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:

 

[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.

before

50/50

done

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