Re Touching Paint

[davidk]

I am trying to keep my P reg carina E looking as smart as possible. However, I have some scratches , which causes the Lady Wife anguish! This is accompanied by a demand that I sort out these visual impairments!!n However I have been unable to locate any retouch paint,. I would very much welcome any advice as to where I might obtain this. (I do appreciate that I will require the paint No from the car ) but its sourcing it that is my problem. Many thanks.

[Jaggerismyname]

If you can get the paint code then your local Halfords can mix the exact colour.

I have no idea where the paint code is though.

[Josh_]

Any paint supplier should be able to match to the paint code - including Halfords, and Toyota main dealers (I think), but also a lot of small garages who do respray work. I don't think you should have too much trouble getting hold of paint that matches the paint code.

What might be a problem is that the new paint is very unlikely to be the same colour as the old paint. Particularly with the red Carina Es, the paint didn't stand up to sunlight well, and has faded badly - my car is more pink than red. Even if it's stood up pretty well (the darker colours seeming more uv-resistant), ten years of exposure to sunlight will mean it's likely to be at least a shade or two lighter than it came out of the factory.

If you do buy touchup paint, use with caution. I'm no expert, but I've been told that for smaller scratches, you might be better off using an abrasive cleaner - T-Cut, or something - to fade them in as much as possible so they don't show, and then polish/wax very well. I know someone who swears by cleaning scratches, rubbing similar coloured kids colouring pencil into the scratch, and then lacquering over the top. Seems to work, because he can match the colour to the surrounding area.

Or you could do it like they do in Trinidad, and give the whole car a coat of matt emulsion :)