Recommend a car paint DIY source?

[Acer]

Got a cream-puff '99 Chevy Prizm from someone's (not mine) dearly departed Grandma's estate. It's in good shape, except for a fair number of old-person bumper and door scrapes. It's going to take more than rubbing compound and a paint pen. Anyone have a recommendation for a good quality, good-matching car paint source? (Google lists quite a few but reviews are limited.)

[C(-)ris]

Should be a local auto parts store that will custom mix anything into an aerosol can for you. The really good ones will bring a camera up to your and match the color not just go off the paint code for mixing.

[max]

Not any auto parts store, there is usually one in the area that specializes in auto paint.
Most mechanic shops will name it for you.......

[artie67]

Look at the id plate in the door jam. Usually gives the factory color or number. Good shops can match color so you can't tell, except it looks better than the original.

[Racer X]

That only works if you want the paint to look like the car did 16 years ago.

[artie67]

Some touch-up and maybe a door panel repainted and wax out the rest and it will look good to go.
My wife's 98 Contour SVT got bumped in the rear and cracked the plastic cover on the rear assembly. There were no used bumpers in SoCal! They had to have a fabricator mold one to match. Why? The SVT has dual pipes and regular Contours only have one. Color match was perfect and she's happy. She also waxes her car. She also has had it up at Willow Springs Raceway and gone 125 Mph. I was not in the car!
Words I don't want to hear, "oh, let's take this mountain road".

[Filliam H. Muffman]

The original factory paint code is only a starting point for trying to match. I had a fender repainted on 10 year old car and the body shop used a "factory code." I picked it up at lunch time and didn't notice it the mismatch until I got it out of the direct sun. I had three people comment on the poor match on the way home from work. Metal flake can make it really tough to match if they don't fade into adjacent panels. Edit: It might be worthwhile to fix the bumps yourself and then have the whole thing given a new coat if there is a local chain offering deals ($299?).

[Robert M]

Filliam,

That brings to mind a company called Earl Scheib. dirt cheap paint jobs. Crappytacular at best but dirt cheap. I had them repaint an old Datsun in the '80s. The job cost less than $200.00 if I remember correctly and it was assuredly craptacular. A huge improvement over the original paint job but craptacular. No complaints out of me! 'course, Earl Scheib as a company is out of business.

Not sure who I'd go to if I wanted to get a low-cost paint job for a car. Someone keyed the driver's side of my wife's car and it cost nearly a $1000 to get the minor scratches removed and that side of the car repainted. Ticked me off to no end.

Robert

[max]

Robert M wrote:
Filliam,

That brings to mind a company called Earl Scheib. dirt cheap paint jobs. Crappytacular at best but dirt cheap. I had them repaint an old Datsun in the '80s. The job cost less than $200.00 if I remember correctly and it was assuredly craptacular. A huge improvement over the original paint job but craptacular. No complaints out of me! 'course, Earl Scheib as a company is out of business.
Robert

Oh, no, like cockroaches, you cannot kill Earl Scheib, there are at least three stores right here.....

[Racer X]

You can't get decent supplies to properly paint a mid sized car for under a grand.