Having a rough time touching up Lexus white pearl

S

StLB5

New member
little 2X4 fell off a trailer in front of us on the highway and left some nasty scratches in the hood of our RX300. I read up all I could and got my 800 and 1500 grit wetsand paper, some touch up paint from the dealer, and went to town. It was pretty easy to build up the layers and fill the scratch, but the Pearl paint is made up of a base and top coat. I can't get the color right now. When you run your hand over the spots they feel kind of wavey too. Can anyone help me here? Do I need to go to a pro? I'll keep trying, but I don't want to make the problem worse.
 
It's VERY tough to match the lightness/darkness of white pearl :( I am in the same boat as you. If the car is not new, then chances are the paint may be a tad discolored from the elements. May want to buddy up with a body shop and see if they can take a sample of your paint, and mix you up a small batch of paint that would be closer. Just a thought.



Good luck.



Chris
 
If it was just a shade off, I'd be happy at this point, it's more a problem of having a base and topper coat. The base color is just a white. The topper is a thinner liquid with metalic specs. I assume the top coat is what makes it a pearl. The areas I'm working on turned out with multiple colors and multiple reactions to light sources. The only thing I can think to do is sand the areas back down a bit, apply a layer or two of base, and then build it up using the topper the rest of the way.
 
Even a body shop is going to have a hard time getting pearl to be an exact match. Its different every time you spray it because of the multiple layers of base, color and pearl then clear.
 
Pearls, Candies etc. are very difficult to touch up with standard touch-up supplies.



Make sure you are using the proper base colour and you might need to find someone in the area who does air brushing and might be able to apply a pearl clear coat with the airbrush.



Either way, you probably will not be able to get a 100% match.
 
I have tried some kind of touch up paint on my pearl-white RX (suppose to be

a perfect match). Did not come out too well (perhaps it's my technique). At least I got

the base paint covered up.

By the way, the front profile of this car su*ks - got a tremendous amount of rock chips in just 2 years.
 
You cannot sand metallic paint. It will dull the metallic flake, and wont match.



I would put the base color on, and add clear until it is sandable.
 
As others have said, this just isn't something that's likely to turn out well, it's the nature of the beast. Most "pearls" are three or four step paints and even good pro shops have an awful time even coming close. We went through this on my late father's pearl white Audi. The only way to get a remotely satisfactory match is to have a good shop (experienced with matching pearls) do it with a spot gun/air brush, or have the panel done. But even then you'll be able to tell. Sorry, but I've never seen an undetectable match on a pearl white vehicle.
 
Accumulator said:
As others have said, this just isn't something that's likely to turn out well, it's the nature of the beast. Most "pearls" are three or four step paints and even good pro shops have an awful time even coming close. We went through this on my late father's pearl white Audi. The only way to get a remotely satisfactory match is to have a good shop (experienced with matching pearls) do it with a spot gun/air brush, or have the panel done. But even then you'll be able to tell. Sorry, but I've never seen an undetectable match on a pearl white vehicle.
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Would that apply to a dark grey pearl too?
 
Yeah, to a great extent (this is just IMO of course) "pearl is pearl". But I *think* you might have better luck with the gray. Whites and reds seem to really show any variation more than darker colors and gray is maybe one of the more forgiving of these kinds of paints. This is just speculation though, no first-hand experience.



I'm so paranoid about this sort of thing that I won't have "special" paintjobs for fear of how repairs would turn out. I have enough trouble with "easy" colors.
 
Accumulator said:
Yeah, to a great extent (this is just IMO of course) "pearl is pearl". But I *think* you might have better luck with the gray. Whites and reds seem to really show any variation more than darker colors and gray is maybe one of the more forgiving of these kinds of paints. This is just speculation though, no first-hand experience.



I'm so paranoid about this sort of thing that I won't have "special" paintjobs for fear of how repairs would turn out. I have enough trouble with "easy" colors.
Click to expand...



I think I know what you mean. I definitely wouldn't want to try fixing this if it'll make the problem worse.
 
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