Our Favorite Car Paint Repair Kits
Updated: Feb. 02, 2024
If you've noticed scratches or chips in your car's paint job, grab one of these top-notch car paint repair kits.
What to Know About Car Paint Repair Kits
As every conscientious vehicle owner knows, car paint doesn’t stay perfect forever. Scratches, chips and rust spots inevitably develop on even the most well-cared-for vehicles, and that’s why car paint repair kits were invented.
Vehicle paint is made up of three layers: primer, paint and clear coat. If a scratch or chip has only gone through the clear coat, a simple, non-paint scratch removal product is probably enough to hide it. If a flying stone, stray shopping cart or another vehicle cause a chip that goes through the clear coat and the paint, more substantial repair is needed. That’s where proper paint repair kits come in.
These kits include a small can of paint that matches your vehicle’s original color as closely as possible, along with various application tools. The best kits provide exact color matches to almost any modern vehicle, along with the right tools to make the repair job relatively simple. Here are six of the best car paint repair kits you can buy.
Best for Fords
Color N Drive for Ford America Automotive Touch Up Paint
Ford sold 5.4 million vehicles in 2019. If you own one and it suffered surface damage, this Ford-specific paint repair kit is what you need.
Reviewers like this one from Amazon are particularly impressed with the excellent color matching: “The paint is great. And a little goes a long way….Still trying to get the hang of applying the clear, but it fills in the chips and nicks very well. If you’re looking to match, go for it.”
Best for Speed
ACDelco Four-In-One Touch-Up Paint
If you want to repair paint in record time, check out this touch-up paint pen by ACDelco. Technically designed only for GM vehicles, many reviewers find it fixes paint chips on other makes surprisingly well, and in just a few seconds. The pen-style design of the paint dispenser makes it easier to control than most regular brushes, leading to faster application and fairly smooth, clean results for small chip and scratch repairs.
“I bought this to repair some small paint chips on my Chevy Tahoe that had started to rust,” says one Amazon reviewer. “Now, I know NOTHING about auto paint repair except what I’ve read in a quick Google search. That being said, this made repairing those few chips a BREEZE!”
Best for Stone Chips
Dr. ColorChip Automotive Paint Chip Repair Kit
Deep chips caused by small flying stones are among the most troublesome to repair. That’s where Dr. ColorChip’s Automotive Paint Chip Repair Kit really shines.
With great paint color matching and a variety of application squeegees and brushes, this product makes stone chip damage nearly invisible. It’s specially formulated to fill small chips completely. And unlike some repair kits, the paint is tough, too, offering a fix that looks great for years. “The best paint on the market for filling in stone chips,” says one reviewer.
Best for Rust
Roberts Touch Up Paint Repair Kit for Rust Without Perforation
Chips that penetrate through paint and primer to expose bare metal don’t stay rust-free for long, and repairing spots like this is where this kit from Roberts Paint Care stands out. The first step is making the damaged area rust-free, so the kit includes a sanding disc and paper along with masking tape and paper, putty, primers, paint, clear coat and blending solvent. There is also a helpful video that walks you through the repair process.
Best Smoothness
Langka Complete Paint Chip Repair Kit
Touch-up paint often bulges out. This Langka Paint Chip Repair kit is designed to solve that problem.
You’ll need to buy color-matched paint separately. Once you’ve applied the paint, the kit’s signature paint blob remover helps smooth it down to match the surrounding surface, making the repair nearly invisible.
“I was sure after watching tutorials on repairing chips that I could expect the finished product to look terrible, but the blob remover solution really gets it done!” says one Amazon reviewer. “In the areas I spent the most time, I actually CAN’T SEE the touch-up unless I lay my face next to it on the hood. Phenomenal.”
Best Color Matching
Chipex Automotive Touch Up Paint
If you own multiple vehicles and worry about properly matching paint, check out Chipex, which guarantees a perfect color match to all makes and models. Chipex offers three sizes of color-matched paint cans and a wide range of application accessories. If the paint you purchase isn’t a perfect color match, they’ll send you fresh stuff until they get it right.
“The color match of the initial kit I received was not a 100 percent match, the paint dried slightly lighter than the rest of the car,” reports one TrustPilot reviewer. “I contacted Chipex with pictures of the finished job and they immediately apologized for the error, stating the paint is hand mixed therefore errors can occasionally occur. They sent out a replacement kit of a much larger size than the one I originally ordered and the color match of the replacement kit is very good.”
