Paint touch up?

My 96 has a beautiful paint job along with one very nice golden pin-stripe. I hate the thought of re-painting the whole thing but there are a few "pits" in various places. Not big but noticeable to me along with three or four fairly deep scratches None of the scratches are over 2-3 inches in length but they do go deep. What I'm looking for is some commercially available product that might fill in these dings and scratches where the whole finish might blend in with the whole paint job. I'm aware that it might be possible to get some "touch-up paint" from the Mazda dealer but since the car is 7 years old, the touch up paint might not match the original paint and would stand out even more than the pits and scratches. All ideas and suggestions are welcome.

JV

96 Montego (Lil' Blue)
Reply to
JV
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It never matches anyway. The trick with touch-up paint is to thin it drastically, and fill the chips and scratches by building up very thin layers. Use a pin or toothpick, and do not paint outside the blemish. You're done when the hole is filled just past flush with the surrounding paint; then you sand it flush with a dots of successively-finer sandpaper glued to the end of a pencil eraser. It's a colossal PITA, and still doesn't look all that good unless you have a ton of experience and a good bit of luck.

My personal solution: drive very fast, so no one can get close enough to see the chips. Not washing the car works well, too.

Reply to
Lanny Chambers

I picked up Turtle Wax Color Cure Car Polish (Improves Color! Hides Scratches!) in the $2 bin at a Pep Boys lost-our-lease sale. This product comes in several different colors, pretty sure there was Blue. My Miata's dark (not BRG) Green, so when I saw the 'green' wax, I grabbed it. The Turtle Wax comes with a Chipstick (sorta like a lipstick) that you crayon-color over the chips & scratches, then you wax it, wipe it off. I actually didn't think it would work, but I needed some wax and it was cheap. Anyway, I think it worked pretty good. I've never really been too concerned with the cosmetic look of the car; I mean, if it looks good from, say, 20 ft. away, I'm happy, so I might not be one to judge. But I THINK the scratches & door dings are less noticeable now, if that helps you.

Steve McMahon Green JRSC '00LS

Reply to
McMahon

Just for the other end of the spectrum, here's a link I found that seems like a thorough discussion of how to fix a chip with touch-up paint. I haven't tried it and I don't know if I will, so I can't endorse it.

My Miata got a few chips on it's first "real" outing. I ordered the SE touch-up paint from my local Miata dealer almost a month ago. It's been on backorder so long that, after counseling with my shrink, I may choose to be at peace with the chips rather than mess with the touch-up job described in this link :)

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Alan '03 SE

pin-stripe.

Reply to
AlanRab

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