The Electra Forums

Having heard that Uncle Matt used Toyota automotive paint on many of their guitar bodies, I stopped by my local chain auto parts store to see if they had any Toyota touch-up paint. I found three colors that looked good, and got the little nail polish style bottles with caps that have both brush and a pen applicator i haven't tried yet. The colors I got were:

Duplicolor Scratch-fix 2-in-1:

Universal flat black
NG SF 104

TY 01560
Super Red II
3E5

TY 01600
Graphite Gray Pearl
1C6


The flat black turned out to be an excellent match for black headstocks. The color is 100% correct, and I am picky about shades of black. Plus, it isn't flat like I think of flat black spray paint, but really a satiny semigloss that I'd swear is like the odd texture of headstocks. I applied it and found it an excellent way to cover the chips and nicks that often happen to headstock tips.



I say cover because the touchup paint doesn't fill divots in the thick finish, it just coats it with a thin color coat that matches the original, and best of all, seems to meld pretty seamlessly into the existing finish. You can still see the shape of the chip up close, but from a couple feet away it just melts into the unbroken color- exactly the way it does when you detail a car that way.



No doubt there are fillers that I could use to fill chips before topcoating- any recommendations? though there is something to be said for less is more when it comes to finish, and i like the fact that touchup paint looks good with a minimum of possibility of damage, aka Making Things Worse.

The graphite grey turned out to be an near exact match for my graphite Dynasty- the toes always get chipped on flying V guitars, and touching those up made a huge difference- like the one on the right foot visible here:


Super Red II seems to be a match for lipstick red. I say seems to be because actually neither of my X189RD's have any chips, just dings. I didn't get a chance to apply it, but I suspect I will soon. I did use it to touch up a chip on the front of the Monark- which is actually a slightly different, darker red, but I did it anyway because it made such a difference in the clean lines of it- i'll retouch it with a more correct match when I find one.

I'm pretty sure these colors are not specific to any auto model year, but standard trucklike auto colors that Toyota use over and over again, so touchup paint that matches some of our guitars seems to be alive and well today.

Super Red II is indeed a perfect match for Lipstick Red Electra Phoenixes, Dynasties, etc. Tried it, what a difference!