Paint Touch-up's 

1) get the touch-up paint from your dealer. 
2) Surface prep materials: 3M has a whole pile of stuff just for this, takes the wax off, cleans the metal etc. Little paint masks mentioned above. 
3) toothpicks. the old style ones, flat at one end, pointed at the other. 
4) a CLEAN place to use all the above stuff. 

Shake the living xxx out of the touch up paint. I mean really shake it twice as long as you think necessary. Do this about an hour before you are going to use it. Before you even start doing the prep work, open up the paint. Use a toothpick to get a little bit of paint and daub it on some hidden area of the car that you have already cleaned. Give it an hour and then confirm that it is actually the correct paint. Check it under daylight. 

Use an xacto knife and gently use the point to make sure than the paint surrounding the chip has not lifted. Cut away any paint that has fractured. 

Clean an area around the chip at least 3 inches out. Follow the directions on the prep stuff and if it says apply and then dry the area 15 seconds later then do exactly that. Painting is not one of those times where if a little is good then more is "gooder". 

Put the paint mask on and cover the biggest area that you can around the area that you'll be working on. You will end up getting paint or something on the one part of the car that you don't cover. 

After prep is done and dry place a paper towel over the area and leave it for half an hour just in case the prep material has softened the surrounding paint. 


Using the pointy end of the toothpick fill the chip about half way. Try not to get any paint outside the hole. If there are any bubbles in the paint that you shook an hour ago then close up the paint and give the bottom of the container a good rap with a screwdriver or something else to dislodge the bubbles. 
Let this first paint layer set for half to 3/4 of an hour. 
Repeat until the paint is built up just a hair above the surface of the surrounding paint. Now, walk away. Leave it alone. Don't blow on it, apply heat lamps or anything else. As long as the ambient temp in the garage is over 65 degrees F then just leave the paint alone to harden. 

When it's dry take a look at the spot from the side and if you did it correctly the paint will be just the tiniest bit thicker than the surrounding paint. If it's too low then you'll have to add paint. 

Use a very very fine sandpaper and smooth it out flat. If you got the paint flat in the first place just use a rubbing compound. Buff it out. Wax it and be happy.

Many thanks to Codger for this How-To