tips for applying touch up paint and achieving much better results

Have you ever tried to repair some small rock chips and scratches on your car using the factory touch up paint but found that the paint was too thick and blobby and sometimes the color didn't even match? Here are a few tips for applying touch up paint and achieving much better results.

First, do not use the brush that comes with factory touch up paint. The size of this brush is more suited for painting toenails and fingernails than it is for repairing minor paint damage on cars. 

Instead, go to a hobby store and buy some very fine tipped touch up brushes that hobbyists use to paint model cars. Shake up your paint thoroughly and then dip one of these fine tipped touch up brushes into your bottle or two of paint. Just use enough to wet the tip of the brush. Now with a steady hand touch the center of the rock chip or the scratch. If it is a rock chip, just apply the minimum amount of pain necessary. One of the most common mistakes people make when repairing rock chips is that they apply too much paint. With touch up, less is more!

If you are fixing a scratch do not apply your paint in long strokes. Simply stroke the scratch about 1/8 of an inch at a time and connect these short strokes of paint together slowly. If you make a mistake just use some automotive paint thinner to completely wipe your scratches and chips clean and then begin again.

Another problem that causes people to become unsatisfied with their touch up work is that they expect nearly perfect results. This is often possible with solid colors like red white and black. You can achieve very good results with a fine tipped touch up brush. However there are certain colors which are extremely difficult to repair. These include silver, gold, light metallic green, and light metallic blue. The metallic content of these paints causes the touch up paint to look at different color depending on the angle you look at it. You can certainly improve the scratches and chips appearance from a direct angle, but from other angles you will find that the paint looks either darker or lighter. There is simply nothing that can be done about this. If the improvement I touch up offers is not sufficient, you will have to pay a body shop to repaint these panels.

So remember these two simple things. First, use of very fine tipped touch up brushes do your touch up work. Second, if you have a light metallic paint job set your expectations accordingly. And one final tip: don't attempt to repair anything larger than 2 inches in length. Beyond 2 inches, as a rule of thumb, and it must be set to a body shop.