Wassup yall, I am in need of advice on what is the best way to deal with small little scratches and nicks on my 98 black max se. Everytime I finish washing and wax my car they are more apparent than ever and its annoying. Should I try touch up paint? Or would it make it even worse? Also on my trunk top near the spoiler there seems to be a little chip in the paint, what should I do?


-Meth

 

Touch up paint is not a DIY... definately best left up to professionals. The only way to really fix the problem is get new paint. nissan paint sucks ***. My 1998 looks like it's been to hell and back.

-Shing

 

I use Meguires 3-step wax and I find that it helps hid the scrathes and swirl marks on my black '99 Maxima. I too get fed up with the paint and wish I had enough funds to repaint my car.

Nathan
________
Speed Kills,
Save Lives,
Drive a Honda!

 

you can buy this at pepboys

 

Trade it in for a '98 Sterling Mist SE like I did...chips and scratches hardley show. If not, the 3M products work really well. They have a rubbing compound that is very mild and won't damage the clearcoat. You can usually find these in the auto body section at most auto parts stores. Wal Mart carries them too. Worked great on my black SE, just be careful not to rub too hard!!

 

if you want to touch up small chips, there is a company called griotts garage which sells a touch up kit. Has a bunch of very small applicators which work much better than brush. Also has small rust remover. Costs about 15 bucks and you will get way better results.

 

See http://www.carcareonline.com/paint_chips.html, it takes some patience but it will look a lot better than just using the stupid brush and dumping a bunch of paint on the chip like most people do...

 

Thanks for all the info y'all, guess I have a little project for the weekend...


-Meth

 

one piece of advice: never ever get the Nissan touch-up paint! after spending all my efforts on prepping the chipped area for the paint, the paint turned out to be darker than the original.

Now, I would rather get the front painted every three years or so. I have a 99 with about 16000 miles and my front (bumper and hood) is all chipped. Even my windshield has a bullseye crack caused by a flying gravel from an SUV.

Damn norcal highways. They are dirty!

 

No touch up paint is going to match unless you get it custom blended to match the current color of you car and even then it will stand out if you look close enough... Especially on metallic paints, it's impossible to do an exact match. Nissan touch up paint is probably your best bet, and how you apply it is very important. By doing thin layers and then wet wet sanding it down with 2000 grit paper, you blend the paint in and create a level surface. Getting it perfectly level is <b>very</b> important, otherwise the light will reflect differently off of that area and make the paint look like a different color and stand out more even if it is a good color match.