I've got a couple of chips on my Bravo and wondered if anyone has used the touch up paint pen?

Is it any good? Is it noticeable or does it blend in?

I thought these 'Miracle Pens' were for minor surface scratches, not chips.

You get it from the fiat website, says its good for stone chips.

I got one from Halfords as you get a fine brush and the standard brush and a hell of alot more paint for your money. Make sure you get your paintcode from under the bonnet and they will make it up for about £9.99. The official Fiat one comes in a tiny little nail varnish bottle and probably is just nail varnish anyway - I found the brush is a bit big and holds too much paint compared the the fine brush Halfords provide. It is important to touch up stone chips though to prevent rust.

Some of the Bravos rock lenticular paint though - doubt Halfrauds could hash that together right? I've always understood that 'Maserati Blue' is just that - any body work has to be done by some Maserati gaff in Central London, Fiat can't do anything with it themselves - don't know where I heard that, someone will no doubt correct me.

Andysan said:

Some of the Bravos rock lenticular paint though - doubt Halfrauds could hash that together right? I've always understood that 'Maserati Blue' is just that - any body work has to be done by some Maserati gaff in Central London, Fiat can't do anything with it themselves - don't know where I heard that, someone will no doubt correct me.

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Yeah your wrong!

The Maserati Blue and Maranello Red are lenticular, this is pretty much a term made up by Fiat to say that its a deep metallic paint that will reflect light differently depending on which direction you are looking at it from. Any decent coach-builder will be able to work with this.

cardinalbiggles said:

Yeah your wrong!

The Maserati Blue and Maranello Red are lenticular,

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And so is Cl Jazz Blue

neilshep said:

And so is Cl Jazz Blue

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According to Fiat its only Maranello Red and Maserati Blue that are the premium lenticular paints.

cardinalbiggles said:

According to Fiat its only Maranello Red and Maserati Blue that are the premium lenticular paints.

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Unless they changed it recently. When I got mine the only 2 lenticular paints in the brochure were the maserati blue and maranello red.

The brochure I've got lists Maserati Blue, Maranello Red and Cool Jazz Blue as lenticular. Cool Jazz Blue was the only lenticular paint available on an Active spec car. Its still available as an option on the Fiat website, at £460

cardinalbiggles said:

Any decent coach-builder will be able to work with this.

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So not Halfords then.

Shame, I've never been able to find a definition of what lenticular paint actually is - if it's not any kind of standard then should they be allowed to list it as a feature. I could spit in the paint, does that make it special though? Slightly more metallicy is metallic paint as far as I'm concerned.

I seem to remember way back when, it was called mica paint?

ascott92 said:

I seem to remember way back when, it was called mica paint?

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It could be a mixture of mica and metallic, If I recall correctly mica is more like small particles whereas metallic is flakes to make it glitter. There may also be something in the way that they arrange themselves when drying, much like the way that pearlecent paint does.

I could be wrong...

Allegedly: [ame]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenticular_lens[/ame]

The colour of my car does look different from various angles.

My Bravo is Rosso Maranello, going to give the pen a bash.

Have a chip on the lip on my boot, if it looks bad there it won't be too noticeable. Then I'll decide if I'm going to touch up the other bits n pieces.

T-cut any use for little hairline scratches?

boolio10 said:

My Bravo is Rosso Maranello, going to give the pen a bash.

Have a chip on the lip on my boot, if it looks bad there it won't be too noticeable. Then I'll decide if I'm going to touch up the other bits n pieces.

T-cut any use for little hairline scratches?

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Make sure you get the correct pen, there is A and B variants of Maranello Red, I had that problem as when I got the car new they gave me the wrong one. Once i got the correct one (which was free incidentally I just asked in a Fiat garage where to get one) its a very good match.

cardinalbiggles said:

It could be a mixture of mica and metallic, If I recall correctly mica is more like small particles whereas metallic is flakes to make it glitter. There may also be something in the way that they arrange themselves when drying, much like the way that pearlecent paint does.

I could be wrong...

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Apparently it was ground mica in it, which gives it a different colour as you look at different angles as well. Mum has it on her 2002 Micra, must have been replaced now with this Lenicular technique, so yeah, you're pretty spot on.