How to Touch up Car Paint: Everything You Need to Know

Quick Facts About Touching up Car Paint

• Average do-it-yourselfers can make most smaller paint repairs, such as 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 appearances’ 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 much better. 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
• Our Take

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 that your car needs a paint touch-up are fairly obvious; however, to cover all the bases, here are some indications that your car’s finish needs touching up.

• Scratches: As we mentioned earlier, cars get scratches. Some stand out, while others are barely noticeable. You should be most concerned about the ones you can see from five to 10 feet away. Those are the ones that can reduce your car’s value. However, we believe that if you are fixing scratches, you might as well fix them all.
• Clear coat peeling: The paint’s protective layer is called the clear coat. What you might, at first glance, think is peeling paint may well be your clear coat. The paint finish will soon follow — after the 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 issues 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 flats (the hood, roof, and trunk lid), begins small but eventually spreads to a greater area. The culprit is typically a worn-out clear coat. Dullness is another sign that 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

Not every ding and scratch is the same. Some may require different tools and 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 an applicator pen, 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 covers roughly a 6-square-foot area.

PRO TIP: We recommend 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. The larger the scratch or blemish, the longer the repair will take.

When touching up a car’s paint, you need to:

• Thoroughly clean and degrease the touch-up area.
• Lightly feather the blemish and surrounding area as needed, using 600-grit to 1,000-grit sandpaper.
• Reclean the area using a prep solvent (blended to remove any remaining dirt, oil, wax, or other debris).
• Apply the primer if needed and let it dry completely.
• Administer the paint. For larger areas, use multiple coats and allow each layer to dry completely: roughly 10 minutes between color coats and 15 to 30 minutes before clear. Then softly sand any rough spots you’ve created. Use fine-grain (1,000-grit or higher) sandpaper.

PRO TIP: Some experts suggest wet sanding (see below) to achieve the best final results.

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.

PRO TIP: Lightly sanding the final layer of dried clear coat will help it blend in with the original finish.

Dry Sanding vs. Wet Sanding

Sanding is a key step in preparing a finish for repainting, as well as achieving the smoothest finish for a completed paint fix. For auto finishes, both dry and wet sanding are solid strategies. They can be employed independently or in conjunction with one another to deliver a smooth, nearly imperceptible paint repair.

Dry sanding: Requiring the less time and refined technique, dry sanding is the easier sanding approach. Moreover, no liquid lubricant is required. All you need is high-grit (800-plus) sandpaper, a sanding block, and a vacuum to suck up the dust. Dry sanding is more aggressive than wet sanding.

Wet sanding: Requiring more time and patience, wet sanding requires wet/dry sandpaper and water as a lubricant. When done properly, wet sanding can produce a nearly flawless finish on a paint repair, but it requires patience, care, time, a light touch, a degree of technique, the appropriate supplies, and a bit of luck. It’s best utilized in larger areas.

Dry and Wet Sanding Supplies

Regardless of whether you pick the dry or wet approach, certain supplies are necessary.

• Sandpaper: Available by degree of coarseness expressed in grit count (400, 600, 800, 1,000, and so forth) from coarser to finer, sandpaper can be either dry or wet/dry (waterproof). You will need a progression of grits to sand off the tougher stuff and gradually work your way to finer grits. Wet/dry sandpaper has a waterproof back, allowing it to be submerged in water without disintegrating.
• Sanding block: Although dry sanding allows for a power sander, we recommend using a sanding block — whether dry or wet sanding — for better control.
• Masking tape: Taping off the area you are repainting keeps your sanding efforts concentrated on the appropriate area.
• Microfiber cloths: As you sand, you will need to periodically wipe the surface to monitor progress.
• Protective gear: Gear up with gloves and eye protection.

Dry Sanding Supplies

For dry sanding, you will also need:

• Vacuum: Dust is a real issue when dry sanding, so you will need a vacuum to suck up the dust.
• Respirator: All of that dust must end up somewhere, and some of it will be in your lungs without protection.

Wet Sanding Supplies

Also needed for wet sanding:

• Spray bottle: Wet sanding not only requires the sandpaper to be wet, but the surface being sanded must remain wet.
• Buckets: You will need more than one bucket because you must have one in which to submerge the sandpaper and at least one other in which to cast off the slurry of water and metal particles.

Dry and Wet Sanding Pointers

Whether dry or wet sanding, there are certain rules to follow.

• Take your time. When applying paint, you want the surface to be as smooth as possible, so don’t rush the sanding process. Rushing will only cause you to sand deeper than necessary.
• Easy does it: Again, the desired result is a smooth surface. Don’t put too much pressure on the sanding block.
• Stroke: Work the sanding block back and forth in the same direction. Don’t sand in a circle,
• Progress check: Regularly wipe off the surface and check your progress.
• Course to fine: Begin sanding with a lower, coarser grit and work your way to a higher, finer grit.

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 time as possible and not tie up your car in a paint shop for two or three days. You can always do things piecemeal, such as 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 AutomotiveTouchup 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. AutomotiveTouchup is based in New Orleans, Louisiana, 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 that walk 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 DIYer 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 look shiny and close to new again, the result may well be worth the cost.

When to Consider a Professional Car Paint Job?

Earlier, we advised that the larger the affected area, the longer a paint repair will take. An addendum to that is that 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 a professional.

PRO TIP: If you plan to repaint your entire car, you might consider a vinyl wrap. A full vinyl wrap can refresh the look and protect the factory finish from chips and UV damage. Its durability compared to paint depends on film quality and care.

What Will a Professional Car Paint Job Cost?

Probably a lot, but maybe less than you think. There are many cost considerations, but a single-stage respray with minimal prep will set you back between $500 and $1,500, while a midgrade paint job with better prep and a base coat averages $1,500 to $5,000. High-end finishes with extensive prep and premium materials can cost $10,000 or more. You won’t know until you get an estimate, and every job is unique. We suggest getting two or three written, itemized estimates.

Although a higher cost doesn’t always translate into a better 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 for 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: There are likely a few paint types available, each 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.

PRO 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 the manufacturer’s original parts (automaker factory) as replacement parts for body repairs?
• Does your insurance cover theft or damage to cars in your care?

Our Take

Although we’d leave the bigger, more involved paint repair jobs to the professionals, we argue that most car owners are capable of addressing the smaller chips, scratches, and blemishes many older cars accumulate.