jmatchus

Hello all,

I have a pretty good ding on my passenger side and have been slowly trying to fill it in with the pearl white touch-up paint I got from Sewell. I did primer it first and am filling in the rest with a coat each night. Its been about 10 applications and the paint is pretty much filled in but remaining a gray color, certainly nothing like pearl white. Could the mistake be the lack of a clear coat in between applications causing the sun to discolor it? It is garage kept and I let it dry overnight so, I don't know.

I took it to a place called Carsmetics just to get a "what if" quote and they quoted $385. I'd rather cringe everyday.

Any suggestions on what I can do to make it even a little better? Sorry, the pic was taken from an iPhone so it's not so good.

Thanks!

cmichael

How old is the paint on your car?

EXE.UCF10

iTrader: (3)

You're supposed to add a white base coat (such as paint code 040) before adding the pearl touch up.

MoeMistry

+1...pearl paints are a bit tricky. $385 actually is a great deal depending on what they're doing. It sounds like a spot blend. I'd rather pay $385 and know I don't have to think about the chips or look at them all the time.

Have you put any clear on? If not, the base coat is usually dull and may be attracting dirt. It's compounding things since you have a white car and it shows more. You may want to simply start again, put the base coat on and begin filling with the clear and then sand, compound, and polish. These are things I'd leave to the pros.

mou

the drcolorchip kit I used said that there's no exact match for pearl colors because it has three stages of paint, and said that they were only able to produce a color similar to it. The results were okay, only noticable within a few feet but it's hard to tell from far away. I'll try to see if I can post up pictures later tonight.

MoeMistry

Yes...that's because the clear itself is pearl too. Very tough paint to match by a pro, let alone DIY job.

jmatchus

Thanks for the replies. It's an 08 so it's not that old. No, I haven't used any clear coat yet, I was waiting to the end but now I see that isn't a good idea. I'll try again and then go to the pros if I'm not satisfied.

The quote was for 2 panels because of where the ding is. The guy said if it was about 3 inches to the right, they would only have to paint one panel. Two is to get the color to blend for each panel.