I would not respray for such a minor scratch. I would not expect thousands of dollars in free PPF, I would expect a sincere apology, a discount perhaps, and the best possible touch up that doesn't involve a respray. Frankly I'd rather live with that scratch than live with a respray.

 

I am coming to the same conclusion. I'm going to ask for discount, mentioned that the car is somewhat devalued, I'm thinking in the range of 10 to 25%.
I will accept the decreased value. That said both PTS and the base price of the car have increased significantly for the 2024 model year.

 

I don't believe this scratch has decreased the value of your car. You mentioned you're going to autocross it. I'm assuming this won't be a garage queen that only gets out for cars and coffee. Protect your car. Enjoy your car. Something happens? That's what insurance are for. Even with PPF you can still get rock chip blemishes. Just don't sweat it. It's a car at the end of the day. Just drive it.

 

I’m sure sorry see the damage and hear about your wife. There’s always a risk involved with leaving your car in the care of others, no matter the supposed level of professionalism. Just pretend it happened randomly and that will help ease the initial pain. I agree professional touch up, 98% perfect PPF will hide it very well.

 

I’m really sorry to hear about your wife. I wish her the best.

That scratch is minor. It should be easy to touch up. There is no way I’d let anyone respray that. It will be 100% invisible (literally). Over the years, I’ve had many far worse blemishes and worse occur to my cars so, unfortunately, I’ve seen how easy it now is to fix these things. It’s really gotten to the point where I don’t obsess or worry like I did 20-30 years ago. Back then, I never saw a repair that was truly invisible. Now, body shops work miracles to make serious damage vanish. Your scratch far from serious and is absolutely nothing to worry about. Yeah, it hurts to have this happen to your new dream-come-true, but it’s nothing to worry about.

BTW, I’m a big ST fan and am currently rewatching the original series in order (on DVD) for the 4th time.

 

Bribe with a C-note

 

Accidents happen, and it can be touched up; if you have a number of other cars and want to develop a relationship with that otherwise excellent shop you may want to build goodwill instead of trying to get them to compensate you. Let's face it even a free full wrap won't really be enough to make you feel better and forget the accident. You spent so much on the pts and waiting to get the car etc. I would let it slide, these shops aren't making much money nowadays with increased ppf prices etc.

Delicate touch you and ppf over it and you won't be able to see it, move on... cars come and go

 

Is it safe to touch up and PPF so soon? Won’t it just come off when the PPF is removed?

 

Make sure this doesn’t get reported to things like CarFax! This would cause valuation problems for you when it comes time to part with the car. I just experienced this on a truck I traded in. I was towing a boat through (ugh) Atlanta on my way to the Keys. A damn concrete truck driver sideswiped my boat trailer on the left side (hit & run jackass). He hit the tandem fender of the trailer never touching the boat or truck. Unbeknownst to me, the accident report which I never received had the truck listed as being sideswiped. Took some extra time at the dealership to have them understand the truck was not touched and no diminished value was realistic for the truck. Avoid that sort of hassle if at all possible.

 

I use this place for all my new cars….

https://www.firstding.com

 

😂🤣

 

Love it!

 

I would fix it and drive the car with my wife. In the end it doesn’t matter, it’s just a scratch. As for asking for a discount i think is excessive, have him fix it at his cost and move on. I think a discount request will put bad juju on the car and end up with something worse. Maybe look into the art of Wabi Sabi and enjoy the time you have with your wife. https://japanobjects.com/features/wabi-sabi

 

Very sorry to hear about your wife, my good friend is going through the same thing.

In regards to the scratch I would first touch it up as others have said and if you find after time it still bothers you, you can always get it repainted.

 

Hello Denny. I've read many of your posts and enjoyed them.
I met with my car buddies today, one of which is in the automotive business.
There is no doubt that the consensus is don't respray the fender.
It's almost impossible to get an exact match is what I am hearing from them and many of you, and even if the color matches, the orange peel probably won't. And even if those two criteria were met, the paint depth will be different and easily detectable with a gauge.

The headlight bevel doesn't get as much light as the flat surfaces and whatever the deficits of the touchup or the respray of just the bevel, won't show up much...and 1/3 of the scratch area is covered
by the headlight.

And it is very true that there is of course more damage to come in the course of driving a car like this as it is meant to be. I do intend to use Xpel Tracwrap to temporarily place another layer of PPF on the most vulnerable areas and remove it after competition.

The bottom line is in the greater scheme of things it's not that big a deal… It's not cancer or injury! Thank you for all the kind wishes to my wife from everyone. We have a game plan for the fight and hopefully it will work.