Viewing 31 posts - 1 through 31 (of 31 total)
  • Someone keyed my van last night – what to do?
  • mysterymove
    Free Member

    woke up to come to work this morning to find a 4ft long 2ft high squiggle down the side of my van.

    Parked on the road outside my neighbors house (parking has become a joke of late outside my house so it’s not unusual to park outside a neighbors house!). So it was either kids, or, even if i hate to say it, one of my neighbors getting frustrated about the parking situation.

    Do I bother reporting it to the Police? Or do i write a nice note hand delivered to all of my neighbors asking them if anyone saw anything and warning them that some prick is around vandalizing cars?

    More importantly what’s going to be the best way to get rid of it? The van’s metallic black, so the key mark isn’t subtle. The scratch isn’t too deep but its all the way across the big flat panel on the drivers side – any suggestions?

    Cheers Ben

    philconsequence
    Free Member

    Or do i write a nice note hand delivered to all of my neighbors asking them if anyone saw anything and warning them that some prick is around vandalizing cars

    yup

    mastiles_fanylion
    Free Member

    Key everyone else’s cars – it’s the only way you can be sure to learn ’em.

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    Cougar
    Full Member

    It’s probably kids, IME. Not a huge amount you can do.

    If it’s not deep, T-cut might make it less obvious. Slightly deeper and a touch-up pen is what you want. Worse than that, I’d go to a bodyshop.

    Depends how good a job you want doing, really.

    TheFunkyMonkey
    Free Member

    Almost every car on our street has been done

    mastiles_fanylion
    Free Member

    I had the same recently – a few neighbours are very protective over the strip of public road outside their house and I went out to find my car keyed after leaving it there for an hour whilst we were waiting for a delivery. Thankfully not too deep but frustrating nonetheless.

    retro83
    Free Member

    How deep are the scratches? If they’re not completely through the laquer, give the van a polish using AutoGlym Super REsin Polish.
    I’ve gained several deep scratches from clumsy/stupid imbeciles on my metallic black car and they are now all but invisible after a few goes over with the SRP.

    As they were quite deep the scratch can still be felt with a fingernail, but it is now transparent rather than a bright white line.

    mysterymove
    Free Member

    Cheers retro83 will give it a go…

    bigyinn
    Free Member

    Can someone explain to me why people key cars?
    Having said that I expect its probably one of those things that can’t be explained by a rational mind, so Im sure SOMEONE one here can give a plausible explanation!

    mastiles_fanylion
    Free Member

    Often it is because it is illegal to park on a public road outside someone’s house because that space is theirs to park their car in. At least that is how it works around our way.

    joao3v16
    Free Member

    key a similar design on the other side of the van so it looks like it’s meant to be there

    Cougar
    Full Member

    It might be possible to cover up the scratches with a fetching sporty decal?

    redthunder
    Free Member

    Report to Police. Even though it feels pointless. On your Non Emergency Number. Dont forget the incident number.

    If they don’t know, they don’t know.

    @Cougar

    Nice allegro… yours and is that you on the bonnet ?

    ourmaninthenorth
    Full Member

    My mother’s range rover was keyed when she came to visit once. The roof of our MX5 was slashed.

    Price we paid for living in a city….

    xiphon
    Free Member

    mastiles_fanylion – Member
    Often it is because it is illegal to park on a public road outside someone’s house because that space is theirs to park their car in. At least that is how it works around our way

    It’s a moral code people (living in terrace houses especially) stick to.

    Unless it’s been allocated by the council (think disabled parking), the space on the road outside your house is not just for you…

    Problems arise when someone who’s not living locally parks in someone’s space… sort of throws everything out of sync, as the locals still need to park *somewhere*.

    GW
    Free Member

    Can someone explain to me why people key cars?

    Depends.. if it’s an adult it’s usually because of rage! if it’s a kid it’s often just mindless vandalism.. I did an awful lot of that as a kid so can rationalise it :oops:, it was a buzz and kind of addictive.. I only grew out of it when all my mates had been caught and had no-one else to do it with. Glad I have less anti-social vices now 😉

    konabunny
    Free Member

    AutoGlym Super REsin Polish.

    I’ve used Meguiars Scratch-X 2.0 to similar effect but I have no idea which is better.

    retro83
    Free Member

    konabunny – Member
    I’ve used Meguiars Scratch-X 2.0 to similar effect but I have no idea which is better.

    I’ve used some Meguirs stuff and found it very good also. SRP isn’t specific to repairing scratches, but I found it worked well.

    Over on retailing detailing world, there is loads of info on this.

    My result was similar to these pics:
    http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showpost.php?p=935573&postcount=18
    from this thread:
    http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=75545&page=2

    TijuanaTaxi
    Free Member

    In my old road there was a problem with vans parking and one BT van got a good spraying up
    Mainly because the bloke parked his car outside his own house then blocked the neighbours light with the bloody great van. Rotten bastard too so not many tears shed for him and never did see the van again

    xiphon
    Free Member

    Slightly OT – I never understood the hobby of detailing?

    I mean, as soon as your drive your car down to the shops – or through a puddle which you can’t avoid – and your many hours of work get obliterated in one second??

    Yes they’re shiny cars – but unless you never drive *anywhere* in it, what’s the point?

    ( and no, I’m not trolling ! )

    Keva
    Free Member

    Can someone explain to me why people key cars?

    I did it once, it was the beginning of August 1988, I was 18yrs old. The car was an F reg CiroenBX I think. It was in a multi storey car park. I was parked in a corner bay and when I came back to leave I discovered some muppett had parked his car in such a way, cock-eyed at an angle, that it took me about 20mins to get out of the space, so once I’d managed that I leapt out and keyed it in anger. My girlfriend was furious with me pointing out that it was a brand new car and probably only a few days old – perhaps someone had saved up for it ? Did I feel guilty and stupid afterwards ? yes, I felt like a right knobber for several days. Idiot thing to have done.

    Kev

    bigyinn
    Free Member

    I think detailing is a form of OCD personally, managed to fend that. Although, if you’ve a nice car and have the time, why not? Beats putting stupid bean can exhausts and bass bins in your Saxo innit.

    thepurist
    Full Member
    xiphon
    Free Member

    sniffpetrol – always puts a smile on my face

    thisisnotaspoon
    Free Member

    It does get adictive, I could spend an entire day on the MG.

    Wash,
    Dry,
    Clay,
    Wash again,
    Dry,
    Cut,
    Polish,
    Cut glass,
    Polish glass,
    Wax (loads of coats, 4 minimum)
    Blacking tyres, bumpers, roof, interior.
    Painting logos onto tyres.
    Polishing chrome + interior fittings,

    I now have a girlfriend, ‘shopping’ is an even bigger waste of time and money!

    samuri
    Free Member

    Is it a key? My car has been scratched quite a few times by kids banging into it on their bikes I only know because the old lady across the road is a curtain twitcher which is useful but she can’t identify which one it was which isn’t.

    mysterymove
    Free Member

    samuri, this isn’t a kid banging into it unfortunately – not unless they were riding a penny farthing!

    Hohum
    Free Member

    Where do you live OP?

    I have a DA polisher in my garage and various polishes and finishes that could take the worst of it out.

    My car was keyed a few years ago, you could tell it was child height rather than adult height and I would bet my mortgage it was a girl up the road from where I lived. It was too deep to be machined out so I had to have the door panel re-sprayed 🙁

    toby1
    Full Member

    Really hope the 2 lads next door to me don’t grow into that type of kid – to be fair their parents seem like decent parents so it’s unlikely. This is all in advance of me actually owning a carI care that much about anyway really!

    Hohum
    Free Member

    GW – Member

    Can someone explain to me why people key cars?

    Depends.. if it’s an adult it’s usually because of rage! if it’s a kid it’s often just mindless vandalism.. I did an awful lot of that as a kid so can rationalise it :oops:, it was a buzz and kind of addictive.. I only grew out of it when all my mates had been caught and had no-one else to do it with. Glad I have less anti-social vices now

    I have never been able to understand it either so thanks for the insight.

    To me it ranks along the lines of breaking glass bottles in children’s playgrounds. I guess whoever does it must get some kind of strange buzz out of doing it 😕

    The most anti-social thing that was done to me when I was a child was I had to lend my skateboard to one of the bigger boys from up my road and he then proceeded to skate down the pavement and run through every pile of dog’s mess he could. He then had a huge manic grin on his face when he gave it back to me. What a lovely chap.

    Whathaveisaidnow
    Free Member

    report it, 4 people in our road had theirs done about a year ago, nothing came of it, but you never know who might have a video on the go outside their house, or might have seen someone about who they could identify.

    They may have done more than just yours in a different street.

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