Now You See It, Now You Don't

Sort of. After some very unpleasant person hit my car and vamoosed in the parking lot of Trader Joe's, we were left with an unsightly dent in our poor little car, affectionately named Tiny Shiny. We were kicking around whether to take it to a body shop, but lately in the spirit of both wanting to send our kids to college and not being destitute in our old age I have been trying to be a little more handy; I've done some basic things around the house (caulking, painting, drywall taping) and changed my own oil long ago when I actually had a driveway, but had never tackled anything dealing with the outside of a car.

So, I toddled myself over to the automotive store to pick up some rubbing compound and touch-up paint. One would think this would be an easy trip, but one would be wrong. Apparently I needed some sort of code regarding the paint color, as well as knowing whether or not I had a clear coat (I do, but didn't know that at the time). Then, when I read the directions for the rubbing compound, there were multiple warning about it ruining the paint on the car, which was surprisingly not what I was going for. Hmmm.....more research needed to be done.

Luckily, Google is my friend, and I found out all the answers I needed, such as I do have a clear coat, I can get a paint pen from the dealer, and rubbing compound will be ok as long as I don't get overzealous in my rubbing of said compound.

Off to the dealer, back to the automotive store, where I also now needed to purchase sandpaper to take off the rust that had started to form on the dent, and I was in business. Sadly, being me, these items sat unused in my car until yesterday, when I finally decided that I was mentally ready.

Half and hour later, and the car went from this:

to this:
Still a dent, but definitely an improvement, if I do say so myself.