paint

In message , Clarence Kay writes

Halfords do repair kits which have primer, base coat and clear lacquer. They do these for all manufacturers including FIAT.

There are a lot of colours that Halfords never seem to have though. I have never seen Toyota Chilli Red or Mazda Mica Black :(

Have you tried the main dealership? Many main dealerships do touch up paint kits.

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IME the colour match on these is s**te.

I'd try a main dealer for the bottle of paint, or go to a proper auto / paint factors. I've tried Halfords touch up brush systems, the colour match is poor, and their aerosol paint is terrible. I eventually went to the local factors (Autosupplies if you're anywhere near Chesterfield), and they mixed me a can of paint to the paint code for my car, and sold me some primer and lacquer to go with it. It cost around £20 against Halford's £10 for colour, lacquer and primer, but the cans of paint were bigger and actually worked. When I get round to doing touch ups, I'll spray some paint in an egg cup and use a fine brush from an art shops.

If you get paint identical to the paint that was originally applied to the car, unless the car is very new the paint simply won't match. Car paint fades in the sun.

When you get a good colour match even then you find that the original paint and the new paint fade at different rates...

-- James

I know.

I've not seen that, but it sounds reasonable enough. The Halfords paint I had was meant to be Ford Panther black. Compared to the paint on my then 3 year old car it was much more red looking than the original paint, including the paint inside that's not had as much of a chance to fade. On the other hand, the paint I had mixed from the paint code elsewhere was a good match.

I know. I'm not talking about a colour match not being perfect, but being pretty poor. The Halfords stuff doesn't use paint codes, just paint names. Apparently there are umpteen different variations on Ford Panther Black.