Has your car sustained damage in the parking lot? Did you come out of work or the grocery store one day to find a new and unsightly scratch marring the paint? While having your paint damaged isn't as dramatic as getting into an actual accident, it can still be heartbreaking. Although you may be wondering how much it's going to cost to take your vehicle to the local paint shop, you could actually take care of the damage on your own by purchasing some auto paint supplies. Here are some reasons why you might want to consider this possibility.

Cost: If you take your vehicle in to be repainted, it can cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars. In order to get everything perfect, they may have to completely remove the original paint in order to redo it with fresh paint. But you may find this completely unnecessary. However, for a small scratch, it will be easy to find paint that matches your original color, and, since you only need a small amount, the cost for this paint will be only a tiny fraction of the cost of a complete refinishing job. Talk to a pro at companies like the Space Age Auto Paint Store for help matching colors.

Speed: Taking your vehicle to a paint shop means that you may be unable to drive it for many days. Depending on the size of the vehicle, it may take days for them to remove all of the old paint and then to add a fresh layer of paint. Once the vehicle is painted, it may take another day or two before it's cured enough that it can be driven around. Not everyone has the time to spend on this, no matter what the results are. Fortunately, when you do the paint job yourself, you're working with a much smaller amount of auto paint. Instead of needing to wait days for the paint to cure, you may only need to wait a few hours. This makes it a good project to complete just before going to bed, allowing you to drive a vehicle with no visible scratch the next morning.

Protection: Not everyone is excessively bothered by scratches. They're sometimes viewed as the inevitable part of owning a vehicle. As such, scratches may be something to be ignored, rather than repaired. If this sounds like you, you should reconsider your stance. The paint on a car does more than just serve an aesthetic purpose. It functions to keep any metal body parts from rusting. Even a small scratch can be enough to ruin that protection. Water and salt from the roads can find their way into the scratch, oxidizing the material over time. By covering the scratch with fresh paint, even if the job isn't perfect, you'll be protecting the material underneath.