Has anybody had any luck getting good touch up results with Magnetic Grey?

I have two fine line surface scratches in the passenger side rear fender that are just into the paint but not past the primer or into the sheet metal. They are not deep, and look like fine white lines in the paint about 2-3" long. They are the result of bicycle handle bars. They don't buff out.

Using the touch up paint, even with the pen, is hard to get a good result with this color. It seems as though the repair is always more visible than the original scratch!

I took it to a body shop and they were able to smooth it out a little with a very fine abrasive and get a little better result with the touch up, but the scratch is still readily visible. Professionally repairing by painting the panel and blending into other panels, etc. seems like overkill and would cost hundreds of dollars.

Seems like other colors like white or tan or red or black would be so much easier. The grey with the metallic makes any flaw really stand out.

I have that color as well, and I know what you're saying about the touch-up standing out. I had a metallic blue mercury villager that had some scratches on it (it was also 8 years old, so the paint had faded) that I wanted to touch up, I did one area and saw how crappy it looked and decided i'd just live with the scratches. Then the paint started flaking off, so I just got rid of the thing.

I did have a "beater" 95 4runner (it was a tan-ish color) that had a lot of rust spots on it... Since it was old and I was just driving it for the winter, I didn't care too much how I looked, so I attacked the scratches/rust spots with some sandpaper and rust stopper, then painted over it myself. The tan was definitely easier to blend with, but then again, I was using spray touch-up, not the pen.

Let me know if you find out a good way to do it, I'm sure there are gonna be a bunch of dings on my car lurking underneath the snow/ice/sand/salt. I can't wait to give it a good wash, those touchless car washes just don't do the job right

Black does hide the touch up well but it shows EVERYTHING ELSE!!! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

I need to get a rear quarter panel painted because the place that buffed out a scratch left all sorts of swirls

I got a great guy in NJ, very reasonable and trustworth. Does great work. PM me for details

Other great tools:

• Toyota Online's iGuide
• 2007 Online Owner's Manual
• 2008 Owner's Manual PDF (download link)

My sky blue has scratches on the side (one deeper than others) from either a cart or a bike or a meanie.

I haven't tried it yet, but am planning on trying a product called Maguiars ScratchX. I also got a touch up paint pen. I am not optimistic about it looking great but don't want rust and don't want to repaint the whole side.

I have never been truly happy with repaints. The paint never is quite as good as factory.

YK?

Which is questionable as well.