Advice on paint chips & deep scratches

Hi fellow Tacoers,

Peep the pics — any advice on how to address the chip and deep scratches? Send it to professional or is there a way to repaint this without it looking crappy (i.e. like I did it myself)?

 

I would just touch up that chip hole in the second photo. But those long scratches will look like a hack job if you just take some touchup paint to them. Depends on what you are after I guess; if you just want to "tone it down" and make it a better looking "12 footer" then just touch it up yourself. If you want it to look factory fresh then let a pro do it.

Or you could leave as-is and learn to love those battle scars!

 

These are things that can repaired by yourself if you're comfortable. If you've ever used a DA with some cutting compound and polish, then that scratch should come out for the most part. They appear to be only through the clear and not down to paint. Hard to say over a picture. If you rub your nail over it and catches is hard, it might be harder to blend. If it's sort of smooth over if, it should hide. If not, let a professional take care of it. Good luck!

 

This video's pretty good if you wanna give it a shot yourself

https://www.youtube.com/embed/Zl_iSYYGBiY

 

Touch up paint works great on paint chips if you go light on it and can avoid smearing it (you can see up close, but isn't visible from farther out), but isn't much good for scratches in my experience.

The chip in your photo should definitely be covered up soon so the exposed metal doesn't start rusting when exposed to moisture.