I was fixing my daughter's Toyota this weekend and the paint color is really tough to deal with.  I straightened the dent, bondo'd, puttied and got it smooth down to nice wet sand finish.  Since it is a small area (6 inches by a foot) I used my "airbrush" vs. the regular gun with my compressor.  The darn Toyota paint color is a bugger.  When I bought paint at Toyota it was way off.  I used Paint Scratch before with good luck on my wife's metalic blue Mercedes.  This "red" metalic is really tough and weird.  When I blend it out, it separates into a purple at the edges and really dark red in the middle.  Rather than two stage it with clearcoat directly, I am going to wait for a good hardening on the paint which is rough to touch and an array of colors out to the blend.  I have 1000 grit to work it over and see what the color is before I commit to clear coat.  This color is tough........even Toyota acknowledges it.  When I took it and painted it on your silver card and painted on clear it matched pretty closely.  COMMENTS?  TIPS?  I sprayed a whole restoration car about two years ago and did pretty good but this RED.............

How old is the Toyota? What is the color code? Red and Gold are some of the worst faders out there and even after just a year, the original factory paint can be way off. I would probably send a part into PaintScratch and pay for custom matching as this would solve the color matching problem. Or you can blend the paint for a couple of feet around the repaired area, and then take the clearcoat to a panel edge for a less noticeable repair.

Unfortunately, it is a 2002 so it is not the OLD RED TOYOTA.  The dealership justs shakes their head since they admit horrible regional variability.  This is a Canadian built one.

I think it was 3P1 which I sent to you with the VIN

You could send us a sample of the red paint we sent you and we could compare it with our color chip but some reds after just a couple years have faded several shades from the original factory chip. The purple concerns me though as this sounds a bit unusual.

I will wait until she brings the car back this weekend and I will 1000 grit wet sand and see how far off it is.  The purple in the blend out is weird.  I really made sure it was mixed well at 1:1 with your  thinner and then put it through a standard filter (the paper free ones you get from Auto Paint stores) into the airbrush reservoir.  I will let you know and get back to you.  Thanks for your help.

F. Adler
San Diego

If you don't feel the paint was mixed correctly, make sure you fill out the form at: https://www.paintscratch.com/support/returns.htm#under so we can compare your paint with our factory chip.