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Automotive touch-up paint is something all car owners need to be familiar with. Scratches, scuffs, and marred paint are just facts of life. After a only few months on the road, imperfections are going to pile ip. But you don’t have to live with them. Automotive touch-up paints are designed to make them disappear. They’re easy to apply and perfect for covering up all kinds of flaws in your exterior paint. A well-matched shade of touch-up paint can keep your car looking like new, even after years of use. Best of all, you can easily buy the perfect match for your paint right online. With a variety of options and a number of different formats, there’s a convenient, easy-to-use automotive touch-up solution for every vehicle.
Summary List
- Best Overall: TouchUpDirect Exact Match Preferred Package
- Best Value: Dupli-Color Scratch Fix All-in-1 Automotive Touch-Up Paint
- Honorable Mention: Dupli-Color Universal White Perfect Match Aerosol Paint
- Best for Chrysler: Mopar OEM Touch-Up Paint
- Best for Ford: Motorcraft Touch-Up Paint
Our Methodology
I chose the best automotive touch-up paints listed below by taking a look at the different options available online. These included everything from brush-on touch-up products to spot treatments in pen-style applicators, all available in an array of common vehicle colors. I compared them to each other, looking at key details like the shades of paint colors and their ability to match different automakers’ paints, ease of application, and the ability of the paint to last through washes and wear. Those that offered the best color matching and longevity were my top picks, along with those that user reviews mentioned as being easy to apply and able to correct or cover up varying types of scratches and marring. Keep in mind that what you will need highly depends on the application, and the damage you’re working with. For example, Dupli-Color Universal White Perfect Match Aerosol Paint won’t be the right match for small chips. It’s important to base your selection off the situation at hand. Furhtermore, you may want to visit our guide on the best automotive paints if you’re painting entire panels. See our buying guide below for more tips.
Best Automotive Touch-Up Paint Reviews & Recommendations
Best Overall: TouchUpDirect Exact Match Preferred Package
First things first, this product comes in a wide variety of colors and styles to suit your vehicle, so make sure you pick the right color when purchasing. The Preferred Package from TouchUpDirect is one of the company’s best-selling kits for touching up your car’s paint. It includes everything you need to do a professional-quality job without breaking the bank: primer, paint, and clear coat, as well as grease wipes and gloves to help with the application.
The kits are made to be intuitive, with built-in brushes in each of the jars to make the application of the product as simple as possible. It’s made for normal, everyday wear-and-tear kind of scratches, as well as dings and scuffs that aren’t too deep. The formulation itself is safe, waterborne, and environmentally friendly, which is an awesome benefit if you’re regularly using chemical products for your car. The color match is guaranteed, leaving you with the ultimate peace of mind when it comes to touching up your car.
A definite drawback is the price point. Although clocking in at almost double of other touch-up options, this kit is still much cheaper than getting a professional paint touch-up done and can deliver almost the same results. If you’re looking for a quality product to touch-up your car’s paintwork, this is the perfect pick for you.
Best Value: Dupli-Color Scratch Fix All-in-1 Automotive Touch-Up Paint
Dupli-Color Scratch Fix All-in-1 Automotive Touch-Up Paint is a handy, versatile tool to keep on hand for scratches, nicks, and chips that happen on your vehicle’s exterior paint. It looks and works almost like a paint marker, making it easy to carefully cover and restore color on any small-sized exterior flaws. You can use this small touch-up paint tool for all different kinds of paint touch-up repairs, and it’ll provide a great match color paint as well as clear coat.
This product features an abrasive prep tip that’ll remove loose paint and rust, a pen tip to touch-up small, fine scratches, and a brush end to cover larger chips. It uses a unique One Coat Prime and Paint Formula, and you can apply both the paint and the sealing clear coat to achieve a factory-like finish. Handheld and compact, you can use this automotive touch-up paint anywhere, any time.
While this product does match up to factory paint nicely, it won’t be as good of a match as touch-up paint from an OE. It’s also worth mentioning that the quality of the brush itself is a bit subpar, with users reporting issues of it easily falling apart.
Honorable Mention: Dupli-Color Universal White Perfect Match Aerosol Paint
As a universal paint, this one does well to match a number of (slightly) different shades of white. This easy paint is an acrylic lacquer aerosol paint, making it quick to dry. The formulation is unique in that it blends easily with the existing color, matching it almost perfectly. An adjustable EZ Touch nozzle gives you 360 degrees to work in and a wide spray pattern that delivers smooth, even coats.
This product is great for larger touch-ups and color matching vehicle accessories. You also get a lot of bang for your buck, as the large can provides lots of product pay out, giving you plenty to work with. For best results, you should use this paint as step two of your application process, over the top of a good automotive paint primer and before a final, UV-protecting clear coat.
Keep in mind that this particular paint is made for white cars. However, Dupli-Color makes the exact same product in a variety of shades and finishes to match your car. The downside of this almost universal color is that the match is usually not 100 percent perfect, something you likely won’t notice on small scratches but might when you’re painting a larger area. Still, it’s a great value product that works like a charm in most cases.
Best for Dodge, RAM, and Jeep: Mopar OEM Touch-Up Paint
This Mopar touch-up paint comes in a self-contained bottle. The paint is color-matched according to the code assigned by your vehicle’s manufacturer. Inside the bottle is 0.5 ounces of paint. The top of the bottle has a small applicator brush. This particular paint is code PX8 or basic solid black (non-metallic), which is commonly found on Jeep, Dodge, Ram, and Chrysler vehicles.
You can use this bottle to touch-up small door dings and rock chips. The applicator and bottle combo makes it fast and easy to apply the paint exactly where you need it. The bottle design also makes this a great option for painting smaller parts of your car, such as your antenna mount or license plate light mounts.
The biggest drawback to this style of touch-up paint is the applicator. If you aren’t extremely careful, the paint will get everywhere. Your touch-up can quickly look like a mess. The small applicator is not fine enough for many smaller touch-up tasks. You also need to buy a separate clear coat if you want your touch-up job to be protected and blend perfectly.
Best for Ford: Motorcraft Touch-Up Paint
When you buy Motorcraft’s paint pen, you get several applicators in one compact pen. There’s a pen, brush, and foam applicator. The pen contains OEM-matched paint for touch-up tasks. There’s also a clear coat reservoir to apply over the paint. This particular pen comes loaded with Magnetic Grey J7, which matches the 2015 to 2017 Ford Mustang. You need to match your car’s paint code to the pen you buy for a perfect match.
Having everything you need in one convenient pen means you don’t have to buy and store multiple tools and paint bottles. Grab the pen and you’re good to go. The tip of the lid has an abrasive tip to remove old paint flakes and clean up your car’s surface before you paint. The addition of a clear coat with the color-coded paint ensures you have a touch-up job that is protected and produces a sheen.
Unfortunately, these all-in-one pens never work as well in practical applications. The applicators are a generic size and not fine enough for detailed and micro touch-ups. This can produce a sloppy and overreaching application that becomes more noticeable than the actual ding or scratch.
Our Verdict
When it comes to the best automotive touch-up paint, TouchUpDirect Exact Match Preferred Package is one of the top options you can buy. You’ll get flawless results at a significantly lower price than taking your car to a pro, and you can get some seriously impressive color matching. If you’re looking for something that’s simple, straightforward, and budget-friendly, Dupli-Color Universal White Perfect Match Aerosol Paint can provide excellent value for your money.
What to Consider When Buying Automotive Touch-Up Paint
Types of Automotive Touch-Up Paint
Aerosol Cans
One of the most common formulations out there, aerosol paints are easy to use but offer messy application results than other varieties. If you choose to use an aerosol, keep in mind that the spraying distance matters—the further away you hold the can, the more dispersed the color will be. Overall, these work pretty well, but other applicators are more user-friendly.
Touch-Up Pens
The most common type of automotive touch-up paint out there, touch-up pens often come standard with a new vehicle purchase. Most car manufacturers also make them in the exact colors of their vehicles, giving you a perfect match fairly easily. The downside here is that they work best for really small chips or scratches—anything too deep won’t be filled by the rather thin formulation.
Paintbrush Touch-up Kits
A couple of different varieties of paintbrush automotive paint exist on the market. Some have a finer, felt-like tip, while others mimic a brush with fibers. Both can work well, depending on the overall quality of the product. Just keep in mind that these tend to apply thickly, which can make matching the rest of your paintwork a little difficult.
Automotive Touch-Up Paint Key Features
Color Match
When looking for the perfect car touch-up paint for your vehicle, it’s important to make sure the final outcome will match well with the factory paint. A number of different companies make universal color matches for black, white, and silver cars that work well, but your best bet is to buy a genuine or manufacturer-approved product to find the perfect color match.
Paint Type
As always, the applicator and the application matters. Paints that come in aerosol form are difficult to handle and tend to get a little bit all over the place, whereas touch-up paint pens and paint brushes focus the product more directly where you need it. We recommend one of the latter two to make the whole process as painless and streamlined as possible.
Application Process
A number of touch-up paints come in kits with multiple steps. This is a good sign for a quality product and will leave you with the best results. Usually, these kits contain a primer, a paint, and a clear coat to seal the deal. The finished product will look much more seamless than a one-step paint pen could ever deliver.
Automotive Touch-Up Paint Pricing
For less than $15, you’ll find a number of easy-to-use universal options. The quality does vary, though, so watch out for murky formulations and over-promising color matches. Spend $15 to $30 and you’ll see a wide variety of kits, aerosols, and pens available. Many of them do a decent job, but the more quality ones will have a multi-step process that includes a primer and clear coat to seal in your work. And for $30 or more, you’ll shop the best paint kits out there, complete with masking tape and more. The quality of the paint and applicators tends to be better overall.
FAQs
You’ve got questions. The Drive has answers.
A. There are plenty of products that might match your exterior paint color. To ensure you’re shopping for a perfect match, you’ll want to ID your car’s color code. You can find that on your vehicle’s identification plate.
A. If you can’t find the color code for your vehicle, there are other easy ways to figure out the exact shade. You can check your owner’s manual, or search online for your make, model, and model year to see what colors were available (and what their official names might be). If it’s a recent purchase, you can also ask your local dealership.
A. Technically, you can. In fact, there are even spray paint products made with the intent to use them as automotive touch-up paint. However, it’s not the most professional-looking way to fix spots of damage, and it’s really not the sleekest solution.
