vinster29

I just finished fixing up some scratches and nicks on my RX300 with an autovisuals paint pen but I have noticed that the paint from the touch-up paint pen appears darker on the car compared to the rest of the paint. Is their anything I can do to make the new paint blend in with the rest of the car. Should I use car wax or rubbing compund? Need a lot of help with this one. Thanks

sincerely,

vinster29

Guitarman

Vinster, unfortunately compounds and polishes won't change the tone of the paint. This is the compromise we make when we decide to do the touch -up; it won't match any better than a body shop's attempt at matching your existing color, and some of us know they can be far off too. They ( good shops at least) can do a few things, given their expertise and experience to slightly alter tone, but even they are limited at a certain point, and can only try to get paint from another source that may be closer to exact match.

Best advice I can give you is to take your touch up paint to Pep Boys or similar, and visually match it to a Ford, GM, or Import touch up that's real close in shade. You may find that paint closer than the one coded for your car, and making up for UV ageing, and the touch-up manufacturer's mixing discrepencies. Maybe not, but you could mix a little of that with a little of yours etc. (if they are both enamel, both lacquer etc.) and see if it's any closer.

For less than $5 it might be worth a shot.

Even having an automotive paint supplier mix you 1/2 pint of the oem paint in your color code isn't a guarantee it will match perfect. That's just the way it is unfortunately. Good luck!

vinster29

What would be the advantage of applying clear coat to areas of my car that I have used touch-up paint on? Is clear coat a sealant? Thanks for your help.

lkirchner

I have tried many touch up paints over the years and finally have found one that I consider to be the best. It is called paint scratch (http://www.paintscratch.com). I have used it on my SC 430 and on my CLK 500 with great results. I don't think you'll be disappointed, if you try it.

The advantage to using clear coat is that it will preserve metallic finish paints but keep in mind it will in most likely make the paint a little darker when applied over the touch up.

I have also used a product called Langka to finish any touched up areas. Here is their URL (http://www.langka.com). This works very well especially with non metallic paints.