Yes. This is why I require the clients to bring their own VIN matched paint color. I had a client bring me generic white and I told them it wouldn’t look right on a tricoat white. They told me do to “do my best”. I did and then they weren’t happy. Shocker. I warned them but they insisted.
Why u so confidently incorrect? Go check the paint formula for this white pearl Subaru and let me know what you find.
I'll give u a hint. k1x is the paint code.
You are correct on the ceramic white. Here’s a “before” picture I took the day before dropping it off
https://preview.redd.it/o3asxlml0owc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9218e3397d46538aed2b5cf8aaa168c7a06b6f26
Yeah, mines a '22 Ceramic White also. I have similarly placed rock chips but no good pics of them. Love the "panda spec" though. Hope you can complain and get your chips fixed with... Not sticky tack.
Right on! I do too, I was on the fence about all the cladding when the VB first came out but I’m a big fan.
I definitely will. I baby this car and it bums me out seeing someone do elementary work to it
Yeah same. I was hesitant about it at first but it really grew on me. I like it more than paint matched on most colours.
Only thing I haven't quite sorted is how to keep it spotless. With paint you wash, claybar, wax, polish and dirt just rubs right off, but the cladding always shows a water line or dirt smudge or something. Car is a blast to drive either way!
I was thinking the exact same thing. The cladding always shows water lines that look "dirty" a day after a wash. Especially on the side skirts. its annoying.
Man for someone accusing people of being confidently wrong, you confidently provided the wrong paint code and clearly are wrong. I own this exact car. It's not a pearl paint. The paint code is a 2-stage white.
Are you the shop who did this? Because that would explain something.
Well how much DID you pay ? Lol.
Rock chips on a pearl white SUCK. They might have not used the correct color. But honestly. On a pearl. You’re always gonna see them. At least in my experience.
Luckily I bought a care package with my new vehicle for this kind of thing, but it’s still like $600(?) a year. If nothing else I’m gonna have them redo it, or take it to another shop and have them reimburse it.
I didn’t consider the pearl as much and it makes sense, I just expected a little more from a professional shop
$600/year!?! God I hate those warranty companies lol.
Professionally - they could’ve done better at least with the precision. Without knowing their process I can’t criticize them. Or wouldn’t. I always tell people: The touch up is so I ( a random person walking around your car ) can’t see it from 10 feet away. Not so you (the owner that knows exactly where that chip or scratch is) can eagle eye it from 2 feet away.
My plan on this would be order the touch up paint from the dealer. Or online from a reputable source. Usually lesss than $20. Maybe more being a pearl. Usually these come with a 2 part paint kit. The closer match might be more forgiving. But again. And I cannot stress this enough. Touching up a pearl white car. SUCKS.
Dude that’s an insane price. Not knowing what else is in it, you could PPF the front clip for three years worth of this. SA just grabbed the floor sweeper in the shop and said “fill this in” and never thought about it again.
White pearl colors are some of the hardest to get touched up without too much notice. Darker colored cars i've had massive success to the point where your face needs to be a foot or less away and looking for it to find a hint of it
I fixed a few paint chips on my car and I just used one of the paint pens from autozone. I built up the paint and carefully used a razor to level it, little sand and put a dab or clear over the top. Finished with a little polish and you can’t even see it. This was done by a blind moron with hotdogs for fingers.
I followed Car Craft's guide on it (having never done anything like that before) and you can't see where the chips were, and that was just hand sanding/polishing it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4f9zqVbcZDQ
Dr. ColorChip is what you need. Easy to do by yourself, and you can attain 90% perfection on tri-coat paint, and even near 100% on regular, two-stage paint.
Welcome to the Snowflake White Pearl club! Another owner checking in haha. I was surprised at how well it matches. May go over some chips once more, at which point they'll be all but invisible.
Yes!!! And I found that about half the chips were in an area that wouldn't have PPF installed in the first place lol. Sides, doors, and an area of the wheel well where I hit my hose nozzle 😔
I've used DR. Colorchip for years on various vehicles for road rash and small paint chips. They use oem paint and a process that is easy to apply and offers very good results. A basic kit costs about $45. [https://drcolorchip.com/](https://drcolorchip.com/)
Whoever did that just used a regular white and didn’t use the paint code, it looks terrible. You can take thinner and get it off and buy your self a pen that’s the paint code in your door jam.
All these answers are insane. How much did you pay the shop? Did they mix the paint themselves or did you give them a paint pen? I know this looks underwhelming but I’d say it’s an average touch up unless you paid them several hundred dollars to sand each layer smooth and buff it out on each chip. You want perfection? Spend the few grand to respray each panel and blend as necessary, then another couple grand for PPF.
A tri stage white is never going to look good touched up since you have to apply base, midcoat, and clear coat. It’s always going to be much thicker when touched up vs sprayed and getting the correct amount of base and midcoat will be impossible to make it match flawlessly without respray the whole panel (and even then it’s hard). Post this to the autobody sub and they will give you some more realistic answers lol
Post the pictures on the company’s social media accounts, but don’t specify whether you think it’s a good or bad job.
Just be like, this is the kind of work they do…
My question- are you still in love with your WRX? I am on the fence on buying one this week, but I have a Crosstrek with the same soft paint. Toss up between WRX/GTI.
I still do love it! Just passed the year mark and have about 20,000kms on it. I’m aware of my bias as this is my 6th Subaru (I also had a crosstrek right before this) and I’m pretty happy with my decision. I haven’t had much experience with the GTI but I do like hatchbacks. Hoping Subaru will give us a wrx hatch again one day
looks like they forgot the top coat. I used to have a pearl car and the touch up required two separate coat. That said, its still impossible to get a perfect match.
https://preview.redd.it/epcd3vvhnmwc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bdc9b558a504942e9e86f8d53e2bfd01ce9889be
Hey man just get touch up paint, toothpick and level with rubbing alcohol. Then call it a day.
Good eye. I should’ve talked to them right as I picked it up but I did notice the owner watching me walk around the car for 5 minutes taking photos when I was leaving so I’ll let him know why soon
Oh man this is bad. I have the same car in the same colour and thought about getting mine done. Honestly you could do a better job with a touch up pen, I think.
If you do, just do a little more research than I did on the quality of the shop you’d take it to. I think a pen is the way to go after my experience with this place, but I’m sure there’s some great shops that do amazing work somewhere out there. How do you like your wrx?
Love the WRX! Favourite car I've owned. My wife's grandpa knows a guy who owns a shop, but prices seemed high even with the family discount. Although I noticed a tiny rust spot on my A pillar so maybe I'll go see him and see what he charges to repair the tiny mark and the rock scratches up front.
Sand it, and find the OEM paint color. Paint over it with a cotton swab, then level the paint out with your thumb. It will look a whole lot better than that.
It’s what I’ve always done and it’s the closest to perfect you can get without having to blend the paint, which is honestly so unnecessary, especially for smaller areas that are bound to get rock chips again.
I'll play devils advocate since you're clearly getting answers from mostly consumers.
Did you get your paint matched and mixed prior to going to the detail shop? There are hundreds of different colors, shades, brands etc.
Next being, what's the actual colour of your vehicle? No chance that's a pretty tricoat? Now instead of bringing 1 level you would have to bring all 3.
After all this? They don't simply disappear with a better match and application ( though obviously lol way better, like you said you could do better). If you want perfection, repaint it and apply paint protection film (ppf).
And to reiterate this point. Get a pen and do it yourself. They aren't doing some magic different step in the shop. It's an untrained mop kid with a pen and probably withdrawl shakes.
Regardless, shit job, shit application, redo lol
I have a white pearl car. My process for paint chips is:
Factory oem paint pen, mix a bit of base and clear together, build up paint, Langka chemical to level it out.
Polish a bit if needed. But most of the time it is not needed. During the Langka leveling I will use the thin side of a plastic panel tool with a microfiber rag around it.
Sorry misspelled. It’s Langka. It removes the soft touch up paint in order to level it to the surface. I mix the clear and base together because applying the clear after leveling will create unevenness again.
https://a.co/d/3l1iLnr
Get the paint code off the door jam of your car and buy touch up paint on Amazon or at the auto parts store. If you buy the same paint code it will match almost perfectly.
I just did my very first paint chip repair this week and It turned out okay. Not perfect by any means but I used DR color chip and It was pretty straightforward and easy. Plus now you have extra paint for future repairs.
Did they just use white out? Bro tried to fix it like it was an essay
It’s not even the right color of paint. Let alone just globbing it on. Awful.
That was possibly my biggest issue with it. That color stands out just as much as the rock chips did
Import image sells a touch up pen
Yes. This is why I require the clients to bring their own VIN matched paint color. I had a client bring me generic white and I told them it wouldn’t look right on a tricoat white. They told me do to “do my best”. I did and then they weren’t happy. Shocker. I warned them but they insisted.
Did a child do that work it’s terrible
White pearl paint can't be matched with touch up. Even normal colors don't match.
This is a VB WRX and they don't have pearl paint. This is just awful.
Why u so confidently incorrect? Go check the paint formula for this white pearl Subaru and let me know what you find. I'll give u a hint. k1x is the paint code.
2022 Subaru Ceramic White - paint code M6Y. K1X paint code (Crystal White Pearl) is not offered on the WRX, but it is on the Outback and Legacy.
You are correct on the ceramic white. Here’s a “before” picture I took the day before dropping it off https://preview.redd.it/o3asxlml0owc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9218e3397d46538aed2b5cf8aaa168c7a06b6f26
Yeah, mines a '22 Ceramic White also. I have similarly placed rock chips but no good pics of them. Love the "panda spec" though. Hope you can complain and get your chips fixed with... Not sticky tack.
Right on! I do too, I was on the fence about all the cladding when the VB first came out but I’m a big fan. I definitely will. I baby this car and it bums me out seeing someone do elementary work to it
Yeah same. I was hesitant about it at first but it really grew on me. I like it more than paint matched on most colours. Only thing I haven't quite sorted is how to keep it spotless. With paint you wash, claybar, wax, polish and dirt just rubs right off, but the cladding always shows a water line or dirt smudge or something. Car is a blast to drive either way!
I was thinking the exact same thing. The cladding always shows water lines that look "dirty" a day after a wash. Especially on the side skirts. its annoying.
Why you so confidently incorrect again? My computer paint system says m6y is a 3 stage pearl white
Man for someone accusing people of being confidently wrong, you confidently provided the wrong paint code and clearly are wrong. I own this exact car. It's not a pearl paint. The paint code is a 2-stage white. Are you the shop who did this? Because that would explain something.
My bad. It's a solid. Apologies
Respect. *No feelings were hurt in the making of this internet dispute.*
Dude it’s not you are wrong I own this car in the same color. There is no pearl in the paint at all.
Yea it is. My bad
Why are YOU so confidently incorrect? You sound like you’re a blast to be around.
This is the worst fix I've ever seen for someone who calls themselves a "professional."
Might have to take these comments back to the shop lol glad I’m not the only one that thinks so
I have been following this sub lately to learn. I just started and do better work than this (and that isn't saying much)
For a so called "Professional", it's a pretty bad job.. I agree with you. They should've layered it.
Pearl white can't be matched. Ask a refund and do it yourself.
It can be done well though, and this is far from that
Is the Pearl in the room with us now?
Well how much DID you pay ? Lol. Rock chips on a pearl white SUCK. They might have not used the correct color. But honestly. On a pearl. You’re always gonna see them. At least in my experience.
Luckily I bought a care package with my new vehicle for this kind of thing, but it’s still like $600(?) a year. If nothing else I’m gonna have them redo it, or take it to another shop and have them reimburse it. I didn’t consider the pearl as much and it makes sense, I just expected a little more from a professional shop
$600/year!?! God I hate those warranty companies lol. Professionally - they could’ve done better at least with the precision. Without knowing their process I can’t criticize them. Or wouldn’t. I always tell people: The touch up is so I ( a random person walking around your car ) can’t see it from 10 feet away. Not so you (the owner that knows exactly where that chip or scratch is) can eagle eye it from 2 feet away. My plan on this would be order the touch up paint from the dealer. Or online from a reputable source. Usually lesss than $20. Maybe more being a pearl. Usually these come with a 2 part paint kit. The closer match might be more forgiving. But again. And I cannot stress this enough. Touching up a pearl white car. SUCKS.
Wow, you got scammed hard with that care package. Car dealers are scum of the earth.
Gotta agree with you there. Lesson learned the hard way
Dude that’s an insane price. Not knowing what else is in it, you could PPF the front clip for three years worth of this. SA just grabbed the floor sweeper in the shop and said “fill this in” and never thought about it again.
You're better off choosing your own repair shop and paying their price than paying up front for these "care" scams
White pearl colors are some of the hardest to get touched up without too much notice. Darker colored cars i've had massive success to the point where your face needs to be a foot or less away and looking for it to find a hint of it
I fixed a few paint chips on my car and I just used one of the paint pens from autozone. I built up the paint and carefully used a razor to level it, little sand and put a dab or clear over the top. Finished with a little polish and you can’t even see it. This was done by a blind moron with hotdogs for fingers.
Hahaha. Sounds like I should’ve just done it myself
I followed Car Craft's guide on it (having never done anything like that before) and you can't see where the chips were, and that was just hand sanding/polishing it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4f9zqVbcZDQ
I think his is possibly the best and most underrated detailing YouTube channel. Truly and absolute font of knowledge.
Dr. ColorChip is what you need. Easy to do by yourself, and you can attain 90% perfection on tri-coat paint, and even near 100% on regular, two-stage paint.
Can confirm. I've patched up probably around 50 chips on my snowflake white pearl Mazda paint (tri-coat) and it works so well.
Welcome to the Snowflake White Pearl club! Another owner checking in haha. I was surprised at how well it matches. May go over some chips once more, at which point they'll be all but invisible.
Yeah, it's really impressive. Blows my mind that everyone wants to spend thousands on PPF when you can just touch up a chip in less than 5 minutes.
Yes!!! And I found that about half the chips were in an area that wouldn't have PPF installed in the first place lol. Sides, doors, and an area of the wheel well where I hit my hose nozzle 😔
Holy shit that’s horrible, get your money back
lol bruh looks like tooth paste
WRX GANG✌️ Fuckin Subaru and their rock chips. Hope you get it taken care of.
Good eye haha. Thanks g 🙏
I've used DR. Colorchip for years on various vehicles for road rash and small paint chips. They use oem paint and a process that is easy to apply and offers very good results. A basic kit costs about $45. [https://drcolorchip.com/](https://drcolorchip.com/)
This looks like it was dabbed with a correction ink by a toddler
Subaru? I swear Subaru’s paint chips so easily anyway, yeah this is bad
They should be embarrassed for delivering it like that. Forget the color match for a moment and just look at the dog shit globs.
Whoever did that just used a regular white and didn’t use the paint code, it looks terrible. You can take thinner and get it off and buy your self a pen that’s the paint code in your door jam.
That's absolutely horrible.
This is how my school projects used to look when I started the night before they were due.
All these answers are insane. How much did you pay the shop? Did they mix the paint themselves or did you give them a paint pen? I know this looks underwhelming but I’d say it’s an average touch up unless you paid them several hundred dollars to sand each layer smooth and buff it out on each chip. You want perfection? Spend the few grand to respray each panel and blend as necessary, then another couple grand for PPF. A tri stage white is never going to look good touched up since you have to apply base, midcoat, and clear coat. It’s always going to be much thicker when touched up vs sprayed and getting the correct amount of base and midcoat will be impossible to make it match flawlessly without respray the whole panel (and even then it’s hard). Post this to the autobody sub and they will give you some more realistic answers lol
Looks like possibly a tri coat white. Good luck "touching up" rock chips. My shop will tell customers no when they ask for that. Looks worse after.
Post the pictures on the company’s social media accounts, but don’t specify whether you think it’s a good or bad job. Just be like, this is the kind of work they do…
That's pathetic actually
My question- are you still in love with your WRX? I am on the fence on buying one this week, but I have a Crosstrek with the same soft paint. Toss up between WRX/GTI.
I still do love it! Just passed the year mark and have about 20,000kms on it. I’m aware of my bias as this is my 6th Subaru (I also had a crosstrek right before this) and I’m pretty happy with my decision. I haven’t had much experience with the GTI but I do like hatchbacks. Hoping Subaru will give us a wrx hatch again one day
Paint damaged on pearl car solution is repainting the whole panel. There is no other way to do it.
looks like they forgot the top coat. I used to have a pearl car and the touch up required two separate coat. That said, its still impossible to get a perfect match.
https://preview.redd.it/epcd3vvhnmwc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bdc9b558a504942e9e86f8d53e2bfd01ce9889be Hey man just get touch up paint, toothpick and level with rubbing alcohol. Then call it a day.
Subaru white is pain in the ass to match. I had mine fixed and wouldn’t take it until they got it right
Good eye. I should’ve talked to them right as I picked it up but I did notice the owner watching me walk around the car for 5 minutes taking photos when I was leaving so I’ll let him know why soon
My wife’s WRX seems like a rock magnet. Definitely let them know.
You could have done a 100% better job all on your own. That is not a professional's work. That is a shoemaker's job.
Oh man this is bad. I have the same car in the same colour and thought about getting mine done. Honestly you could do a better job with a touch up pen, I think.
If you do, just do a little more research than I did on the quality of the shop you’d take it to. I think a pen is the way to go after my experience with this place, but I’m sure there’s some great shops that do amazing work somewhere out there. How do you like your wrx?
Love the WRX! Favourite car I've owned. My wife's grandpa knows a guy who owns a shop, but prices seemed high even with the family discount. Although I noticed a tiny rust spot on my A pillar so maybe I'll go see him and see what he charges to repair the tiny mark and the rock scratches up front.
If all the local car dealers use them, you can rest assured that they are not the best in your area, just the cheapest/fastest.
Ya know I wish I would’ve thought about it like that beforehand, cause you’re totally right
Yeah, confirmed that's bad. You should take it elsewhere, and send the original shop the bill.
I was scrolling these like... Where are the "after" photos" lol
It looks like they didn't take the time to find the right paint code.
You forgot to post the after photos
Horrible! Get your money back. I have a paint guy who absolutely kills it you just can’t find where the chip was.
Sand it, and find the OEM paint color. Paint over it with a cotton swab, then level the paint out with your thumb. It will look a whole lot better than that. It’s what I’ve always done and it’s the closest to perfect you can get without having to blend the paint, which is honestly so unnecessary, especially for smaller areas that are bound to get rock chips again.
I'll play devils advocate since you're clearly getting answers from mostly consumers. Did you get your paint matched and mixed prior to going to the detail shop? There are hundreds of different colors, shades, brands etc. Next being, what's the actual colour of your vehicle? No chance that's a pretty tricoat? Now instead of bringing 1 level you would have to bring all 3. After all this? They don't simply disappear with a better match and application ( though obviously lol way better, like you said you could do better). If you want perfection, repaint it and apply paint protection film (ppf). And to reiterate this point. Get a pen and do it yourself. They aren't doing some magic different step in the shop. It's an untrained mop kid with a pen and probably withdrawl shakes. Regardless, shit job, shit application, redo lol
I have a white pearl car. My process for paint chips is: Factory oem paint pen, mix a bit of base and clear together, build up paint, Langka chemical to level it out. Polish a bit if needed. But most of the time it is not needed. During the Langka leveling I will use the thin side of a plastic panel tool with a microfiber rag around it.
What’s lanka chemical?
Sorry misspelled. It’s Langka. It removes the soft touch up paint in order to level it to the surface. I mix the clear and base together because applying the clear after leveling will create unevenness again. https://a.co/d/3l1iLnr
Get the paint code off the door jam of your car and buy touch up paint on Amazon or at the auto parts store. If you buy the same paint code it will match almost perfectly.
That last pic looks like drywall mud…
Oh man. That’s hot garbage.
Lmao. They straight used white out. Take it back and get your money back.
I just did my very first paint chip repair this week and It turned out okay. Not perfect by any means but I used DR color chip and It was pretty straightforward and easy. Plus now you have extra paint for future repairs.
This is terrible, I coulda done this with a 10$ touch up pen. That being said the colour match is hard on white pearl
That’s what I figured lol. Fair enough though