Touch up paint: a nooB needs help

[ryu_haneda]

So, after owning the car for about 9 months, I've come to note some of the road rash and winter accidents on my car's paint (winter accident = overzealous snow and ice brushing/scraping). I'd like to take some time this summer fixing up the paint, and I do not have a lot of money.

I've heard of touch up paint, and since my paint job is actually relatively decent (the areas which aren't obviously messed up could be fixed with reaaaaally good waxing/polishing/clay bar techniques which I have yet to learn also), I want to try something that will save a whole bunch of time and money for me.

I have about 3 days off from work coming into the end of July, and I have been thinking about applying touch-up paint to the car and painting the ground effects to match the color of the car. What techniques have you tried that have been proven well?

Thanks for your time. I'm kind of building a repository of information now so that I will be ready when the time comes.

[Perdue]

How deep are the scratches? Pictures?

Touchup paint is really hard to put on anything more than a pit/chip and make it look good, and even making that look good takes a lot of time. If the scratches aren't through the color coat, you can probably use my DIY I did on paint detailing on here to help you, and just spend a little extra time with the polish/paint cleaner around those scratches. If it doesn't totally fix them, it will make them less noticable.

[Huffer]

Meguiars have a really good paint chip repair system. Worth trying.

[deadlydave]

I have about 3 days off from work coming into the end of July, and I have been thinking about applying touch-up paint to the car and painting the ground effects to match the color of the car. What techniques have you tried that have been proven well?

Well, www.paintscratch.com (http://www.paintscratch.com) has OEM paints for all manufacturers in spray cans. That can help you color match your ground effects perfectly. I'm ordering some for my wing.