Product Review for: TouchUp 123

**dalethompson** · 06-12-2006, 09:18 AM

Let`s face it, every car has stone chips. Those ugly white dots that seem to jump out on any colour of car and are impossible to ignore. The longer you have your car, the more that accumulate until there`s dots everywhere that marr your otherwise perfect car. The most common method was to touch up each chip with the big and ugly brush that came from the dealership in the little bottle. It always left an paint blob that was almost as worse as the orignal stone chip. Even if you used a different brush (like the fine art brush I used to use), it would simply take forever to do even a small area. A whole hood would take more than a day to do if you were lucky... probably more like a whole weekend in reality.

Well, those days are gone now since TouchUp 123 has now been introduced. Gone are the blobs, the messing around with bottles of paint and trying to get the job done without spending days doing it. With TouchUp 123, it`s exactly as the name says... touch ups are as easy as 123!

My pride and joy is a 1999 New Beetle and I take extremely good care of it. Yes, it has paint chips like every other car on the road and maybe it`s the brilliant techno blue colour but I can see all of the chips that dot my hood, fenders and around the wheels. In fact, if I wax my car, it makes it 10 times worse as the white wax gets into the chips and makes them stand out even more. Simply put... I love my car but hate the way the paint chips look on it

My hood had actually become so bad that I went to a couple of autobody shops to see if they could fix the chips. Here`s what I was given as an estimate from both.

Garage #1: Offered to sand and repaint my hood and sides for $1200.00 Canadian. They said too many paint chips made it impossible to fix without a complete sanding and repaint.

Garage #2: Claimed they could buff out all the paint chips with an aggresive compound and polish for $400 Canadian. Would only do the hood though, all other areas were extra.

TouchUp 123: Now, for the grand total of $34.99 (which is approx. $45.00 Canadian, which included shipping), I ordered the TouchUp 123 Individual Kit. It includes the ColorFill (matched to your car`s exact paint code, which you indicate when ordering), the Final Touch Compound and all the materials you`ll need to get your vehicle looking like new in no time. After getting the first two quotes, I figured $45.00 Canadian is no risk at all and was willing to give it a try.Shipping was fast and came to my door within no time (including getting across the border, which can be tricky).

TouchUp 123 can simply be described as child`s play, which is pretty much saying that my 7 year old niece could use this stuff with no problems at all. You don`t need prior painting experience or body repair knowledge at all, it`s foolproof with this stuff.

1). After washing your car clean, use the Final Touch Compound (FTC) on a small area at a time with the prep towel. It goes on easy and when you rub and is actually removing the wax embedded in my paint chips (turning them from white to dark).

2). Using a small dab of the ColorFill on one of the towels, you rub it into the chips that were just cleaned. The ColorFill is real paint and just like the little bottles you get from your dealer, it dries pretty quickly. Therefore, it`s recommended you do little areas at a time (to properly fill in all the chips). If you do an area of 2" x 2", that is enough paint and room to ensure that you will fill in all the chips properly without the ColorFill drying too fast.

3). After rubbing in the chips with the ColorFill, you then use another towel with some FTC on it to remove the excess ColorFill from your vehicle`s surface. You`ll notice the paint chips that you just filled in are staying that way... filled in. The FTC removes the excess but simply rubs over the filled paint chip. After this, just use another towel to rub off any excess FTC and polish it up. Instantly, you`ll see your paint shine and feel really glossy/silky. Just continue to do small areas until you are done the section you are working on. Literally, you can do a whole hood in under 1 hour and that`s after taking time to admire your car along the way too

At the end of the day, the question remains: Does the product actually work? Well, in one word, yes! It works better than I ever anticipated and I was hoping for a miracle too. A lot of products guarantee you things but this one really does deliver. It doesn`t promise anything but filling in your paint chips, and it does that extremely well. That being said, it won`t fill in deep scratches or cuts in your paint, for that you will need some manufacturer`s paint and the Glob Doctor, another product by TouchUp 123 which will literally melt down the excess paint blob until it`s flush with the surrounding paint. TouchUp 123 doesn`t promise your car a perfect finish like a new paint job, but it will fill in your paint chips with ease and that`s exactly what it`s supposed to do.

I`ve included some pictures below to show what the product did for my car. I have no need to manipulate these in any way... I just wanted to show how all the ugly little dots of white were filled in with my car`s own paint colour, leaving nothing but a great finish. The first pic is my car (not bad for a 1999 from far away), the next four are the before & after pics (two of my back wheel and two of my front bumper). You`ll notice a couple of deeper scratches in my photos (in both the before and after pics)... these will have to be filled in with the OEM paint and the Blob Doctor will be used to smooth them down (another weekend project). This forum doesn`t allow big pictures, so if you wanna see the close ups (large files), then email me and I will be happy to post them on a site for you

Bottom line about TouchUp 123: It`s probably the best product under $50 you`ll ever spend on your car`s finish. It works, it`s affordable and it does what it claims. Why spend needless money at an autobody shop making your car`s finish look great when you can actually do it yourself? I saved anywhere from $350 to $1150 (depending on the garage I got my quotes from) and that`s the difference with this product... you keep your money in the end.

Pros: Very affordable, extremely easy to use, enough product to do many different areas of your car (and have product left over for future use) and actually fun to use.

Cons: None, except for the fact I wish I used this a few years ago!

Review Rating:

out of 5

Website: www.touchup123.com

**Joshua312** · 06-12-2006, 11:20 AM

I agree 100%, I love this product..Once my camera is fixed I will upload my pictures after using this product. It allows for us autopians to be happy ith our finish, even when we are dealing with stone chips.

**dalethompson** · 06-12-2006, 11:53 AM

Joshua:

I think there`s a stigma to a product like this... that it`s either "too good to be true" or that there is some sort of trick photography involved. Quite honestly, I wondered that too when I first saw it and had to find out for myself.

As well, detailing is about getting the job done the best way you can... so detailers shouldn`t feel threatened by a product like this (just because the average person can use it). In fact, any little bit of help or product to make the overall job even better should be in everyone`s arsenal

Well, needless to say, I`m a believer and just want to tell people that it`s not a product full of hidden promises or guarantees. Simply put, this stuff works

**Joshua312** · 06-12-2006, 12:53 PM

I too thought it was too good to be true, so for $30 I thought...why not? I`ll be re-visiting touchup123 again for my cousins car which needs a little love.

**RTexasF** · 06-12-2006, 01:04 PM

1. Simple

2. Inexpensive

3. It works

4. It`s idiotproof

Man this stuff has my name all over it.....especially #4 ! Seems like it would be ideal for a car you`re going to sell or trade in also.

**imported_Picus** · 06-12-2006, 01:29 PM

Alright. I am intruiged. I wonder if this system can be used with regular touchup paint? It seems unlikely, but I think I will try it anyway.

**dalethompson** · 06-12-2006, 01:42 PM

Picus:

The ColorFill is regular paint indeed... all you do is send your color code (factory paint #) to them and they mix it up. I know it dries in like 5 secs when you rub it on your car and has the consistency/feel of the real automotive paint (it`s thick like the kinda you get in the little bottles). All I know is that is matches perfectly to my car`s paint and actually blends in better than Langka (which tends to make the color of the paint lighter for some reason).

I think the Blob Doctor would work fine with the OEM paint bottles, which is what I`m getting next to try. My Langka kit (no offence to anyone) doesn`t work very well at all, and it was $30 Cdn. more for it too

-Dale

**imported_Picus** · 06-12-2006, 02:07 PM

Ya, I`ve tried Langka. I`ve also been doing wetsanding for ages - but if this stuff works on some of the "sandblasted" areas it`ll be a real winner. Those are the areas you can`t wetsand effectively.

**bigwilly** · 06-12-2006, 06:39 PM

I am going to try this on my sand blasted G35 bumper and hood. I had applied some blobs of touch up paint, and just went and grabed some 2000, 1500, 1000 grit wet sand paper. But will definately try this stuff on the areas with tonnes of small spots before I start wet standing

. This forum rocks.

**slvr-bullet** · 06-13-2006, 05:49 AM

This stuff sounds really good. How would one go about fixing some rusted chips and some spots that the paint has bubbled? Would you sand it first and then apply TU123?

**dalethompson** · 06-13-2006, 08:15 AM

slvr-bullet:

I would scrape the area down that has rust, wetsand it (with some fine grit 2500+ on the end of a pencil eraser, just use a 3-hole punch with the sandpaper and glue it to the end of the eraser for this) and then either just a bit of primer first (if you think it`s necessary) then use the TouchUp 123. It may take a few passes with it (I would use either an art brush, by dipping it in the bottle of ColorFill) but it will eventually be level in no time.

**wifehatescar** · 06-13-2006, 08:43 AM

Originally Posted by Joshua312

I agree 100%, I love this product..Once my camera is fixed I will upload my pictures after using this product. It allows for us autopians to be happy ith our finish, even when we are dealing with stone chips.

I`d like to see those pics as well.

**ashsarna** · 06-13-2006, 12:01 PM

I already ordered it and am on a waiting mode. Do you guys suggest polishing/or trying to minimize scratches before applying the touchup 123? If not, do you recommend doing it afterwards (when the 2-3 day curing period is done)?

Thanks.

**dalethompson** · 06-13-2006, 12:32 PM

ashsarna:

By all means, I think something like Meguiars ScratchX wouldn`t be a bad thing at all. I swear by this stuff too (the scratchx) and I used it on the areas before I used the TouchUp 123. You don`t have to use anything but, for me, I wanted to tackle the scratches first then the paint chips.

As well, I tried the TouchUp 123 on a long (but not so deep scratch) and it worked perfectly fine too. I use the TouchUp 123 on anything following the fingernail rule... if you can catch your fingernail in it, then it`s considered deep and some sort of filler is needed first. If not, then TouchUp 123 can be used right away... it does work overtop of fillers too though