paint chips
 

when i bought my car it had three fingernail sized paint chips, all in the rear fascia, all under the license plate. I assumed that I could get the paint fixed down the road, and now is that time. my color is apparently hard to match, but I'd like to see if there are any fixes I can do on my own? filler kits or touchup paint, ya know? it's chipped down to the plastic almost, otherwise I'd buff down to the next layer of paint.

i've even considered just filling the scratch and then adding either one fat stripe down the middle of the entire car, which would cover up the blemishes...but if I can fix them and leave it one color i'd prefer...

Touch up paint and a bit of sanding and polishing can do the trick, just try to match the color as close as possible.

1. Touch it up so that the paint covers the area completeley
2. Let it dry for a couple of days then wet sand it with 800 grit and 1200
3. Polish & Wax

You can also take your car to an auto shop/store that has the equipment that gets the color code for the paint. For special paint colors (or blends) it will probably take quite a few tries to get it right. They do the scan, then match it to their charts. You will get the exact paint pigments and types needed to match the current paint. A lot of places will do the scan for free.

Then just have them mix you up a small amount and follow the already posted suggestions.

I had to do that with my car after I was hit…. Except the auto shop did the painting (they didn’t match it right to begin with and wanted to blame ME because my car was not “factory” paint….. so I went and had it scanned myself and handed them the code and told them to make sure they did a test first to make sure any slight tweaking had to be done….. needless to say I will NEVER recommend that body shop to anyone after having to have the parts painted 3 times!!!!! ….. Phoenix Autobody in Concord, NH How about THEM apples Phoenix?!?!?!).

For touchup in a small relatively secluded area you should not have that issue though.

(Sorry, still a sore spot with me.)

Mineral Grey:

I have an 02 V6 the same color... and I have a few scratches and nicks I want to fix as well. I was planning on checking out the dealership's body shop to see what they have available.

yea paints are hard to match if you have the paint code off the door and go to a auto paint supply store. they have $10,000 machines we would use to take pictures of the paint when we got stuff in and this machine was at least $10gs and it still woulnt match and we would have to tint the paint add a drip of this here and a drip of that there mix it up then put the paint on the car with or finger till it came out close enuff to do a blend it takes real good talent or you just have to be burnt out like this guy johnny i worked with was to do that. it prints out a tinting chart to do it but still its a real pain i could get it sometimes but john was really good at tinting and matching it and blending it so it looked like it was never hit. but your car has a paint code in the door so dont let some bodyshop tell u its hard to match if its the factory color on it. then you just sand down primer the spots you wanna fix wetsand the area around the chips blend it and paint it. i had a ford dealership paint the right side of my gt and it was the factory paint code they painted ont he car. well when i get it back the fender or dosent match the hood its not there fault its a 91gt the paint was faded for 10 years or more in the sunlight but if they were a really good painter they could have made it match and now days they only panel paint beacause its cheaper the guy could have blended into my hood and all and recleared the hood and you wouldnt probably even notice but they were only getting so much money from the insurance company to paint it so there not gonna go thru all that then the front bumper cover eventually cracked. I should have just painted it myself i would have did a better job because i use to paint for a living they probably had a $7 an hour monkey sand the car who could care less when he was prepping it that why it turned out the way it did. but they can match your paint at a local shop but if they are good they can make it look like its never been painted good luck