CaptPJB

I got hit by some road debris on the hood of my Flint Mica 330. Nothing serious just paint damage about three quarters to an inch long and a quarter to a half inch wide. I have used the touch up paint but no matter how I do it and rub it down it still shows which is to be expected considering it is not just a small stone chip and the Flint Mica color has a lot of metalic content. My Lexus dealer has quoted $403 to repoair it so you can see it is not much of a repair. My question is this , is it best to leave it as is or have it done as on trade it will show that the hood was repainted? It is not the cost of the repair now I just do not want to do it then take another hit on trade in for a repainted hood. When I traded my last lexus the dealership (not Lexus) used an electronic gizmo to check paint thickness specifically to see if I had done any body work/paint repair on the car.

I would appreciate any comments or opinions and thanks in advance.

I

CK6Speed

iTrader: (1)

It is up to you, but I'd rather have a well done repainted hood than one with dents and paint chips on it. The only cars I personally believe original paint is worth it is if the car is an exotic or classic. The paint job on todays cars and not that great anyway and that included Lexus. The paint meter measures the thickness of the paint. If your car was repainted it would be thicker. If you bought a brand new hood and had it painted it would measure roughly the same as original so tha is not a fool proof way to tell if the hood was painteed or not.

tfischer

Get it done.

If I were buying a used RX (which I did recently), I would much rather buy one that had been cared for and had the nicks and dings repaired, than one that had been neglected.

Used cars dealers and buyers aren't always looking for "perfect" used cars but ones that have been taken care of.

Lexmex

With my RX300, I got dings and little cracks here and there, but I will not paint it until I go back to the U.S. permanently, as I am sure more things will happen to the the paint and body.

Then again, I would not want to drive something that looks messed up, really a balance there.

Edison_Chen

If its really bad, and noticeable, I'd proably get it painted....

I kinda gave up on protecting my car lol...