I've been searching the Fender website and others for touch up paint. Hot Rod red is not an easy match. Any ideas? Thanks much.

I'm not sure what Fender's current paint is, but in the old days it was Dupont automobile paint.

Hi Greg, welcome to the Forum.

I don't know of an aftermarket guitar paint supplier that stocks Hot Rod Red, so I suspect that route is out, for starters.

You could try talking to Consumer Relations and see if they have a paint code for the Hot Rod Red used on the Knopfler sig Strat:

consumerrelations@fender.com

With a paint code you can go to any automotive parts shop / paint supplier and their computerised mixing service can mix you up a tin of the paint, usually in the formulation of your choice - nitrocellulose in the case of your Knopfler guitar.

That's supposing Consumer Relations can come up with the info, which they may or may not have available. Still, it's run by a nice guy and I'm sure he will help you if he can.

Also. The trouble is, all paint fades over time and that is especially true of red shades. So even if you had a batch of the identical paint that was originally sprayed onto this body it will very likely now not match what's on the guitar, the latter having discoloured. So you'd end up with a body with unmatching areas of touch-up on it - which would look worse than the dings you have now.

Another possibility is to take the guitar to an automotive paint workshop - not just any car spraying outfit but the sort of experts who specialise in wild and wacky custom paint jobs. They will have access to paint databases and may be able to match the paint that way, or may just be able to do it by eye - which ultimately will be better, for the reason mentioned above. Or they can just find the closest available match and then respray the entire body: that's likely the method to get the best possible visual result.

If you go that route you need to remember to tell them it's nitrocellulose paint on this guitar. They'll know how to work with that, but it isn't necessarily what they use most of the time these days, unless you ask for it.

Or, as I'm sure many other Forum users are itching to tell you, just learn to live with the dents and dings you have on the guitar and love them for their mojo.

Good luck - C

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