Car was Keyd
 

I went to the underground paking garage at my apartment yesterday to find that the drivers side and trunk had been keyd. Front quarter panel, drivers door, driver side passenger door, rear piller and the trunk. There is a small spot on the trunk where it is scratched right down to metal, all other areas appear to only have had the clear coat scratchd.

Is it possible to fix the scratches at a body shop or does the whole car have to be repainted? If anybody has had a similar experiance I'll like to hear about it.

1991 300E, Smoked Silver.

I "believe" that if it is the original paint from 1991, and they repaint just a section, it will show a different shade. But, I would guess a good shop would be able to take age into consideration when blending the new paint.

That sucks, good luck I had it happen to one of my cars, from rear quarter panel down the side, they stopped, started again by the door and continued to the front, for no reason :(. THis was 2-3 yrs ago

I believe my friend had his BMW X5 3.0's entire driver's side repainted because some fool decided to kick the door in, key the hell out of it, etc.
It cost him $700 because apparently he knew the owner.

Sory to hear about that... I hate people like that. I really wish the car could hurt the guy when he was doing it.

Do your research and find a good paint shop. If the car has spent most of it's life in covered garages (not to say it cannot be done if the car has spent most of it's life outside) the paint may be in exceptional shape and a shop can easily match color and blend new paint to old to give a match.

Consider a car cover, even indoors.

Everything will work out fine.

I think that it's really tough to blend clear-coat paint jobs, and unfortunately, you may be stuck with repainting the entire panels. Make sure you get several opinions...

Is it covered by insurance?

I had that happen to my pickup a while back. Makes you wish you had been there with a shotgun huh. It takes a real lowlife to hurt something that can't defend itself. Good luck.

there ought to be a special barren island sorrounded by fridged shark infested water and inhabited by billions of black flys and no see-ums
where keyers should be kept a year per scracth..... (SD was keyed)
William Rogers....

I'll have to wait untill Tuesday before I can call around about repair options. Canada Day on monday, everything will be closed. I'm not sure if the damage is covered by insurance, again, I'll have to wait untill Tuesday to find out.

There are a number of video cameras in the underground garage but when I asked to see the tapes I was informed that the system had been inoprable for some time. I'm thinking about talking to a lawyer... legal action against the building owners.

I'll keep this post updated.

EADG

Welcome to the club... I had my rear driver's side door keyed 2 weeks after I bought my car. It cost me $350 to have the door repainted.

A hate to hear anyones car getting vandalized like that.

While in Las Vegas last month, some idiot poured what seemed to be ice cream on my rear window and trunk. The hood ornament managed to survive, this time. A blistering 115 degree day really baked on the ice cream mess. Luckily, it wiped right off for the most part. Protected by Zaino.

Considering how many Benz get keyed, I consider myself lucky. So far.

Ethan,
Why in the world would you need a car cover if the car is parked inside? Just curious because I don't know the answer!

Reduce damage from car door dings, and as a deterrer to vandalisim, use a car cover.
Lot's of times when people key a car they hold he key down by their side and walk along the car in a nonchalant manner, from a distance you cannot tell what is happening.

william rogers - lmao. That *no-seeums* comment was perfect. The perfect punishment for keyers! ;) I'm from Canada but first ran into those little suckers in Florida...evil insects. Although I'd throw in hordes of horse flies and red ants as well...

As to the post topic - I've got an '89 300E - smoked silver as well and recently had it re-painted due to a collision. They matched the paint exactly! Looking at it in bright sunlight and in shade, the color match is perfect. Since it looked so good, I'm having them re-paint my hood as well. I also had them touch up a door panel which had been keyed prior to my owing the car. They painted the upper half of the panel (above the plastic trim) and again, they matched it perfectly. The work was done by a Mercedes dealership recommended by my insurance company. I'm very, very pleased with the results.

My recommendation would be to have it re-painted at a Mercedes-authorized shop. It may not be cheap, but you'll get what you pay for. As for color matching, they should be able to get it perfect, even if the paint has aged.

Today is Tuesday here in Canada and all the businesses are open again. The first phone call I made this morning was to a Mercedes dealership in Burlington, Ontario. They recommended a paint and body shop just down the street from me in Hamilton. I'll stop by for an estimate later this afternoon.

I spoke with the building owners this morning also. Seems they are very concerned about the amount of vandalisim occuring in the building recently. (My car was keyed, anouther car was damaged and a van stolen all in 3 days of each other) They were also aware that the camera system in the underground garage has not been working for some time and have scheduled a security firm to quote a replacement system. That makes me happy. I'll arrange repairs for when the system is inplace. $1k deductable is not something I want to incure again in the near future. ($1k in addition to what ever my rates will increase to also). Grrrr. Fustrating to say the least.

Thanks for the support, words of encouragement and advice.

EADG

When it rains it pours...
Had my hood star stolen this morning. And the low-lifes left me a couple more scratches too. My building manager has hired a couple security gaurds to patrol the underground garage during the night and early morning hours; 22:00 - 06:00. I hope this will prevent further damage.

I took my car to the body shop today for an estimate and saw about 12 MBs in various states of repair. I think I'm in good hands at this shop. $3K CND for a complete paint job.