Schnitter

So I parked next to a giant white boat of a Lincoln continental at lunch the other day, and came out to find a nice ding and a fairly deep scratch and ding.

The ding is small enough that simply pulling it will likely be a waste, and I don't feel like going through the effort of drilling+bondo+pulling it. It'll only be noticeable when the light hits the body "just so". However, the missing paint is pretty obvious with some of the white primer showing through the hot lava finish. I grabbed some 4R8 touchup paint at the dealership, sanded the edges of the scratch, and applied the touchup paint. After letting it dry, however... it seems to be much more orange, and far more metallic than the surrounding area. It seems as if that 4R8 is actually an undercoat that shines through a pearlescent red or something.

Before I grab some heavier/more abrasive rubbing compound to blend the area, does anyone have a good solution for better matching the paint? Is the batch of touchup paint I got just improperly mixed perhaps?

I'm one of "those" guys who generally parks at the back of the parking lot to avoid dings, and this blemish is really bugging me. Any help/suggestions will be more than welcome.

Thanks!

rickbreitenfeldt

I had the issue with the 04 xB Hot Lava. Touch up paint is Laquered base and it "glows" differently. It actually aged okay after about 8 months. The metallic was still a little bit more then the rest. Back in the SL early days I read some people paid the $30-40 to have pint or something made so that it was the same paint instead of laquer based.

Zefoxe

touch up paint is never going to match up. u also have to consider environmental weathering on the clear coat etc

Schnitter

Yeah, I understand about the weathering, but I've had the touchup paint since day one of the dealership receiving my release series. It has never properly matched(far too orange). I honestly seems to be the "undercoat" of the paint that shines through a darker top layer.

I was going to attempt to "blend" it a little with the surrounding area like I've done on my old Eclipse, and E46 325... but the white under/base coat bleeds through quite quickly. The actual paint layer on Toyotas, and Scions seems to be extremely thin.

The fact that is a laquer base actually makes a LOT of sense, rick... the consistency of the paint just seemed entirely off. I assume they do that for touchup paint because they figure that the average person using it won't bother to apply clearcoat over the touchup spot?

I was told at some point that the Hot Lava was actually a tri-coat paint/finish. I'll dig around a bit more, and maybe stop by the local auto paint place. They may be able to mix up a pint like you said. I'm sure I'll get more little chips down the road, so being able to maintain the finish will likely be a worth while investment. Thanks for the advice!

DriverXa

Your best bet is to get some paint custom made to match. Find a paint supplier near you who can scan the color off your car for a perfect match. Toyota changed the color slightly from when it was on the xB1, yet they've kept the same code. The xD color is slightly darker. To me it sounds like you have a stick of the xB touch up.

Zefoxe

if that isnt an understatement haha