Outside door post scratches

[Alexw]

Morning All!
This is my first post as a Porsche owner having recently bought a '89 944 S2. Its in good condition but there is loads of little scratches on the door post, between the 2 windows. The car is white, but these are black and because of the scratches the white paint is showing up beneath. What sort of paint should i use to get this back to normal? Im a little but puzzled about it, my first idea was to sand it all back to white and paint it in some sort of black paint. Anyone know the correct way of doing this?

 

[Diver944]

Hi Alex, welcome to the forum.

Pictures could help with this (though it's difficult to see minor scratches properly in a photo). Depending on how deep the scratches are and if the metal has been scratched you can either feather the entire area totally flat using wet/dry paper in various grades getting finer and finer to about 1500 grit. Or you can fill the scratches with a fine stopper filler and then sand it totally flat again with finer and finer grades of wet/dry until you finish at 1500. The paint itself should be a matt (or satin) black and will need no laquer over the top or it will be too glossy.

 

[Alexw]

cracking stuff, thats what i was after. I thought that was all it needed, ive done a few paint repair jobs before so this should be easy. The scratches are only light, looks like it might be from keys in someones hand when opening/closing the door.

http://www.grizzlysbeer.co.uk/porsche/doorpostscratches.jpg

Heres a picture ive taken, its on my camera phone so its a bit grainy, but you can see the little scratches. Not a major issue but as its the drivers side i notice it every time i get in and out of the car.

 

[cococola]

Alex, I had pillars similar to yours when I bought my 944 so I bought 2x b post vynal sheets for a mercedes A class model and cut them to fit my car.I fitted them tidily behind the seals and trims aswell and they look better than the original Imo.
Alan

 

[Neil Haughey]

I used a standard black Halfords touch up pen on mine. You will need one hell of a steady hand to get away with filling in a scratch on there without having to flatten afterwards. Like Paul says it is supposed to be matt in finish so you could get away without having to do to much work on it i.e. don't need to polish it up.

It sounds a bit Chav but I have often though this panel would look nice with a fake carbon look film over it! very Audi R8.

 

[sawood12]

As Alan has eluded these areas are not painted so I don't think you can get away with touchup paint. It should be an easy enough job to remove the vinyl, treat any scratches that have penetrated down to parent material (as this is not seen it doesn't have to be asthetically perfect, just good enough to protect against corrosion) then cover with the vinyl again - or carbon effect vinyl as Neil has suggested.

 

[Neil Haughey]

ORIGINAL: sawood12

As Alan has eluded these areas are not painted so I don't think you can get away with touchup paint. 

Well I was at Bedford with you guys walking around my car, I have been at countless local events and PCGB events and I don't recal hords of laughing Porsche owners looking at where I used a touch up pen on this panel to treat some fairly major scratches.

 

[sawood12]

Well there you go then seems like Halfords touch-up pen is the way to go. On my car I wouldn't attempt to touch up that area as the vinyl has faded to a milky grey, so the touched up areas would stick out like a sore thumb so would elect for the replacement of the vinyl considering how relatively a simple job it is - although much more time consuming. Luckily i'm pretty scratch free so it is a job that's way down on my list.

 

[Alexw]

From what i can see the area is painted as i can see the normal car paint underneath where its worn away. Ive got some Hammerite stain black paint knocking about somewhere, i was thinking of useing that on it.

 

[poprock]

I've got the same problem"”lots of scratches through to white on those pillars. They're definitely painted, not vinyl. I'd be quite happy covering mine with vinyl though, that's not a bad idea at all. I'd even be happy painting them up to gloss black so that they matched the main bodywork. One of those jobs that's perpetually on the to-do list!

I did try some self-adhesive covers (not vinyl, something much sturdier) from a Canadian supplier, but they were rubbish. Terrible fit and just didn't look right at all. They went straight in the bin.

 

[cococola]

My vynal was from a Merc dealer and were self adhesive backed so I used a credit card to smooth away any bubbles.I would guess that other manufacturers such as Ford will sell the vynal b post strips too,you will only need to trim to fit.
Mine look really good.

ORIGINAL: poprock

I've got the same problem"”lots of scratches through to white on those pillars. They're definitely painted, not vinyl. I'd be quite happy covering mine with vinyl though, that's not a bad idea at all. I'd even be happy painting them up to gloss black so that they matched the main bodywork. One of those jobs that's perpetually on the to-do list!

I did try some self-adhesive covers (not vinyl, something much sturdier) from a Canadian supplier, but they were rubbish. Terrible fit and just didn't look right at all. They went straight in the bin.