Something scratched the side of our parked (white) car leaving a long black line across one side: fender, doors, fender. In some places it's surface and didn't seem to take off paint. In a few places it chipped down to the metal. Anyone have experience on their Clarity, especially a white one, using Honda touchup paint and the scratch, paint chip products on the market? Recommendations? Thanks!
Make sure you have the specific paint code for your Clarity, when you go to the auto parts department or wherever you get your touchup paint. It is located on the identification label in the driver side door jam, middle of bottom line. Just saying "white" is not specific enough!
I've resisted getting dashcams with parking mode, mostly because of the wiring and the battery implications (there's only one or two controllers I'd trust not to drain it). Things like this make me reconsider. Good luck
The Honda touch-up paint is made by Duplicolor, I believe. You should get that kit to match your paint color exactly. The kit has both paint and clear-coat. It also has an abrasive to wear down the edges of the chip/scratch. The Moonlit Forest Pearl kit wasn't available for months after we got our Clarity a year ago, but it was in stock when I finally needed it after I scratched the driver's door. My skills at paint repair leave much to be desired--even though I practiced on a soda can. I'm glad we got a dark color Clarity because it makes my messy repair harder to notice.
Touchups are mostly for protecting your car from getting rusted, it looks different even with the most careful application. You'd better just apply on the areas where the metal have exposed.
For what it's worth I had parking injury on my silver Clarity. Fortunately just a few inches on the side of the front bumper. I purchased the Honda touch up kit at the dealer. The finished job is good enough to not draw much attention unless you know where the scratch is but it doesn't look great. You may want to seriously consider a professional for your job since it's on so many panels. No harm in trying the touch up but keep your expectations set at 'not good as new'.
Yep, that would be why I want to repair (so it doesn't rust). Plus, it's black against the white, so likely will look better if I do something to it.
Some of the black scrapes off with my fingernail. Not yet sure how much of it is over the paint like that vs down to metal. One idea is using polishing compound to remove whatever is on top of the paint. But...I'm leery of using polishing compound (damaging the finish around the black line). Has anyone else used it on your Clarity?
If you can't get it all off with your fingernail, try a pencil eraser. If that doesn't work, find an old pencil with a hardened eraser, remove the surface of the old eraser with fine sandpaper and give that a try.
Yo insightman! The eraser worked for much of it! Thanks so much for the tip. The most black that remains is on the body side molding we added as an accessory when we bought the car. I'd thought it was made of plastic, but now not sure. In any event, the scrape on the side molding is through the white paint and is black--eraser doesn't work on it and it seems like whatever the material is might be black under the paint. Anyone know what the molding is made from?
Almost all moldings are made of solid black plastic, then painted the color of the car. If damage is thru paint, and black, Most likely you have a scratch thru the paint of the molding. Good news is that the plastic will never rust. If the cosmetics bother you, paint it. If not, ignore it harmlessly for the next 30 years and it’ll never change. If scratch is thru paint on metal it will not look black, it will look silver or grey. This should be addressed to prevent corrosion. You also have nothing to lose by trying polishing compound and rubbing hard with it. It’s a very Mild abrasive that will remove whatever might be on the surface, but not hurt the clearcoat. If it doesn’t work it’s probably because scratch is thru the paint. I advise against trying rubbing compound however if you’re not experienced with it. It’s much more aggressive and could dull the Clearcoat. And any decent body shop will assess it and estimate/explain the damage to you clearly for no cost.
insightman, where did you get the Moonlit Forest Pearl touch-up kit from? Do you have the product number? I cannot find it anywhere, even on the Duplicolor website. Thanks.....
Duplicolor doesn't sell it, they make it for Honda. I ordered it from my local Honda dealer's Parts Department. BG66P is the color code. Here's the Honda part number: 08703-BG66PAH-A1 I looked at a few websites selling the touch-up paint. Some of them look suspiciously alike and list the same price. Honda Parts Wholesale Direct ($9.48): https://www.hondapartswholesaledirect.com/oem-parts/honda-paint-bg66p-forest-green-pearl-08703bg66paha1 Honda Car Parts Direct ($9.48): https://www.hondacarpartsdirect.com/oem-parts/honda-paint-bg66p-forest-green-pearl-08703bg66paha1 All Discount Parts ($9.10): https://www.alldiscountparts.com/oem-parts/honda-paint-bg66p-forest-green-pearl-08703bg66paha1 Here's a non-Honda third-party kit with this color touch-up paint ($39.99 to $99.99): https://colorndrive.com/en/touch-up-paint/honda-clarity-forest-green-pearl-bg66p,213590/details
