2017~2024 Touch up question

So I walked up to my car the other day only to notice some #&%## moron had seemed to run a shopping cart or something high into the front of my car. As you can see from the attached pic it didn't get through the base layer, but did knock a fair sized chip out of the paint and and added a few other marks to boot.

I stopped by a body shop and one of the guys looked at it, and said to really fix it they would have to remove the piece and do a total repaint on it to make it right, which I believe whole-heartedly. Soul Red Mica is a great color indeed, but I have known since I got the car any issues with the paint would never be a cheap fix.

Since I lease the car I'm not losing my mind over this, but it pisses me off every time I look at it. But I also really don't want to spend the big cash so I'm thinking to do a touch up as best as possible. I know it will be far from perfect but at least I'd like to be able to disguise it a bit. I've read varying opinions about the factory touch up paint, and was wondering if some of you folks out there had any experience with other brands or methods of doing a fix for this sort of ding.

Thanks for any insights ya'll might have.

You can apply touch up paint, and it won't be visible from far away. But as soon as you get a little closer, the difference in color will stick out almost as much as the way it looks now. To fix it well enough that even the dealership might not be able to tell, follow this procedure:


Note that you don't have to use a machine polisher, it just makes the process much faster if you do.

That sucks. Since it's leased, I'd touch it up and try to forget about it. At least it's not a dent, too. You've only got about a year more to live with it, right?

Thanks for all the info! I've wondered if I might just make it more visible, but from looking at the touch up paint page and the video it seems like it might be feasible to spend a little time and take a crack at it. That being said I have read the Mazda touch up paint tends to run on the orange side, though that was from some older postings and they might have improved it since then. I'll probably take a crack at in the next couple of weeks and will report back on the success / failure of the project.

I'm not so worried about the dealer, if I swap it for another CX-5 they'll typically eat it since they just resell the car, and we all know dealers never lose money, they just might not make as much as they'd like.

A quick sort of funny story about scratched cars is when I came out of a store about a year ago, walked up to my car and there were three nasty scratches that combined ran the length of the drivers side of the car. I went batshit for obvious reasons, and was close to a meltdown. After a couple of minutes looking at the scratches I finally said f-it, I had stuff to do, and went to get in the car and it wouldn't open. I then had an epiphany and turned around and sho' nuff it wasn't my car, mine was hidden behind another car that had parked after I went in the store. I felt truly bad for the guy who owned the scratched up one, but had to admit to a better him than me moment...

That Dr. Color chip works pretty good. I've used it several times with good results. You may want to look into that?

Jman136 said:

That Dr. Color chip works pretty good. I've used it several times with good results. You may want to look into that?

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Their basic chip touch up kit seems like just what I'm looking for, enough to help hide it somewhat without breaking the bank. I'll let the dealer sweat the perfect fix (like they'll actually do it) when I hand the car back in November 2020. In the meantime this should do fine.

Thanks a lot!!

Ranman57 said:

Their basic chip touch up kit seems like just what I'm looking for, enough to help hide it somewhat without breaking the bank. I'll let the dealer sweat the perfect fix (like they'll actually do it) when I hand the car back in November 2020. In the meantime this should do fine.

Thanks a lot!!

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No problem! It is an easy to use system, and the color matches pretty spot on. Definitely give it a try!

That's a pretty large size damage that touch up paint from a pen may hide from a far but far from good.

As it is Soul Red Crystal, it will not be easy to match but possible to lessen the obvious damage by getting the kits that have the tri-coats. Some Auto supply stores can mix up rattle cans that have the base, 2nd clear/color and clear coat.

As it's a lease, do you have additional wear care that excludes additional damage coverage or perhaps allowances to cover the repair?

I bought the Dr. Colorchip kit for my 2019 that has Machine Gray paint. One tip is that I used one of those little silicone rubber squeegee wedges that usually come with screen protector kits for a cellphone to level the paint after you dab it into the chip with a toothpick. The method of wearing a rubber glove and smearing it with your finger is not very efficient and leaves more excess paint on the surrounding area that needs to be removed. For what they charge for the kit they should include one of those squeegees. I needed 3 coats to being it up level with the surface.

However, I followed the instructions explicitly regarding stirring up the paint and the repaired spot is noticeably darker than the surrounding area. Not really obvious unless the repair is pointed out but if the paint were a better color match it would be an almost invisible touchup.