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Car Keyed...

Posted: Fri Aug 21, 2015 9:38 pm
by innercry666
SO, I got home from work tonight to find a couple of fairly nasty scrapes on the bonnet that look like somebody has keyed it fairly deliberately. Also put a small dent in the bonnet as well where the impact has been made. I've attached a picture of the two scrapes. Funnily enough I've never had a car keyed so not sure what a deliberate scrape from a key would look like but this looks like it fits the bill. Anybody had this done before? Does it look like a key scrape?

I suspect it has been done while parked at work but would be extremely surprised if anybody at work had targeted the car. Any ideas on what the options would be with respect to getting it repaired, including taking the dent out? Anybody know if a detailer be able to deal with this kind of damage?

Any help is appreciated!

Thanks in advance.

Re: Car Keyed...

Posted: Fri Aug 21, 2015 9:46 pm
by doodlebug
Unlucky, there are some utter scumbags.

If you can get your nail in then it's going to need paint.

Re: Car Keyed...

Posted: Fri Aug 21, 2015 9:47 pm
by Graeme4130
From my experience, a keying of a car tends to be a long shallow scrape and generally down the side.
Difficult to tell without scale, but those look more like something's either flicked up and hit the bonnet (I have two very similar ones on my bonnet from a flying bit of someones car at a track day) or something's been thrown and hit the car
To gouge that much material out with a key would take a serious amount of force

Re: Car Keyed...

Posted: Fri Aug 21, 2015 9:50 pm
by Rick_RS4
not sure thats keyed,

if intentional why would they do it small then another a bit longer , usualy a keying is a long thin line

Re: Car Keyed...

Posted: Fri Aug 21, 2015 10:09 pm
by innercry666
To be honest my first thought was 'stone chip' but then the more I looked at it the more it looked deliberate. I saw there was a deep gouge right down to bare metal and one side was serated. The scrapes are very much at hand height for anybody between 5 and 6 foot.

My other thought was somebody had dropped something on it. Whichever, it will definately need paint on it. CCTV at work will pinpoint if anybody has been near the car while parked up so will see what the footage brings monday.

I'll post a pic of the bonnet tomorrow to give a bit more context to the scrapes....

Re: Car Keyed...

Posted: Fri Aug 21, 2015 10:30 pm
by Graeme4130
Very similar looking to the one I picked up at Donnington from a piece of debris (A bit of diff I think) from a blown Elise Race car
For scale, the bottom scratch is about the size of a 20p, and the top one a 5p coin
The crease line in the pic is the side of the bonnet, so both scratches are in a vertical direction towards the screen

Re: Car Keyed...

Posted: Sat Aug 22, 2015 12:44 pm
by innercry666
For sure it looks very similar. I'm more inclined to think that it was debris off the road rather than someone with a key after seeing your pic Graeme. My only doubts initially were the size of the scrapes and the fact they are offest from each other. I would have expected them to be more in line and that I would have noticed the offending object pinging off the bonnet. However, I think debris is more likely than a key. Assuming the CCTV check comes back clear then debris will be the answer. I've attached a few more pics:

Re: Car Keyed...

Posted: Sat Aug 22, 2015 1:33 pm
by Graeme4130
It does look in the enlarged pic like something's been dragged along rather than an impact, but you wouldn't do that sort of depth into the paint with a regular key, and I suspect it'd have made a fairly large noise if it happened whilst driving.
Is there any chance someone could've thrown something at it or something hit it whilst you weren't in the car
Either way, like mine, we're looking at a full bonnet respray to get it back to good
I've filled and machined mine down, but you can still see it, and it bugs me, so I'll end up paying out a couple of hundred quid for a bonnet respray at some point soon

Re: Car Keyed...

Posted: Sat Aug 22, 2015 2:07 pm
by Gledsy
I have a similar sort o mark on mine with a dent I picked it on on a slip road whilst behind my brother in his c63,
For a cheap fix which won't mean you car will have to stay in a paint Shop for weeks, a paint less dent removal person have used these plenty of times they are magic men!!, and some touch up paint after the dent has been removed, and just build the paint up over time

Re: Car Keyed...

Posted: Mon Aug 24, 2015 8:25 am
by innercry666
Having thought about it over the weekend, it still strikes me that the car was damaged while stationary. Considering the possibilities somebody may have dropped something onto it while at work if it was accidental or done it deliberately with some kind of metal object. I'm going to review the CCTV footage today so that should either discount or confirm the work theory.

Logically it's been done on the road but I didn't hear or see a thing that would have tied in with the level of damage. Either way like you say Graeme it's a full bonnet respray to put right...

Re: Car Keyed...

Posted: Tue Aug 25, 2015 10:10 am
by Rallyz
It looks like a stone chip has hit at speed. The two lines are parallel to the motion of the car. I'd guess that the chip hit with one corner on the leading mark and the angle of the bonnet caused it to roll and hit with another corner on the trailing mark before it shot off probably just missing the door mirror. You probably wouldn't hear it as it would be just a glancing blow, but the roughness of the chip would dig the furrows in the paint that you see.

Just my unqualified analysis ... ;-)

Hope you can get it fixed okay.

Re: Car Keyed...

Posted: Tue Aug 25, 2015 1:34 pm
by innercry666
Thanks Rallyz, appreciate your analysis, unqualified or otherwise! CCTV is proving time consuming to go through as there is a limited fast forward speed with the system but so far nothing.

Cost to fix has been quoted as £300 + VAT for a full bonnent respray...

Re: Car Keyed...

Posted: Tue Aug 25, 2015 3:42 pm
by carsarecool
innercry666 wrote:Thanks Rallyz, appreciate your analysis, unqualified or otherwise! CCTV is proving time consuming to go through as there is a limited fast forward speed with the system but so far nothing.

Cost to fix has been quoted as £300 + VAT for a full bonnent respray...
I'd concur with Rallyz too. £360 for a full bonnet respray seems like a bargain......

Re: Car Keyed...

Posted: Tue Aug 25, 2015 3:47 pm
by doodlebug
carsarecool wrote:
innercry666 wrote:Thanks Rallyz, appreciate your analysis, unqualified or otherwise! CCTV is proving time consuming to go through as there is a limited fast forward speed with the system but so far nothing.

Cost to fix has been quoted as £300 + VAT for a full bonnent respray...
I'd concur with Rallyz too. £360 for a full bonnet respray seems like a bargain......
Hmm, I thought that was expensive! It's just about the easiest panel to prep and spray.

Re: Car Keyed...

Posted: Tue Aug 25, 2015 4:35 pm
by HYFR
£200 + vat would be better