to this site you should have an option to post it as a thumbnail or as a fullsize image- two buttons appear shortly after the image upload completes, while still composing the post. I do it that way myself frequently. If you host the images on another site and then hotlink them here you may get other behavior. Not sure if you used a phone or a desktop browser; my advice relates to the desktop version.
     
  17. Montgomery

    Montgomery Senior Member

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    Bottom line to what all have said, its fixable and can be done at a reasonable price, whether by yourself or calling one of those mobile bumper repairs people.
     
  18. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    There's a couple of ways.

    1. If the image is in "clipboard" (windows system, image currently on-deck to be copied), you can paste directly. Just positiion cursor where you want the image, then type ctrl-v. I'm doing that here:

    upload_2020-5-30_9-46-58.png

    2. If it's an image that resides on your computer, or phone: click the "upload a file" button (as you did I'd assume). Then position cursor where you want, and click the "full image" button:

    upload_2020-5-30_9-48-54.png
    And it'll show like this:

    battery01.jpg

    The interface is a little different on a phone, but all the same functions are there.
     

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  19. Stangar

    Stangar Active Member

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    Yep, . . . close encounters of the third kind. They're out there.
     
  20. Sonic_TH

    Sonic_TH Active Member

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    Well is not so bad, this is how my 2012 Prius C looks from below. I did not makes these, the previous owner did, sadly. The paint cracks on the bonnet i'm not sure how these got there.
     

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