Fix It is another one of those products pushed by Billy Mays that just looks like it works like a charm. But can it really get out scratches, nicks, and scrapes from your car, or should you get it professionally buffed out? We put it to the test, analyze all of the data, and give you a straight up answer you can rely on.
Overview
Driving and parking in the world is bound to end up with some sort of accident sooner or later. Most of them are minor, and can involve people parking too close to you and opening their door into yours, an errant shopping cart, unruly teenagers keying your car for fun, fender benders, or just sloppy driving on your part and cutting things too close. So after accumulating these small scratches, cracks, and chips, what’s the best way to get rid of them.
Well, there’s really only a few options, you can try one of the many self-help products that promise to take your scratches away easily and without making your car look worse, or you can take it into a paint and body shop, pay a ton, and have it coming out looking good as new. Fix It is marketing itself as a solution to expensive repairs on minor scratches.
The Claim
They say that this gets the job done quickly and easily, and cheaply, as compared to taking into a shop and having them take care of it. The claim here is that it goes on clear, unlike its predecessors where you would have to color match them. They say it’s virtually invisible, and that it fills the scratch and cures naturally in the sunlight. They say there’s no sanding required, or any elbow grease, it’s that easy. They also say you can use it on other things besides your car or truck, you can use it on your boat or on products inside the home.
The Hype
This gets instant hype because 99% of car owners out there have some sort of ding, scratch or chip that they would love to repair if it were this easy. It’s like it doesn’t bother them enough to pay to have it professional repaired, but if they could just use a pen and make it go away for a few bucks, they’re game.
The Cost
Fix It is priced accurately so that you don’t really think too much about the purchase and just go ahead and buy it and give it a try. It’s advertised at being just $10 but you pay another $10 in shipping, so for $20 you get a Pro Pen, a spray for wood or wood grain surfaces, and a polishing cloth made of microfibers for use with the different products.
They even have a “free” bonus, the Simoniz Turbo Vac, but it’s unclear how well that works, and whether or not it’s worth the extra $15 to try it out. So for $35 out the door and delivered, you can get everything they’re pushing.
The Commitment
Fix It hopes to save you from costly paint jobs and having to take your car in to have scratches, dings, and other blemishes buffed out. They stress just how easy it is to apply the product, so your commitment level should be lower than if you would bring it into a shop and have them do it, because you should be able to fix it more quickly on your own.
Evaluation
The product seems a bit incredulous, because it’s clear so it’s hard to imagine how it could possible work to fill in your paint, since paint jobs come in a rainbow of colors. All reports are saying that this can actually make deep scratches look worse than before, and so this product seems to be a big flop.
Popular Mechanices put this one to through real world testing and had this to say:
This tube of clear coat only works on superficial scratches. On deeper, more noticeable damage, it can produce satisfactory results when combined with traditional scratch-removal techniques.
So Fix It only worked on the surface scratches, which might come in handy if this is what you have, but most likely you’re going after those deeper scratches, the ones that actually scrape into the paint below this clear coat, and the ones that Fix It won’t work on.
Final Fix It Review
Every now and then our job is easy. Fix It doesn’t work, unless you’ve got some real superficial scratches, which if you do you probably won’t be motivated enough to buy a product for them, or try to smooth them out.
Our Recommendation
You can safely avoid Fix It, and Fix It Pro, as this product has been debunked on repeated occasion. The problem is that it doesn’t do anything to help with scratched or chipped paint.
