gregruns

Hello,

I just wanted to share with everybody and anybody who has a 2013 RX in the Silver Lining color that rock chips are extremely hard to cover up for this color for some reason.

You may have seen my earlier post about how disgusted I was that my couple weeks old RX had a rock chip already.

Well, I bought the touch up paint from Lexus, in my color of course, shook it vigorously, and applied thin layers of it on my car.........it just looks horrible, the color just does not match at all!

I took it to my dealer, he ran it back to detailing and had them redo it for me. It's still not a match.

So, is this the way silver behaves in general?

BertL

As a general statement, colors that have "pearl" (lots of sparkles) are a lot harder to touch up with a dab of paint than colors without. I adore Lexus paint and finish, especially compared to some European brands with their infamous orange peel effect, but I'm like you and cringe whenever I find a chip. I've never had great matches from either Lexus or 3rd parties with touch up paint over many years and different colors from light to dark, but it generally beats having raw metal and at least improves the situation from leaving the chip alone. Some other mfgrs (e.g. BMW) provide two bottles of touch up paint for their special order sparkly colors to be applied as a 2-stage approach... I didn't find it to really do much better than the single stage touch-up I'm used to with Toyota, and just live with it.

I could always put one of the materials on my bumpers, hood, etc (see other threads on pro/cons) of that approach), but after one negative use of that on another car of mine, I now elect to take my chances, using very small specialty touch up brushes to cover the chips when I find them, and if it gets bad enough, I then take my ride to a high quality shop and have it repainted to match the rest of my vehicle.

Very sorry to hear about your problems with a brand new ride. I know I'd feel as terrible as you do. Sorry I don't have a good solution for you, but certainly empathize with your situation.

gregruns

Thank you for your comments Bert.

UCSB

I don't have any dings in my car, but when I get one I think I will try this touch-up approach:

http://www.automotivetouchup.com/paintpen.asp

They sell the primer, base coat and clear coat. This seems like the kind of approach that might get you closer. I have found in the past that the clear coat is a must. I have also used a polishing product after the touch-up has been on the car for awhile to blend the repair in with the normal clear coat. My brother has used some of their spray on products and gotten excellent results for larger areas.

dentate

gregruns - Lexus paint is known to be chip easily-especially on the hood. On my first RX in 2004 I did not intsall the 3M clear film on the hood right away and soon discovered that my new silver vehicle had a couple of stone chips under the grille or just above it. I soon had it installed and I have had it installed on every Lexus I have purchased from the time on. My 2009 (72,000 km) has zero stone chips and the 2010 (48,000 km) that I just traded did not have any either. I already have an appointment to have it installed on my 2013 and it will not be built undil Sept. 27!

dentate
Oshawa, ON