[nitishk]

I have been a victim in my own building, its the neighbours, unfortunately, they dont have a car of their own(even though they can jolly well afford it).

My micra got scratches in the first week, can anyone imagine, first week. As for my dzire, used to keep that one under wraps for a year and yet I got some nasty ones on the driver gate. Was planning to get it fixed but after I saw the state of my Micra, I just let it be. I know what's going to happen as soon as I get it fixed.

My best mates, rubbing compound, have tried and managed to remove some of these scratches. Its a nuisance, something which I cannot do anything about.

[Mortis]

Other than 3M Im not sure. You can buy the film online on ebay also and do some areas by yourself.
My friend has got his entire Creta covered in PPF from 3M and it cost him 90k

[Sherlocked]

Getting the whole car wrapped doesn't make much sense economically and takes away the "feel good factor" too in my opinion.
For 90k, one could get the entire car repainted.
The wrap will protect that panel from scratches but what if it gets dented. In that case, the wrap will have to be peeled away anyway to repair the dent. And then rewrap it after painting the panel. It's like double taxation. Only much worse.

Coming to the subject of this thread-
Even our WagonR has been a poor victim of vandalism while in Delhi. The entire right hand side has been deeply scratched. The scratches are horrible to say the least. I can't imagine why somebody will go to such an extent to destroy someone else's property. Imbeciles.

[poloman]

Originally Posted by Mortis

Other than 3M Im not sure. You can buy the film online on ebay also and do some areas by yourself.
My friend has got his entire Creta covered in PPF from 3M and it cost him 90k

Is this for real? How can he spent so much money for something which is not effective against dents and most of the wear and tear one encounters on Indian roads? For that money kind of he can do bodywork for a panel 30 times or repaint the entire car 3 times.

[Mortis]

To each their own. Forget about dents for the moment but he might be having peace of mind knowing that he is safe from the normal minor scratches and scrapes as well as vandals.
As for me, I am happy knowing that I have found myself a good painter to care of my car

[haria]

Originally Posted by nitishk

I have been a victim in my own building,

I can relate to this! I have had my shares of damages caused to my car parked in the street.

Many years back, a few months after I bought my car, a construction crew who was working on a nearby house dropped a tile and bang went my windshield plus a few scratches on the bonnet. After many failed promises of repair by the building contractor, I got it repaired under insurance

Many minor incidents with kids on bicycles, left its own mark on my car.

An old lady who wanted to chase a dog away had lousy aim and hit the windshield - a small chip occurred on the windshield, and I just let it stay.

After the initial few attempts of getting worked up and repainting my car at each occurence, I just decided to let it go and learned to live with it! Not very happy, but parking in the streets one has to compromise!

The latest occurence, where I was irritated beyond belief was when a small kid of a construction crew who was at work in a building nearby decided to exhibit his artistic talents by drawing squiggles and modern art with a stone on the car of my freshly serviced, squiggly clean and polished car. He managed to leave his mark on ALL the panels including the rear boot door! His parents (the mason and his wife) who were working on the site were apologetic and when they started to thrash the child, I told them to stop and let it go. The kid was too young - about 4 or 5 years and most probably he didn't realize what he was doing.

I just decided to let that eye sore remain, as the estimate was close to rs.30k for repainting (all the panels) and doubtful reimbursement from insurance as it involved all the panels. Initial few days, I used to feel the pang seeing the scratches, but I have learned to ignore it and just live with it! Probably I will get the ones on the bonnet and front panel repainted from a FNG when I have a few days leisure time.

[nitinbose]

Had my car rubbed, polished, along with a full body painting. I feel its 99.9% perfect!

I've decided to keep my car underground till these issues get sorted.

Are there any other bhpian's with KA registration driving in TN/Chennai? If yes, what's your experience?

[msdivy]

Guess who vandalized the car?

Video link:

https://www.facebook.com/mohmmad.sha...13421425430102

(check the video, I have no idea what the accompanying text says).

PS: I have been in a similar situation - when I had parked outside a relative's house. Damage, right & left fender chewed up, half of bumper grille, again chewed up. Fortunately, bumper held fine. The body work person told me the dogs were incited by the rats. Is it true?

[crdi]

Originally Posted by msdivy

Guess who vandalized the car? The body work person told me the dogs were incited by the rats. Is it true?

My dog has the tendency to do the same whenever he detects new odours (human/animal) on the car. Usually happens after a garage visit. Once he badly chewed up an alloy, leaving deep bite marks all over the wheel. Another one chewed up the wiring on a thar. I have noticed the same behaviour when he detects territory markings by other canines on the car, which might have happened while being parked outside.
These days I wash the wheels, fenders, bumpers after a garage visit or if I see territory markings on the wheels and that seems to serve the purpose.

[GTO]

Shocker! Watch this video of a 10 year old kid setting a car (rather, it's cover) on fire!

Mid-Day Link

[chethanprao]

Some low-life scratched all over my car when it was parked in the Bangalore town-hall area a week ago. Mine is a New Ford Figo Hatchback, TDCI Titanium, Ruby red color, bought in Dec 2015. I think a very sharp object was used as the marks on the car are very deep.

I am contemplating 2 things - need all your advice on both.

1. Leave the scratches on the door panel, front and back fenders as it is but get a patch-up paint work done from a local but professional car paint shop for the bonnet. This is just to avoid the possibility of rust formation on the bonnet due to exposure to moisture as the cuts are very deep and hence exposes the metal underneath.

2. Claim insurance and go for a full repaint at Ford A.S.S body shop. I visited the body shop yesterday and the guy over there told me that re-painting the bonnet, 2 doors, front and back fenders will cost 25,500 after tax. If insurance claim is approved, I’ll have to shell out some 3-4k from my pocket.

Now, I’m confused. I feel so bad for the car that I’m very much inclined to go for Option #2. But I’m worried that -

1. The repaint may cause a slight but noticeable change in color on the parts that were repainted as compared to rest of the car.
2. Removing the doors, fenders, bonnet will mean that the car will no longer have the same precision body fit that it came from the factory with. I’m worried if the refitting is not up to the mark after the repaint, it’ll open up a new bunch of problems like vibrations, leakages etc.
3. Assuming Ford will be doing manual hand painting, I’m worried whether they’ll do enough to make sure that it doesn’t look like a shoddy paint job. The last thing i’ll need is to still feel the scratches even after the repaint is done or have rectangular patches on the car.

What do you guys think? I highly appreciate any inputs. Thanks in advance.

[itwasntme]

Ouch!

I suggest:
1. Go for the best Ford A.S.S. painting shop you can find based on your 'feel' and Net reviews. Ensure they have the OEM paint colour as confirmed by the factory.
2. Claim insurance to minimize the blow.
3. Your worries on precision fit etc. I think are misplaced as the parts damaged are easily removed and fitted back after painting. It's not a dashboard refitting case where they the techs may not be adept in putting everything back exactly as factory-fit.

[Mr.mitsuvolk]

The same thing happened to my father's car a couple of years back and ultimately we got the car repainted. There was no other way to get her back in shape. Also, had to shell a decent sum since the insurance was comprehensive and not zero dep. Initially there were minor issues like one of the doors wasn't aligned properly but all that was rectified promptly.

My advise to you will be to go for a complete repaint, you can make frequent visits to the paint shop while the work is under progress, just for peace of mind.

[Lalvaz]

Go to your neighbourhood garage. These scratches are very easy to fix and the paint jobs are so good that its usually hard to tell the difference. Much cheaper than going to Ford.

[saion666]

I really want to understand the psychology of people who do such things. It's really disheartening to see a new car being subject to this.

The same was done to my car by a cycle rickshaw-puller where he purposely brushed his rickshaw throughout the length of my parked car. The bottom left side has ugly marks. I have left it as it is as I am really not sure on the colour matching/finish by A.S.S. I had to replace a bumper before and the results were not satisfactory(though the colour matched but there was orange peel effect, small dust particles in paint, not so flush fitted bumper and what not). I make sure to wax the areas to prevent rust.