Hey their NewPTCruiserInPA,
Sorry to hear about your little incident there, but it sounds like you got things under control. From the looks of your photo, it looks like the scratches went all the way down to the primer. Provided their isn't a dent to go along with the scratches, they should air brush out nicely and look as good as new in no time.
Hey QSD,
Hahaha, never heard that one before. Naw, one of the bigger reasons a trip to the Body Shop is often more expensive is partly due to many Body Shops try to concentrate more on Collision Repair by way of shooting and blending entire panels, and then often tries to outsource small spot repairs, as well as Custom Paint work to outside people. Lets say for example, someone here in the City I live in swings by my good friends shop and wants to do some custom graphics, or flames, or something. My Friend then might call on me to come in as an outside contractor, use his shop to lay out the graphics, and then use his booth to spray things out. Same thing with spot repairs that require air brush, they try to call a service to handle it. If not, the alternative from a Body Shop perspective is an expensive one.
Lets say this job were to be done by a shop without the use of an air brush. The only alternative would be to go ahead and re-spray the entire fender, and then blend it into the door. Sounds pretty simple, but their is more to it than you would think. First just in materials alone you have got putty to fill in the scratches, sand paper, masking material, and so on, as well as a good $250 in paint, and another $250 in Clear easy, on top of the time to do all the prep work, time in the paint booth, curing time under a pressurized drying system, and final wet sanding, and buffing out before delivering the repaired vehicle back to the customer.
Here are a couple parts of a product video for Valspar's Debeers Finishing System. The first vid shows the computer color mixing system, and you can see here all of the tints, thinners, hardeners, etc, and so forth needed in the mixing room to adjust the paint color before it goes on your ride. The second Vid shows a brief rundown on the equipment needed to do the job correctly, and the third shows an overview of a typical repair involving re-shooting a fender, and blending it into the door.
So you can kinda see, their is quite a bit involved to doing the job right which is where the higher cost of repair comes into effect. This is also why I always try to explain that trying to do these types of repairs at home in your garage is a hard thing to do and achieve any where near decent results. And in addition, the color match paint you can buy online, or at the auto parts store won't ever be an exact color match to your paint as your color is not the same as when it left the Factory due to fading, lightening, darkening, exposure to direct sunlight, atmospheric conditions, and a whole list of other factors which require you to tint the base color accordingly. Most of the time it winds up creating an even bigger mess out of an already bad situation, and more often than not winds up coming back to the shop to get fixed correctly.
Best method as always is to just hire a Service as you have done to have it air brushed out professionally and be done with it. An hour or two, and a minimal cost, and your good to go.
I wish you the best of luck on your repairs their NewPTCruiserInPA, and if you ever have any more questions, please feel free to drop me a line anytime, and I am always more than happy to help out wherever I can.
Go easy,
Candyman