Quick Facts About Touching Up Car Paint
- Average do-it-yourselfers can make most smaller paint repairs like for scratches, chips, and rust spots.
- Fading and dull car paint finishes are signs of a degraded clear coat.
- Spending a little time and money fixing a car’s paint blemishes can add to its resale value.
Whether you need to prepare your used vehicle for resale or trade-in, or you want to improve its appearance for appearance’s sake, car touch-up paint can be an ally. As you continue reading, we will not only tell you why you might want to fix those scratches and paint blemishes but also provide the steps to take and some additional resources to get your car’s paint finish looking like new. Use our jump links below to move ahead in the story.
- How Fixing Car Paint Scratches with Touch-Up Paint Adds Resale Value
- Signs Your Car Needs a Paint Touch-Up
- 5 Steps When Repairing Car Paint Scratches
- Finding the Right Touch-Up Paint
- Where to Get a Car Paint Job
How Fixing Car Paint Scratches with Touch-Up Paint Adds Resale Value
When it comes to selling a used car or turning in a leased one, for that matter, the condition of its exterior provides its first impression. And, as the old saying goes, you only get one chance to make a first impression. A well-maintained vehicle exterior not only implies value but also provides the first evidence that this is a well-maintained vehicle. Think of it as a firm grip in that introductory handshake rather than a limp one.
No one can legitimately expect a used car to be blemish-free. A nick here, a scratch there, it happens. Leasing agents know it. Used car managers evaluating your trade-in know it. And, as consumers, we know it. But there is a difference between used and abused. There is a point where the number of dings and scratches — or their severity — exceeds what experienced evaluators are willing to absorb in the cost of repairing or consumers are willing to accept as they visualize themselves in your car. At this point, exterior blemishes begin to eat into your used car’s value. When selling a used car, that means it’s worth less money to the buyer, or it may even be a deal breaker.
Minor blemishes can often be temporarily hidden with a coat of good wax or removed with a rubbing compound, such as Meguiar’s ScratchX, Turtle Wax Premium Grade Car Rubbing Compound, or Mothers Professional Rubbing Compound. More severe scratches and dings, like those reaching the metal surface, require more care but can still be fixed by do-it-yourselfers.
Signs Your Car Needs a Paint Touch-Up
The signs your car needs a paint touch-up are fairly obvious; however, for the sake of covering all the bases, here are some indications your car’s finish needs touching up.
- Scratches – As we mentioned earlier, cars get scratches. Some stand out, while others barely look noticeable. You should be most concerned about the ones you can see from 5 to 10 feet away. Those are the ones that can reduce your car’s value. Although, we believe if you are fixing scratches, you might as well fix them all.
- Clear coat peeling – The paint’s protective layer is called clear coat. What you might, at first glance, think is peeling paint may well be your clear coat. The paint finish will soon follow where your clear coat is compromised because it is open to the elements.
- Rust spots – Rust is a common car paint killer. Signs of rust on your car’s finish can spell even bigger problems if not addressed. Look for these around the wheels and along the rocker panels below the doors.
- Dents and dings – As with scratches, most cars have a few dings (paint chips) here and there. Smaller chips in the paint may not decrease the value of your car unless there are several of them. However, the greater their number and size, the more they may affect the value of your car.
- Fading paint and dullness – If your car shows signs of fading paint or dullness, easily and inexpensively repairing the finish may be behind you. Fading paint (often on the hood, roof, and trunk lid) begins small but eventually spreads to a greater area. The culprit is typically worn-out clear coating. Dullness is another sign the clear coat is no longer doing its job. If no amount of waxing brings back the finish, it’s a clear-coat issue.
5 Steps When Repairing Car Paint Scratches
Attempting to repair a blemish with actual paint may seem intimidating at first, but with the right tools and proper paint, a DIY job can look professional.
1. Wash the Car
Before you can even begin to see all the scratches, dings, and blemishes on your car’s finish, it must be clean. This is the case before evaluation and especially before beginning any paint repairs. Read about the benefits of cleaning with a clay bar.
2. Evaluate the Dings and Scratches
Every ding and scratch isn’t the same. Some may require different tools, as well as different methods to apply the paint. Whether you are repairing one ding or several, carefully inspect each. Is the damage significant enough (large and/or deep) to require a primer coat? Is sanding necessary? Can the base coat (color) be applied with a pen-size applicator, brushed on with a small-bottle applicator, or sprayed with an aerosol?
- Pens: Best for small rock chips, nicks smaller than a pencil eraser, and thin scratches.
- Bottles: Ideal for small areas no larger than a dime.
- Aerosol: For larger areas. A single 12-ounce can cover roughly a 6-square-foot area.
TIP: Autotrader’s Trevor Spedden, our in-house car-detailing expert, recommends using a toothpick to apply touch-up paint to chips and smaller areas.
3. Matching Color
Perhaps the biggest hurdle to clear for a DIY paint touch-up is getting the correct color. Of course, you can always visit the parts department at a franchise dealer for the make of the car in question. Usually, the color match can be ordered if it’s a relatively recent model. Your best bet in getting the exact color the first time is to locate the color code on the vehicle. Often, but not always, it’s positioned somewhere inside the driver’s door. You will need this code no matter where you source the paint.
4. Apply the Touch-Up Paint
The quality of the result of your efforts will depend a lot on the time you spend. It’s not a process that can be rushed.
TIP: The larger the scratch or blemish, the longer the repair will take.
When touching up a car’s paint, you need to:
- Thoroughly clean the touch-up area.
- Lightly sand the blemish and the area surrounding it with fine-grain sandpaper. Reclean the area.
- Apply the primer if needed and let it dry completely.
- Administer the paint. For larger areas, use multiple coats allowing each layer to dry completely. Then softly sand any rough spots you’ve created. Use fine-grain (400-grit) sandpaper.
TIP: Many experts suggest soaking the sandpaper in water for at least five minutes.
5. How to Apply Clear Coat to a Car
Your touch-up task isn’t complete until you’ve applied the clear coat to the repair area. As with the paint, you want to apply multiple thin layers of clear coat, permitting them to dry between applications. Once the final clear-coat application is complete, allow it to dry and lightly wet sand it again.
TIP: A light sanding of the final layer of dried clear coat will help it to blend in with the original finish.
Finding the Right Touch-Up Paint
The point of tackling paint repair as a DIY project is to save money and minimize hassle, right? Ideally, you want to spend as little as possible and not tie up your car in a paint shop for two or three days. You can always do things piecemeal. That is, purchasing the paint and tools at different sources. This sounds like a lot of work to us, particularly when there are solutions on websites right at your fingertips. Chipex and Automotive Touchup are two well-known internet sources for DIY paint repair. They are one-stop shops for auto paint touch-up supplies. Although Chipex is headquartered in the U.K., it does serve the United States. Automotive Touchup is homegrown (New Orleans) and is the leading provider of touch-up paint solutions in the U.S.
We reached out to Automotive Touchup to learn how its experts remove some of the angst and uncertainty from your touch-up project. We discovered that from the start, Automotive Touchup helps you through the steps from locating the paint code on your specific vehicle to how-to videos walking you through exactly what your particular job requires.
With more than 60,000 original carmaker colors available, it can match the paint regardless of model or year. It also guarantees the match. Moreover, Automotive Touchup can ship the color in whichever application system you need: pen, bottle, aerosol can, or even in bulk for spray guns. The company stocks the paint, primer, clear coat, sandpaper, body filler, and more.
Where to Get a Car Paint Job?
Unless you are set up to paint a car completely, some paint damage requires more equipment and skill than the typical do-it-yourselfer can muster. If you weigh the price of having your car professionally repainted against the value gained for resale or trade-in, you may conclude a professional paint job isn’t worth it. However, if your goal is to make your ride shiny and new-looking again, the result may be worth the cost.
When to Consider a Professional Car Paint Job?
Earlier, we advised the larger the affected area, the longer a paint repair will take. An addendum to that is the larger the area, the more difficult the repair. Moreover, if the sheet metal is damaged, you must make those repairs before painting. For bigger jobs, we suggest you realistically evaluate the time, materials, and skills a paint repair will take. Then go to a professional for an estimate. You may be better off and get a better result with the professional.
TIP: If you plan to repaint your entire car, you might consider a vinyl wrap. It offers more finish protection than a traditional paint job.
What Will a Professional Car Paint Job Cost?
Probably a lot (usually, at least $500) but maybe less than you think. You won’t know until you get an estimate or two because so many factors affect the cost. Although a higher cost doesn’t always translate into a good result, you get what you pay for, like anything else. You can get things done reasonably affordably at national chains like Maaco. A local shop will probably cost more if you want a more tailored approach. Either way, you will be better off repairing the small chips and scratches yourself, leaving bigger jobs like paint fading and collision damage to the pros.
What Goes Into a Car Paint Job Estimate?
Although we’re talking paint here, expect to pay a lot more for repairing bodywork damage. Repairing dents, rust damage, and crumpled sheet metal adds to an estimate’s bottom line. If the job requires paint and labor alone, here’s what impacts the total:
- Area covered – The larger the imperfection, the more the job will cost. If the estimate is for a complete repainting of the vehicle, the cost will be higher for a midsize car than a subcompact. This is true of both materials and labor.
- Color – Primary colors cost less than exotic ones. Unless you are painting the entire vehicle, you won’t have a choice because you need to stick with the vehicle’s color. If it’s a complete repaint, white or black will be most affordable.
- Paint type – You’ll likely find a few paint types available, providing different levels of durability and finish. You can choose anything from simple enamel to more durable acrylic enamel.
- Paint finish – As with house paint, car paint can produce various finishes. Solid paint is the most affordable way to go. Metallic paint adds a sparkle effect to the finish. Pearlescent paint ups the sparkle effect to one in which the paint almost seems to change colors with changes to the ambient light. Finally, the most expensive finish is matte, best described as a “flat” finish. It’s also the most costly to fix if it chips and you don’t protect the paint.
TIP: Get all estimates in writing.
Questions to Ask for the Estimate
Here are a few basic questions you’ll want to be answered before entrusting your painting job to a shop:
- How long is your written warranty?
- What does your written warranty cover?
- Do you use OEM (carmaker factory) replacement parts for body repairs?
- Does your insurance cover theft or damage to cars in your care?
