So here’s a pic of my dog Pippin in my beloved MK3, though he’s usually hanging over the passenger side door just chilling out with both his front legs over the side and swinging in the breeze.
Trouble is I’ve realised (way too late) that his claws have been scratching the exterior paint on the door to buggery, in the right light you can see dozens of hair line scratches all across the top few inches of the door.
Although the damage is already done I feel I need to limit it, so I have been looking at door protectors that stick on via magnets but can’t find anything suitable (mainly too narrow) so have just bought some ridiculous looking dog socks (who knew they existed?!) to try on him when we’re driving. He’ll probably rip them off within seconds.
If I wanted to do something about it, does anyone know if it’s a small (ish) job for an expert to repair scratches, or will the door need a complete respray? The paint is ‘Titanium Flash’ - aka sparkly grey to me. Grey under cloud, sparkly grey in the sun.
If anyone has any similar experience of dog ruination feel free to share your pain and / or advice!
If they are ‘fine scratches in the right light ’ you should be able to machine polish them out.
Then why not try to find some clear body protection self adhesive sheet to put over the top part of the newly polished door - nice dog by the way !
Don’t have dogs anymore and miss the ones we had. Before I had estate cars the dog traveled further forward in the car and hung out the window, I like you had to sort little scratches on the doors, but at the risk of being a kill joy are you aware according to the Highway Code it’s a no no!
@Millstone Thanks for the reply, is machine polishing something I should attempt myself with relatively low risk? I don’t have any tools / knowledge bar looking at this forum and Youtube etc. Knowing my history with DIY etc I would probably do more harm than good!
I didn’t know clear body sheets are a thing but have just found them on Amazon - presumably something like this
You can’t really feel them with your finger but they’re visible
@coconino He’s secured via a short strap / lead on the headrest but I see that they’re not allowed to stick their head out of the window - didn’t know that! Naughty doggy…
Dog socks are on their way today as a temp measure - let’s see how he likes them…
Yeah the socks are the temp plan, if I get it sorted then the protector comes into play. Do you have any idea of what sort of cost it would be to get a garage / bodyshop to give it a touch up to remove / fade the scratches?
@Theo86 Thanks so much I’ll give the compound a go! I’m not as worried now as it looks like the scratches are probably relatively superficial and so will be fairly easy to mask. And now he has his socks we’re good to go
