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
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
Key everyone else's cars - it's the only way you can be sure to learn 'em.
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.
Almost every car on our street has been done
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.
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.
Cheers retro83 will give it a go...
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!
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.
key a similar design on the other side of the van so it looks like it's meant to be there
It might be possible to cover up the scratches with a fetching sporty decal?
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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.
Nice allegro... yours and is that you on the bonnet ?
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....
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*.
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 😉Can someone explain to me why people key cars?
AutoGlym Super REsin Polish.
I've used Meguiars Scratch-X 2.0 to similar effect but I have no idea which is better.
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 [s]retailing[/s] 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
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
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 ! )
[i]Can someone explain to me why people key cars?[/i]
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
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.
[url= http://sniffpetrol.com/2007/08/13/car-geek-details-dirty-dishes/ ]All you need to know about detailing[/url]
sniffpetrol - always puts a smile on my face
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!
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.
samuri, this isn't a kid banging into it unfortunately - not unless they were riding a penny farthing!
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 🙁
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!
GW - MemberCan 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.
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.
