Do I need to repaint the entire fender for a minor scratch?
2 Answers
For a minor scratch on the fender, it is not necessary to repaint the entire panel. You can use touch-up paint or a paint pen for repair. Unless the damage is severe, avoid repainting the whole area. Vehicle painting refers to applying a layer of paint to the car's surface to protect it, typically done through baking spray painting, which is generally used when the vehicle has scratches. The fender is the outer body panel that covers the wheel, named for its resemblance to a bird's wing in older car designs. Depending on the installation position, fenders are categorized into front and rear fenders. The front fender is installed near the front wheel and must ensure sufficient space for the wheel's maximum turning and bouncing limits.
I just dealt with this situation a couple of days ago. For a fingernail-sized paint scratch on the fender, there's really no need for a full panel repaint. Spot touch-up and filler techniques are quite advanced nowadays—if the master technician gets the color matching right, the repair is virtually undetectable. After my silver car was touched up, even my friend couldn't spot the repair point from just ten centimeters away. A full repaint would actually require sanding off the entire original factory paint layer, which professional vehicle inspectors can identify during resale, potentially depreciating the value by at least five hundred. However, if the scratch reaches the bare metal, remember to apply rust-proof pen treatment before touch-up to prevent rust issues. Nowadays, a complete touch-up pen kit costs around forty bucks, while local body shop spot repairs typically run about two hundred.
