Bought touch up paint from dealer, turned out awful, need help.

Well I bought my Tacoma a few weeks ago, 2009 Silver Prerunner with 14000 miles. It was in perfect condition. Well within the past week, it seems like it is made out of magnets and just attracts dumb-asses who don't know how to park a shopping cart. There are about 10 large scratches on it, 3 of which are large and deep.

I tried just buffing them out, did not work. I tried just using a clear coat pen, did not work. I finally went to the dealer and bought some touch up paint since I think the scratches are down the primer, I used the touch up paint and it looks like shit. The paint does not remotely match and it makes the scratches even more noticeable. My truck is starting to look like a 5 year old beater.

I followed directions to a T, so I don't really know what else to do. Anyone have any advice?

 

Pics may help.

 

I had the same problem with my blue 05. I ended up taking a Dremel and a polishing wheel with polishing compound and trying to get the paint to match. It worked for the most part but its dull where I did it, think it needs clear coat to make it shine again...

 

That was a particularly bad idea. You really shouldn't use polishing compound on your vehicle unless you know what you are doing. the same goes for a high speed tool.

The issue which you like started out with was the touch up paint not being level with the original paint. Going forward, you can take a single edge razor blade and CAREFULLY shave down the touch up paint to match the original. Hold the blade the opposite way the you would normally use it to cut something and draw it across the paint. You can then follow with some scratch-x or something similar to bring back the shine.

 

Well you are probably right, but experienced or not it turned out reasonably well and looks a lot better then the scratches. I was considering trying to apply the paint with a model car air brush and likewise for the clear coat, but haven't done so yet. (I have since found more scratches and want to make the others I covered up blend in with the paint even more)

 

Fuck it, wheel it and put some serious trail lines on there.

 

Main scratch, I already scraped out the touch up paint since it made it look worse.


Another large scratch, actually looks better than it does in person.


Another scratch, again, looks better than it does in person.

The pictures don't show it very well but the touch up paint itself is darker than the the rest of my truck and it does not actually fill in the cracks very well, it just kind of runs out of them.

I tried painting a bit of touch up paint on a piece of paper just to see, and it was all streaky and unmixed looking even though I shook it for a good 2 minutes.

 

subbed for fixing my terrible touch up

 

Another thing you could try but then you would have to get some clear coat over it. But you could get some 5k waterproof sand paper and lightly wet sand the scratches and see if you cant knock down some of the run. Then try to lightly clear coat the area. Thats what i would do

 

you got to follow the steps on paint touching up. you got to wet sand in between steps. you can google it or im sure that there is a thread on here.

 

www.langka.com

 

never park near the cart corral at parking lots.

 

In order to fix scratches you must understand their composition. There is a big difference between a surface scratch in clear coat (which all those commercials target_ and then there are deep down to metal scratches.

To fix a surface scratch you can get off the shelf scratch remover that will last you until your car goes through a few washes.

To fix a deep scratch you need to realize that you will not be able to paint match even against your own paint even if you have a paint code in hand. Paint starts to fade and or change color just slightly year after year so touch up paint will help you but dont expect miracles out of it. What you can do is blend it and by blending you will have to sand off clear coat in adjacent areas then follow instructions on filler/paint touch up/sanding/polishing/sanding/polishing/etc etc and then you can extend your touch up paint 2 inches beyond scratch area and follow it up with few coats of clear coat.

Naturally to avoid sinkholes or dimples you need to fill up that scratch first and then apply touch up paint.

P.S. Would like to clarify something. When I said 2 inches beyond scratch I meant with a spray type touch up paint. If you have a brush then you need to dab the hell out of that scratch and slightly go beyond scratch itself.