I went by the local Nissan dealer today to pick up some touch up paint. I tried the touch up paint from Wal-Mart, advertised as Nissan Sterling Mist. This is the Plasti-Kote Scratch Color brand. It is crap.

I was at the dealer and I grabbed a Sterling Mist touch up paint from the display. I decided to double-check with the sale guys before purchasing at the other desk.

The parts guy went on to tell me the individual touch up paints are matched to your VIN, or a range of VINs (and the colors/shades are different). I had to fetch my VIN, he looked it up on the computer, and automagically came up with the part code of the touch up paint.

I looked at the part number on the container that he gave me and the one I had initially grabbed and they were different.

Just an FYI...

 

The dealer I went to gave me the same rap, but c'mon, I can't believe that Sterling Mist isn't Sterling Mist isn't Sterling Mist etc.

How could they POSSIBLY know that slight variations of the same color of car exist, AND that they require a different part number of touch-up paint. Maybe the first one was for a different MODEL car, like a Sentra or Altima or a Pathfinder??? It doesn't add up, I'm not disagreeing with you, but I think Nissan is getting over on us!

 

Hey, who cares if they are just trying to help you out. It is the price of that little thing of paint that matters. How much did they charge you?

 

I think it was $5.

 

$25.00 freakin' dollars and "guess what", it doesn't even match. The touch up paint goes on lighter than the original paint. I let the parts man know about it and we walked out to my car and he tried to tell me my paint has faded. DUH!!! "DO YOU THINK." After all was said and done, I'm stuck with a useless bottle of touch-up paint and out $25. Go figure.

 

If your paint is faded, or old OR it's been repainted etc etc. No chip repair or scratch junk will look right. You have to blend it in. When I painted my car last year I was well informed by the guys making my paint that there are OVER 10 different shades of the same colour. My honest suggestion would be go to your local paint or body shop and get them to "try" and id it. Then head over to your local AUTO paint store and get them to make you a small chip/scratch batch. shouldn't cost too much, I had them make me one when I painted the car just in case.

You still might have to blend it in a little bit but thats the easy part.

Another alternative would be to just head to your local AUTO paint store and get them to try and ID it. They usually have the colour wheels.