Subject: question on Mitsubishi 2002 Lancer
Question: Hi - Not sure if you can help or not. within the last 8 months I purchased a Mitsubishi Lancer 2002 automatic. This isn't perse a techical question, but it is about repair. As I was pulling out of a driveway at work someone knocked a small decorative boulder partly in the drive. I didn't see it and partly ran over it. I scuffed my fender up. I was wondering if that was easily fixable. Nothing was detned just scuffed. Or would I have to have the whole fender replaced? Secondly, I noticed after a while that I saw paint chips coming off of my car. I only manually wash my car by hand. I don't take it through automatic washes. I purchased touch-up paint when applied matched identically. After it dried it was a hair darker. Is there anything that you know of that would take the touc-up paint I applied off? I've called mitsubishi and they are sending me a different bottle. Any help would be appreciated. I'm just a little worried now that I'm going to have to have the whole thing repainted because of a few areas on the car.
Thanks.
Answer: Melissa,
Your scuffed fender should be easily repairable. You definately do not need to replace the fender. If the scuff is relatively small, a little touch-up paint may be enough to make it look nice again. You may even want to check around with local body shops for estimates on getting it professionally painted.

I don't think you will need to have the entire car repainted. You may want to try a little nail polish remover to try to take off the touch-up paint. Don't use too much, or you may end up taking off more paint.

It's possible that Mitsubishi may even repaint your car for free. Your warranty may cover this if the dealership deems the original paint job was sub-par. Bring your car into the dealership and argue the point you made with me. If that paint flakes away so easy, you may get a free paint job of the whole car. And the would also fix the small scuff on the fender.
Good luck!