good touch up paint in so cal?!

[controlo]

alright, most of you know that my car was egged about a week after i bought it. right now i'm debating whether or not to respray a couple panels or just have the chips touched up. the only problem is, i can't find anyone in my city (bakersfield) that does touch ups. there are ways to do it with much better results than just putting it on with a toothpick. does anyone know of someone in socal that does really good touch up work? you guys think i should just get a re-spray? i have an '07 sunlight silver. i've had it for a little less than a year.

one spot is right below the window trip on the driver door. the other is near the middle of the driver door.

these were taken about a week after i bought her:

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a351/hewasspiton123/car%20stuff/DSCN0909.jpg

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a351/hewasspiton123/car%20stuff/DSCN0905.jpg

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a351/hewasspiton123/car%20stuff/damage/DSCN0907.jpg

[guy_incognito]

All I know is that the silver touch-up paint I got from Mazda does NOT match.

[controlo]

All I know is that the silver touch-up paint I got from Mazda does NOT match.

yeah, i put a little glob on one of the door jams to see what it looked like... it looked very thin and lighter... almost watery. maybe it looks better when it dries?

[yup24z]

I'm an adjuster so I deal with body work everyday of my life. Touching up anything with a heavy pearl/metallic is going to look bad. Your best bet would be to shoot the door. If it's not too close to either the fender or the rear door, you wouldn't have to pull paint/blend into another panel. A good shop should charge you 1.0hr for repair and then just paint time. Can't remember paint time off the top of my head for a mazda 3 door, but it'll run you about $250-$300 depending on labor rates.

[controlo]

do you think i could get it done good enough that i'll be satified with it? i'm not really worried about cost right now... i just want it to match. :(

[controlo]

i'm worried because i had my scion tC's (flint mica) bumper painted and it didn't look very great... :/

[zoomspeed3zoom]

You beat the fu*k out of these kids right?

[controlo]

i would've if i knew who did it...

[dparm1984]

All I know is that the silver touch-up paint I got from Mazda does NOT match.


Silver is basically impossible to match -- too hard to match the metal flake patterns or whatever. Touch-up paint should hide it form a distance. Up close you'll still see it.

[hectik1]

yeah, i put a little glob on one of the door jams to see what it looked like... it looked very thin and lighter... almost watery. maybe it looks better when it dries?It will.

Gotta do mutiple coats. On my wife's silver CX7 I had to touch up some spots. Just takes some patience.

[controlo]

well i noticed that the wing on my ms3 is a very different texture than the rest of my car but it still matches... also i saw a brand new chevy tahoe in silver that just had the two driver doors painted and they looked very good so i dunno. i thought silver would be hard to match also but all the shops i've talked to have assured me, "it's not that hard". i don't know, i'm sure there are some really good paint shops out there but it's pretty hard to find them. everyone around here has a very bad attitude when it comes to body work. "you'll never get a perfect paint job" which comes after "we can match it, trust me" lol. i don't know what to do...

[controlo]

Silver is basically impossible to match -- too hard to match the metal flake patterns or whatever. Touch-up paint should hide it form a distance. Up close you'll still see it.

i assume you mean touch up paint? i've heard the metallic flakes rush to the top of the touch up paint so the best thing to do is either do very shallow coats until flush... or put a glob on and wipe it flush immediately so the flakes don't have time to rise up. i haven't tried it but there is a kit called 'langka' that reccomends their squeegie method. it's pretty much what i just described.

[controlo]

anyone else out there have a silver car that's had paint work done? i'm scared.

to respray or not to respray, that is the question;

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The chips and scratches of horrible luck,
Or to take arms against a pond of flaws,
And by painting, end them.

[NCZ13]

those could maybe be polished out. maybe. i cant tell how deep they are, but they look like scuffs to me...

if you were closer to me id be more than happy to try to polish that out for you...

[controlo]

those could maybe be polished out. maybe. i cant tell how deep they are, but they look like scuffs to me...

if you were closer to me id be more than happy to try to polish that out for you...

na, they're mostly to the primer. atleast the big ones are. alot of them do look like scuffs but they're so small i can't tell. there's a couple bigger ones on the door that i can tell and about 4 near the window that i can tell are through to the primer. thanks anyway though, i appreciate it.

[controlo]

those could maybe be polished out. maybe. i cant tell how deep they are, but they look like scuffs to me...

if you were closer to me id be more than happy to try to polish that out for you...

have you had any paint work on your silver protege?

[NCZ13]

nothing more than the paint correction i do.

im by no means a professional, but im confident in my work. ive got many pictures of paint correction jobs ive done if you want to see them.

[controlo]

nothing more than the paint correction i do.

im by no means a professional, but im confident in my work. ive got many pictures of paint correction jobs ive done if you want to see them.

pics would be awesome!

every body shop i call, it seems like they're morons.

"we don't do touch ups"

"you're gonna need to respray the whole panel for it to look right"

"we just dab it on with a toothpick"

it's like... i'd kind of rather have a few chips that aren't 100% matched than have a whole panel or 2 that aren't matched... i dont' know. i don't have any confidence in any of the body shops i've seen... none of them are enthusiasts.

[redspeed3tk]

wow so im a automotive painter for a ford shop and i spray dupont. the guy who said silver is impossible to match is deff wrong bc nothing is impossible. there are blending techniques that allow you to blend a silver with it looking perfect i would take it to a good shop and have them fix it and tell them it has to match the fender and door then if it doesn't ya can have them blend those pannels for free, i have had to do that sometimes. but i could fix that pretty easy that color actualy matches pretty well a bit light but blends nice the color doesnt have to be perfect to have a hidden repair

[NCZ13]

heres swirl removal on a nissan altima. this could possibly work on your problem. but now looking at the pictures, those do look pretty deep... or at least some of them do. i could probably polish out alot the shallower stuff and make it less noticeable.

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u172/ncz13/P1160781.jpg
before
http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u172/ncz13/P1160783.jpg
50/50
http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u172/ncz13/P1160786.jpg
done
http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u172/ncz13/P1160784.jpg

they could probably be touched up, cured, wetsanded, polished... do you have any more pictures of the damage?

[controlo]

no, those are the only pictures i have... they're all chips i assure you. none of them can be polished out. they may be able to be touched up, wet sanded and polished but i've never seen results on a silver car. i've just heard it's very hard to make it look acceptable. there's noone here in town that's even aware of a good method of touch up work. :/

[NCZ13]

well taht would be it exactly. touching it up, wetsanding, probably another coat, wetsanding, polish it out. the problem is that it would potentially take off more clearcoat than neccessary. its doable for sure. but i cant tell you how it would turn out.

[controlo]

well taht would be it exactly. touching it up, wetsanding, probably another coat, wetsanding, polish it out. the problem is that it would potentially take off more clearcoat than neccessary. its doable for sure. but i cant tell you how it would turn out.

well, what i did when i first got my bottle of oem touch up paint, i scratched a piece of paint off inside my drivers side door jam so i could see how it would match. it didn't match very well... maybe it would after drying and such... but i think we could work on something like that on the inside of the car, that's invisible before we make a decision on the outside. i found a guy that does touch up for a few PDR guys and a few dealerships. i tried to meet up with him but he was super busy. i'm gonna give him a call tomorrow afternoon.

how far are you from Bakersfield, 93312?

[NCZ13]

lets just say im about 35 minutes from san diego lol

[redspeed3tk]

you will never get a touch up to be hidden it needs to be blended out in the pannel get it done right the first time

[controlo]

you will never get a touch up to be hidden it needs to be blended out in the pannel get it done right the first time

i would get it done 'right' if it were possible. every body shops work in town i've seen SUCKS. i'd rather have a few chips that nobody notices now, than have a whole panel or two that is a different texture, different metallic flakes used, different contrast.

if i can find someone that knows what the hell they're doing, i'll have no problem getting a respray but i've never seen good work in this city. i'd rather just touch it up... i can't leave it, the primer is starting to wear off and it's going to start to rust eventually.

[samsel450r]

what you do is you put a dab of touch up paint that matches the most "if the scratches are deep" then you put it on kinda thick so its a little higher than the paint on the rest of the car then you let it dry then get some wet 2000 grit sand paper and wet sand it till its level with the rest of the paint and then buff it with rubbing compound and then polish it and you shouldn't see the scratch anymore.... just watch out cause the paint on our cars are really thin...

[controlo]

i think i can do it, but i don't know exactly what the best way is for metallic paints. the metallic in the paint rises to the top so... blobbing it on and sanding it, you'll take all of the metallic off the top.. i think the best way i've seen is probably Langka. just blob the paint on, squeegie it pretty level before the metallic flake has time to rise. then use the solution to remove excess paint. at this point, i think a respray would be worse. the biggest chips seen in the pictures are no bigger than a standard size rock chip. there are a lot of them, and that's what worries me. a lot of really tiny ones that can't be seen very well... i can't tell what's through to the primer or metal and whats not in some cases...