Aaaaaargh!! Paint gauge!

Just washed and waxed the car today. Found a long deep scratch across the hood! The only thing I could think of that caused it was canopy legs. The day at the track turned windy, and one of those pop-up canopies at the parking lot decided to take off and one of the legs landed on my hood. Aaaargh!! Waxed and buffed. Less conspicuous, but still there. From the middle of the hood down to the bumper edge, about 3 feet long! No dents, but through the clearcoat. Aaaargh! Any ideas other than a full repaint?

I recently did a trademark lazy **** move and put a 2" scratch near the rear wiper area due to me not taking time to make sure the wiper itself was laying flat prior to having the spring load up. I took it to a trusty detail/paint guy and he buffed it out the best he could. There's still a hairline scratch you can see only if you knew about it and in daylight. If it's deep enough, there's now way to get it perfect unless you repaint it. You can only buff into that thing so deep thru the clearcoat until it gets down to the paint layer. At least it's on the hood so you don't necessarily have to blend it in. Sorry, man. I'm bummed for ya I know how it feels.

Post in the concours section, they will be able to help you out.

you sure it's beyond wetsanding to fix it?

don't wetsand unless you are adding paint first. Scratch repair is tricky, but if you have non metallic paint you may be OK. Issue is your paint is 8 or 9 years old, will be very hard to match exactly. You can diminishe the look by compounding and then polishing, will round down the edges a bit. If it's deep enough to catch your fingernail in, it's deeper than you should level without a gauge. I recommend calling around your area an trying to find an airbrush guy (like the ones the dealers use for scratches and rash). They tend to be cheap, 50-100 bucks per panel. Call your dealer and ask them who they use for that or call local Paintless Dent Repair guys and see if they've got a guy like that.

Thanks, guys. Needed to rant a bit. It's just a car. It's just a car, da**it. Been thinking about it all day. Car is 6 years old. There are several minor battle scars all over, like stone chips/pits on the front and one on the right fender above the lights, a wide but superficial rash on the right corner...all visible only if you are doing a wax or concourse job. Plus, I was always the one with the big mouth ranting against the bra and the 3M stoneguard proclaiming I'd rather have it repainted than put the bra on. We'll, I guess time to put my money where my mouth is. There's actually a small shop here well known for their jobs for high end cars. I'll take loads of pics before the repaint to prove this was just a touch-up job and not a crash repair, in case I decide to sell the car and the buyer has one of those paint thickness gauges or something. Another project to be done during the hibernation months.

where on the hood? maybe you can clear bra it.

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LOL!! Thanks, red ridge. Yes, actually it's right across the whole area where clear bra would have protected it. Putting the bra on now would be like closing the barn door after the horse has bolted. You'd still see the scratch anyway. I still won't put a clear bra on even after repainting it.

Palting, just paint the entire bumper and hood area and clear bra it.

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Agree with Ben. With the scratch and the stone chips, a good reason to just do the whole job right. I would clear-bra the car, too.

I think that's where I'm headed. Regardless of my tastes, I think the clear bra adds to resale value.