There Isn't A Magic Wand For Everything...

At first sight, a scratch repair pen may seem like a wonderful idea. What’s not to want about making fast repairs to your car’s finish simply by drawing a line across the damage? It just so happens, the results aren't always like what you see on the TV commercials. Steve's CARSTAR Auto Body Repair in Arnold, Missouri, also serving folks in Festus, Imperial, Oakville, and St. Louis, are pleased to offer these fascinating test results.

For instance, we discovered that they won't work on anything but small exterior scuff marks. And, they'll often make the damage look even worse.

Marketed as a simple way to avoid expensive auto body shop expenses, manufacturers claim that anybody can get professional results from the pens, which cost ten bucks or less. We sampled three to find out if the claims were true.

What We Tested

The Simoniz Fix it Pro ($10), DuPont Pro Fusion Color ($8), and Turtle Wax Scratch Repair Pen ($10) are available everywhere online or in auto parts stores. Advertised to work with any color paint, they have a durable clear coat similar to the protective outer layer applied to brand new vehicles straight out of the factory. But what their packaging does not make entirely clear is that these pens are purely for surface scratches inside the clear coat. If the harm gets into the paint below, you are out of luck.

We also discovered that the pens are difficult to use, and that it is quite difficult to achieve the thin, even line required to nicely fill scratches without overdoing it. With applicator tips which are as wide or wider than an average scratch, our sampled products make it extremely difficult to avoid applying too much filler, and leaving a visible residue that is more noticeable than the harm you are attempting to repair. And eliminating that residue may need sanding and buffing it out, and maybe even some touch-up paint.

Generally speaking, these items will not help on any scratch that is deep enough to feel with your fingernail, or if you are able to see primer or bare metal. For that sort of damage, you will need more than clear filler and a stable hand. The only method to fix damaged paint is by using more paint.

How We Tested

For our assessment, we took the same lab-grade black test panels we buy for car wax testing. These boards are painted and clear coated with automobile finishes. We used them on a couple of automobiles with light scrapes: a silver Toyota Sienna minivan and a dark blue Honda CR-V.

We established scratching for the test panels with a key and a bolt, and then used the products according to manufacturers' instructions on both of the panels and the pre-scratched vehicles. This included washing and drying the damaged area, shaking the pen thoroughly to mix the contents, dabbing the tip on paper towel to get the product flowing, and carefully drawing the pen across the surface of the scratch. After applying the products, we moved the trial samples to the roof of our building where they were allowed to weather for four straight weeks.

The Results

All three of these products loaded the scratches, and we saw no really big distinction between them in either convenience or effectiveness.

From some angles, the repairs looked every bit as good as marketed in the TV advertisements. But some angles revealed a ridge of extremely noticeable excess clear coat. The results had the appearance of an amateur job, at the very best, and generally the repair was much more obvious than the initial scratch. The Simoniz and DuPont products advise wiping off any surplus with a paper towel, but we discovered that this only made things appear worse, as it smeared the paint over the intact surface.

Our advice is that you save your cash and skip these quick fixes for minor damage or try some sort of cleaning polish instead.

For deeper scratching, a visit to Steve's CARSTAR Auto Body Repair in Arnold, Missouri might be your best bet.