My experience with Automotive Touchup paint

[Shaun @ Tru6]

I think there's paintscratch.com and automotivetouchup.com for small amounts of paint as well as going to your local paint shop and having them mix up a rattle can for you.

5 years ago I put H4s on my car and use Automotive Touchup for the trim rings Slate Blue Metallic. Paint was an excellent match, pic below.

Recently I pulled the decklid and tail off my car to save some weight, I like the look of tailless widebodies and to save the rubber to some degree. Went back to AT and got a rattle can and clear. 5 seconds into shooting a nice 3-bar decklid, the nozzle broke. With limited time, I decided to puncture the can and use the paint inside in my Cerakote gun, a Sata 4400B. That worked beautifully, the little detail gun with a .8 tip shot better than expected.

But the paint had a serious green tint to it. Given that I have to paint the whole car someday. I cleared it and took some pics to show Automotive Touchup.

Upon receiving the pics, they were at first skeptical but after sending them pics of the car and paint code sticker in the trunk, they were happy to mix up a new can. Really, Brittany, the CS person I worked with was excellent. I asked them to send a quart instead of a rattle can and she said no problem. I wanted to try out a new Sata X 5500 for the paint and PPG 2021 Clear. And she said they will research the formula and make sure it's correct. What more could you ask for?

Got the new can quickly and after sanding and priming the decklid again, shot the color and clear. Looked a little dark to me but I thought I'm indoors and maybe the lighting, etc., it will be fine outside. Absolutely love the 5500 and the PPG 2021. My paint shop told me to double the reducer and it flowed beautifully.

Decklid turned out beautifully but the new color is closer to Prussian Blue the Slate Blue Metallic. Well, what can you do? One thing is to actually use the little paint cards they include so you can see what the paint looks like before shooting and they will ask you for the card against your car which helps them see what's wrong. Again, because I'm painting the whole car next spring, I just shot it.

What I don't understand is how the mix from 5 years ago was close to perfect, how the new mix became green and doubly how a researched mix could be so far off. Or maybe some other customer got a quart of Slate Blue Metallic and I got their deep blue.

Just a fun story more than anything and a cautionary tale to use the cards they send you so you can see if the paint will indeed match before going to all the trouble painting parts the wrong color. Again, customer service was great, I just wish they could make this color like they did 5 years ago. But really, I think the real lesson learned is to just go down to your local paint shop.

Slate Blue Metallic from a rattle can 5 years ago.





First repaint with a green tint








Final repaint with a very nice medium dark blue

[Reiver]

I've found that they often use different sources for the paint and that source has their own mixture.

I used automotive myself some time ago for 436 ...a bronze metallic....and had great luck until recently. The latest batch was much too red so I called and found they'd gotten the 436 mix from a different source ...now when I order I ask for the Dupont 436 and not the other provider. The difference was huge.

[mb911]

Color of primer is also a factor

[sugarwood]

That's a terrible match, and I would ask for my money back.

I would never buy auto paint from the internet.
Is there a local store?

I once had a shop incorrectly mix up a can of paint.
I think they used some camera to measure the paint color.
Result was totally the wrong color.
Car was blue, and the can was dark brown.
I thought I did something wrong.
Maybe perfect matches were a pipe dream.

Eventually, I went back and asked them to look at it.
They mixed up another can and it was a perfect match.

That's a good reason to buy locally.

[schoward]

Had kind of the same experience with them. Perfect match with them in 2007 for 655 - Platinum Metallic. Last two tries with them basically useless. Matches were a bad joke - touch up and spray can. They sent me a sticker that I put on on my tool chest that aggravates me everytime I look at it. And yes its metallic, but its so off there is no excuse.

[Otter74]

If you painted the roof between the drop rails, cowl panel and front lid in that color you'd have a nice tone-on-tone look