I need some help... the paint on my Cooper is original except for the right hand mudguard, so I don't want to paint it all over, but it does have a lot small scratches and things (35 years'll do that I guess). I want to just touch them up. I can get paint in the original colour (camino gold), but I don't know what sort to get (acrylic, enamel etc.), and whether to get it from the original formula or get it matched to the body (in case the body is faded) and how to do it so I can just do small bits (airbrush, aerosol?)...

I'm gonna pull the motor out and clean and paint the engine bay properly, cos it's a disgusting mess

any tips?

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did I tell you that I won a trophy?

I am a pro at touching up..... hahaha...back off all you pervs...

I use acrylic mixed by a good paint mixer, thinned, and a fine art brush.

Sometimes I use a pressure pack can, sprayed into the cap, and once again a fine art brush.

Of course this goes for chips and scratches. If you need to spray a small part of a panel, it is a different story....

I was recommended to get the paint matched as with sun / oxidation the old paint won't be like the original new stuff and so it won't match.
my 2 cents after a good cut and polish they might be very close for all I know

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Roads need more corners
A Deluxe(CG13DE), 2 Clubbies(998 and 1275) and 2 Morris 1100Ss

I'd get it colour matched to the aged paint colour and some places will pack it into aerosol cans (only found one place in Brisbane that does this so you may have to ask around)

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David L


My greatest fear in life is that when I die my wife will sell my Mini and tools for the price I told her I paid for them!

well, there's a variety - there are some marks where some dickless piece of crap keyed it, it woulda been worth him doing it just so I coulda caught him.... oops, too many movies.... the key marks go for about 20 cms, and have been touched up before, but it looks crap, does using a brush leave you with a mark in that case, do you sand i back to get it even?

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did I tell you that I won a trophy?

Using a fine brush doesn't leave a mark, if you thin the acrylic and really dab it on with the brush. If there is a brush mark, the thinner will evaporate out and leave paint in the scratch, without the brush mark.

If you use paint that has not been thinned, it will go on 'gluggy' and look cr@p.

I can't really speak for air brushing. I tried it once, and ended up with a nice finish, but the colour match was no good. So I never tried again.

oh, and how do I clean off the badly touched up parts where they used a different colour and it went on gluggy - I've got a lot of fixing to do don't I

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did I tell you that I won a trophy?

see here....

http://www.tziworld.com/ausmini/viewtopic.php?t=4422

do you mind telling me the different story? I've got some flares to paint as well cos they're a bit worse for wear, been broken and patched with fibreglass etc.

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did I tell you that I won a trophy?

OK, from experience, this is what happened......

When I buffed JAM, I went too hard on the roof and cut into primer in 2 places. I didn't want to respray the whole roof, so I sanded the 2 small areas, then hit them with the spray gun.

I found 2 things......

1. The paint, when buffed, appeared darker, even though it was from the same can.

2. The paint finish was REALLY BAD off the gun. I could not work out why....it might have been from overspray hitting the area I hadn't sanded / prepped.....
Dunno really.....

I ended up respraying the whole roof Can't go wrong doing that!!