How Much Does Car Scratch Repair Cost in Melbourne?
Everyone wants the price first, so I'll give it to you straight, with my actual prices as of July 2026. A scratched bumper is $400 to $450. A door is around $500. A scratch running across a bumper and a guard is about $650. Light clear-coat marks that only need a cut and buff start around $150. Most of these numbers sit under the excess on your insurance — which is exactly why most people just pay me directly and leave the insurer out of it. Here's the full breakdown and what pushes a job up or down.
What you'll pay, by job
Light surface scratches — $150 to $250
These are the ones sitting in the clear coat only — trolley rub in the Pacific Epping car park, a brush down the side from a hedge, the marks your fingernail glides over without catching. Half the time there's no painting involved at all; I can cut and buff them out. Usually under an hour and the panel comes up like new.
Scratched bumper — $400 to $450
My most common job by a mile: car park hits, tight garage corners, reversing misjudgements. Once the scratch is through the clear into the colour, the bumper corner gets sanded back, primed where it's deep, colour-matched against your panel and blended out. A silver Civic I did in Mickleham recently was exactly this — deep scratches through the front bumper corner from a car park hit, done in the customer's garage in an afternoon. Even a bumper with proper gouges — a ute I did in Caroline Springs needed filler before paint — still lands in this range, at the top end.
Single door or panel — around $500
A scratch down a door, a guard or a quarter panel that needs the full treatment: sand, prime, base coat, clear, blended into the surrounding panel so there's no visible edge. Two to three hours in your driveway and you genuinely can't find the repair after.
Scratch across a bumper and guard — around $650
One scrape that crosses two panels is effectively two repairs — each panel gets its own prep, paint and blend, and the colour has to carry across the panel gap without a shift you can pick in the sun. This is where most shopping-centre swipe damage lands.
Keyed cars — from $500, quoted per panel
Keyed repairs are their own category. One keyed door is around $500 — but honestly, most keyings I see aren't one door. It's usually the whole left or right side, and the line is cut deep: through the clear, through the colour, through the primer, often into the metal. Every panel it crosses needs sanding back, priming and repainting, so the price is per panel, not per scratch. Send photos of the full run and I'll quote the lot — there's more detail in my keyed car guide.
Dents — quoted on the damage
Dents don't have a flat rate; it genuinely depends on the size, where it sits on the panel, and whether the paint's broken. A shallow dent on a flat door is a different job to a crease on a body line. If the paint's intact and PDR would honestly suit it better, I'll tell you that too. Photos first, then a real number.
What actually changes the price
How deep it is
Your paint is layers — clear on top, then colour, then primer, then metal. A scratch in just the clear is a quick fix. The deeper it goes, the more steps to build it back up. Quick test: drag your fingernail across it. If it catches, it's through the clear and it'll need paint.
How long it is
A 5cm scratch takes less paint, prep and time than one running the length of a door. Pretty simple — bigger damage, more work.
Where it is on the car
A flat door panel is straightforward. A sharp body line, a curved bumper corner or a guard takes more skill to blend so the colour carries around the shape without a visible edge. Metallics and pearls add to that because the flake has to sit right from every angle.
The colour itself
Solid white and black are the easy ones. Metallics, pearls and three-stage colours take longer to match and lay down. A rare or custom colour might mean I order paint in, which can add a day before I can book you.
How many panels
Each panel is its own prep, paint and blend. One scratch crossing a door and a guard is effectively two jobs in one, and the price moves with it.
Why mobile usually works out cheaper
I don't run a workshop with rent and a roller door eating into every job, so my pricing tends to match or beat a shop. And because I come to you — your home or your work, anywhere across Craigieburn, Epping, Broadmeadows and the northern suburbs — you also save the bits people forget to count:
- No dropping the car off and picking it up
- No fuel running back and forth to a workshop
- No hire car while it sits in someone's queue for three days
- No taking a morning off work for it
Should you claim it on insurance?
Most excesses sit around $500 to $800. If your bumper repair is $450 and your excess is $700, a claim does nothing for you — you'd pay more out of pocket and still cop it on your no-claim bonus and next year's premium. Get the repair quoted first, then decide. It's usually only the big multi-panel jobs — a full-side keying, say — where a claim starts to make sense.
How to get a real quote, fast
I quote off photos. Take a few clear shots from different angles in good light, send them through, and I'll come back with a fixed price — usually within a few hours. What I quote is what you pay; no "found a few extras" on the day.
Get your scratch priced
I'm a mobile paint and panel repairer based in Craigieburn, covering Broadmeadows, Epping, Lalor, Greenvale and right across Melbourne's north. There's more detail on how the repair works on my mobile car scratch repair page, or just send photos or call me on 0493 932 068 and I'll sort you a quote.
