Touch-Up Paint
 

Has anyone tried touch up paint to fix some scratches for your vehicles? This happened to my 2 weeks old '19 ES350 Fsport Atomic Silver. My wife parked this car in a gym parking lot, when she came out, she found out some dumb ass scratched her car and took off. I am planning to get some touch up paint from Lexus and fix it myself. Do you think if it can be DIY project?
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Atomic silver will be tough to match. Multi coats.

So sorry to hear this. I am super careful with where I park and fortunately, so is my wife. We are currently driving our second Atomic Silver Lexus and getting a decent repair in the event of accident has been a concern of mine. I really doubt you will get a decent repair with a touch-up paint. Since Atomic Silver consists of multiple layers, I’m not even sure they offer a touch-up paint.

Good luck and please let us know how you resolve this.

Even though I haven't used it yet I do have a Lexus touch up pen in Atomic Silver so I know that is available.

As others have said, the Atomic Silver is, without question, one of the most difficult colors for which to get a satisfactory color match when any kind of paint repairs, whether major or minor, are needed. The Atomic Silver is a 4-stage (maybe 5) pearl color. Trying to use touch-up paint to repair even pinhead-sized stone nicks is likely to result in a repair that sticks out like a sore thumb. And it is a virtual guarantee that trying to use touch-up paint to do a repair on the damage to the OP's car is not going to turn out well.

When a shop needs to do repair work with a color like the Atomic Silver, even after trying to come as close as possible to matching the color, it is going to have to blend out the new color into adjacent areas. Doing so is not going to make the new color match any better, but it will gradually spread out the mismatch over a wider area and make it less noticeable.

A couple of years ago, there was a thread on the Generation 6 ES board here started by someone who needed paint repairs on his Atomic Silver ES. After the repairs were done, it looked like he had a 2-tone car. After multiple attempts to try to correct the color mismatch failed, he ended up giving up and selling/trading the car.

It is hard to tell from the picture, but some of the damage might be paint transfer from another car. If that is the case, a shop might be able to use the proper compounds and remove some/most of the paint transfer. But, it the damage is actually to the paint on the ES and if that damage has gone deeper than the clear coat, the only chance of doing a satisfactory repair will be to have a shop refinish the damaged area and blend the new color out into adjacent areas. Such a repair will not be cheap. I would suggest checking to see if comprehensive insurance might cover the repairs, and I would also definitely make sure that I had the best shop I could find do the work.

Good luck.

I bought one too so they are available. Regarding touching up Atomic Silver, you will never come close to making it look like you want with touch-up paint. Depending how deep the scratches are you would require a refinish job by a body shop to make it look decent. From information posted on the forum regarding repaints, this color is one of the most difficult to match - even by a professional body shop... I always park far away with no other cars around with this in mind. GOOD LUCK!

I'm so sorry that happened! I would be sick!

As lesz mentioned, it's hard to tell from the photo, but polishing it out is easily the best option if you can get away with it. It will even take out some of the lighter scratches. If you aren't comfortable with a polisher, take it to a good body shop. They'll try polish first, but may still have to paint it if the scratches are too deep. Either way, I promise it will look way better than it would if you used touch up paint on multi stage paint!

Don't hesitate to paint it if polishing it out won't work! Just make sure it's a quality paint shop. We all have insurance to protect us from idiots, and this is what it's for! It would drive me crazy to have a brand new car with touch up paint repair. Especially when the paint is a pretty as Atomic Silver!

Thank you all. I have tried to polished it out and here how it looks. It's much better than before. Now I am waiting for the touch up paint to arrive so I can apply it and will see how it comes out.

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It sure does look a lot better than it did before. I'd suggest being very careful with using the touch-up paint. I'm not sure that I've ever seen touch-up paint used on even minor paint damage with colors like the Atomic Silver, pearl whites, or other multi-stage pearl colors where the touch up didn't make things look worse than they looked before the touch up was done.

Huge improvement - you will be fine with a bit of touch up despite the color challenges. Well done.

Adding to what I said above, if you do try to finish the job with touch-up paint, there are a few technique-related suggestions that I'd make.

First, do not use the brush that comes with the touch-up paint. Instead, go to some place that sells artist supplies, and buy a couple of of very fine brushes with short and small brush heads. That will give you more control over being able to apply the paint precisely where you want it to be than would be the case using the brush that comes with the touch-up paint. Then, when applying the paint, make sure that you are as careful as you can be to apply the touch-up paint only within the outlines of the damaged area and make sure that there is no new paint that ends up outside of the chip/scratch and on top of the factory paint. Also, try to apply just enough of the touch-up paint so that it ends up at the same height/level as the factory paint. Since the touch-up paint will shrink a bit as it dries, that means applying the touch-up paint so that it starts out being just a tiny bit higher than the level of the factory paint. If the spots where you apply the touch-up paint are either higher or lower than the factory paint, that is one thing that can cause the repaired area to catch the light differently from the adjacent factory paint, and the result can be that the repaired area will appear to be too dark from one angle and too light from a different angle.

Again, good luck.

Thank you.

I'll be carefully to apply Lexus touch-up paint little by little and even it out by using Meguiar's G17216 Ultimate Compound. Someone did that on youtube. I know Atomic Silver is very difficult to match but I don't think I have another option beside taking it to the bodyshop, and it will be insurance claim involved. That's why I try to do it myself first. If it comes out acceptable, I'll install 3M Pro PPF for the front end including full bumper, partial hood and fenders, headlights, side mirrors. I have learnt a expensive lesson by not installing it in the first day I took the car home.

Great advise. Thank you.

Great advice. I will say though from personal experience, it is a tough job. My wife has an Eminent White Pearl RX which is a tri-coat - she had a tiny stone chip on the hood - I attempted to touch it up as you suggest and while it filled in nicely, the color just doesn't match and it's a Lexus touch up stick with separate base, mid and clear coat bottles I bought. Better than nothing though.

I asked the owner of the paint shop I have used for the last several years (recommended by the dealer!) which touch up paint I should use for my wife's Starfire Pearl RX. His response was "Please don't", and offered to have his paint guys fix it.