[Nikki.Alexa]

My bmw is space gray, and it has a few minor scratches that I'd love to touch up, anyone know of a good touch up paint or even how to do it... I was looking at the BMW touch up paint sticks.

[AddictedToBavarian]

Touch up paint is a huge fail no matter how careful you are it looks like crap. It's ok for little chips, but anything bigger isn't worth it. Dr. Colorchip looks like it works well on commercials, but I heard that looks terrible too.

[thenewrick]

I've had good results from Dr. Colorchip. I smeared it on the front of my hood where there were a few dozen rock chips and it filled them in and blended well. It's not perfect by any means but better than touch up paint.

[Dark_Knight_335]

I have a space gray touch up paint pen- it might still be good. I can ship it to you if you want unless you are local to the tri-state area. I have a BSM 335 now

[Nikki.Alexa]

Originally Posted by thenewrick

I've had good results from Dr. Colorchip. I smeared it on the front of my hood where there were a few dozen rock chips and it filled them in and blended well. It's not perfect by any means but better than touch up paint.

Is the product you used more like a paint or a filler? The one from BMW i'd hope would match exactly since it's from the maker, but I'm not looking to cover any obvious places, there are two chips under the passenger side door that drive me crazy.

[thenewrick]

It's both I guess, I dunno

[cuiter23]

I've used touch up paint from BMW, no where near perfect. Maybe I am not a professional at it but it will never look exactly like before the damage. However, from a distance, it will be hard to tell that it is touched up, only up close you will be able to see the imperfections.

[ctuna]

Dr color chip is better than the OEM paint.
Its the best I have found for chips.
Its more liquid and doesn't blob as much.
If you have a light surface scratch you may be
better off trying to rub it out.
A lightly applied spray might hide it more easily
in the case of a long scratch .

[trippy]

Touchup paint is only good for very small chips, else it is a waste of time.

[GChase]

I tried using touch up paint on my front bumper and it looked like absolute shit. The guy who had my car before me did some serious mileage on some crap highways. I ended up just getting it repainted for like $500 (yeah it was that bad)... At least she looks beautiful now

Here's the before pic:


I don't have an after pic of when I did the touch up paint though... Too embarrassed lol

[Auto Pilot]

Using touch up on plastic surfaces doesn't really work, or least that's my experience

[Nikki.Alexa]

Originally Posted by Auto Pilot

Using touch up on plastic surfaces doesn't really work, or least that's my experience

Agreed. To repair scratches, dents, or chips in plastic you would need a totally different method. Luckily it's not plastic that I'm attempting to fix. Thank you for your help

[roundel335]

I've used Dr. Colorchip on my Sparkling Graphite and my wife's Space Gray, plus an older dark-blue metallic on an 05 325i. It's about as good as you can get without taking it to a body shop. Getting an exact match, especially on pearls and metallics, is a crapshoot at best, as the particles tend to "stand up" a certain way and there are always very subtle variances in the exact shade.

[abhishriv]

ive filled in a couple chips with touch up paint. but its a tedious process. i used a very fine painters brush to build up the touch up paint in the chip almost to the level of the paint around it.. then after its dried put a couple layers of the clear until its just slightly higher than the rest of the paint... wet sanded (3000 grit) the area gently to smooth it out and bend the paint chip in.. then used my buffer to bring it back to a shine. Like i said, its a very tedious process but can be done so its almost perfectly blended in, but i'm thinking about getting my front bumper painted over too since theres hundreds of tiny chips from years of highway driving an salt on roads in winter

[Nikki.Alexa]

Originally Posted by abhishriv

ive filled in a couple chips with touch up paint. but its a tedious process. i used a very fine painters brush to build up the touch up paint in the chip almost to the level of the paint around it.. then after its dried put a couple layers of the clear until its just slightly higher than the rest of the paint... wet sanded (3000 grit) the area gently to smooth it out and bend the paint chip in.. then used my buffer to bring it back to a shine. Like i said, its a very tedious process but can be done so its almost perfectly blended in, but i'm thinking about getting my front bumper painted over too since theres hundreds of tiny chips from years of highway driving an salt on roads in winter

do you have any photos before and after???
or even just after...?

[fibonacci]

I've used the OEM touch-up paint on my alpine white 335i, to some success. It looks better - matches better - if you use without the clear coat (included). It's good to protect the metal from rust, but not a 100% fix by any means. I'm pretty confident than any touch-up will be more or less a variant of that.

But it's good "for the meantime..."