Here is something odd.

I have a matelic silver car.  Recently have a paint chip (very small).  I bought the touch up paint from the dealer. 

I tried out the paint by painting the paint on a flat tape.  But the paint itself did not stick onto the tape and came off.  So, I laid the paint directly on the car.  The color was a perfect match invisiable at almost every angle.

However, when I applied the paint to the car and let it dry the paint did not match.  At first I though that it just had to be sanded.  But after I sanded it it became worst.  It is not a really bad color match ( it is still a match at some angles and lights) but not nearly as perfect as when I just laid the chip onto the car. 

What should I do.  What can I tried. 

blau

Paint won't stick to tape so it would just flake off.
I'm not sure how large an area you are repairing but go to our home page and check out all the links there as it's pretty thorough.

The area I am painting is about 1mm by 1.5mm. 

Maybe you miss understand my question.  I am asking why when I put the touch up paint on tape to test the color match I get a almost perfect match. 

But when I paint it on the chip area itself I don't get a color match. 

Is it possible that it is because of the surface roughtness, and can that be improved when it sand it down?

thanks

blau

Must be for some reason the tape is a good underlying color for your color so it is matching well. If the surface is rough, the paint would still match, it just wouldn't look very good. I would never sand and only use rubbing compound! Sanding just dulls everything around it.