Matching Miata paint starts with finding the code, never with guessing by eye, because several of the reds and greens look identical in the bottle but are worlds apart on the panel.
The paint code lives on the factory build plate. On NA and NB cars look in the engine bay on the body, typically on the shock tower or firewall area, on a plate that lists a color code alongside the trim code. Photograph it and read the color entry, not the trim entry.
- Classic Red (NA): A solid, non-metallic red that fades and chalks badly with sun and age. Because it is a solid color it polishes back further than metallics, but a badly oxidized panel needs respray, not touch-up.
- Mariner Blue and British Racing Green: Signature NA metallics that are hard to blend into because the metallic flake must lay the same way; spot repairs on these often show.
- Popular NB colors: Emerald, Titanium/silvers, Garnet Red, and the yellows and oranges of the special editions. Metallics and pearls again favor a blended panel over a dab.
For chips, clean and degrease, then build the color in thin coats with a fine brush, letting each flash off. Finish with clearcoat on any metallic or pearl, then level with fine polish once fully cured. Never skip clear on a metallic, or the repair goes dull and the flake looks wrong.
Buy touch-up mixed to the code from a paint supplier rather than a generic pen; the factory code guarantees the match where a name like "red" does not. Keep the leftover bottle labeled with the code for the next chip.