UCSB

My brother hit something on the freeway and needed to fix the damage on the front of his Prius. He did a lot of research and found this site.

http://www.automotivetouchup.com

Anyway, he repaired the damage by using their products and got an excellent result. He was using their spray system to do a larger area. But, I noticed that they sell paint pens for touch-up.

http://www.automotivetouchup.com/paintpen.asp

The unique thing I noticed about their product is that when you put in the RX in Starfire Pearl their system comes back with a note that this is a tricoat color and that they will supply pens for both the groundcoat and midcoat. This seems like it could potentially be a better approach than the single pen touch-up systems that you typically see. They also sell pens for the clear coat and primer coat. My RX does not have any damage at all, so I can't test the system right now. But, I thought it might be of interest for others who might be seeing some winter damage.

MX5NES350

So my previous ES350 was Starfire and yes, it is a 3 stage paint that is expensive to fix major damage and a PITA to fix with touch ups. I have mixed feelings about their 3 step system (I bought it for the ES). While it makes sense in theory, in practice you need to make sure you test it out on something other than your vehicle until you can get the system down to an almost science. I got pretty good at it since I drove a lot of Pennsylvania highway miles and there were numerous chips on the hood and fenders. But the system itself needs extensive practice to be able to hide the damage well. Too much base coat and you won't have enough room for your pearl much less enough room for the clear.

I vowed never again to get a car with "special" paint. And what did I do? Get a Stargazer Black