soince i've been reading all this scratch removal stuff on this form. I came to wonder, what is touch up paint for? can i use it for a scratch?

touch up paints are for scratches that are almost or deep down to the bare metal that polishes or compounds cannot remove. Compounds remove a very fine layer of your top coat to level your paint with the scratch. I don't know much about it but autopia.org has a lot of information about it. Hope this helps.