Not Impressed with Toyota Paint

Not too impressed with the paint on my Tundra. Been going off the rails clay bar, washing and polishing. It is really starting to annoy me how fragile the paint is. When I bought the truck they asked me if I wanted to get the ceramic. Of course i declined do to cost. I did not research the paint everything else I read. Anyway what do you guys suggest?

 

Try a polish

 

Next step is trying to compound and polish from what I understand. Or have it ceramic coated for and arm, leg, and testicle.

Looks like the plastic peice on front from pics, you could just pull it off and have it re painted.


Personally, I would just deal with it and if you still love it after 10 years, repaint it.

 

Up front you can go with SunTek paint protection film.

I have it on my grill, pieces below headlights, fenders, hood, door cups, a pillars.

 

You're spot on, the durability of these new finishes is terrible compared to decades ago. Blame the EPA, bean counters, and low VOC water based paints.

It's a shame these vehicles cost much more than they used to even adjusted for inflation and yet the durability seems to decrease.

My Silver Sky Tundra shows scratches if you look at it the wrong way. The film thickness of the paint also seems to be much less than paint on previous vehicles I have owned.

 

I used nu finish, I guess in will watch some chemical guy vids

 

May sound overboard but I took them up on the Ceramic coat when I bought it cause it came with 7 year warranty on the paint. Yesterday a buddy of mine had a cancellation and jumped on my truck to put on SunTek on the front facing parts.. Grille, 12 inch hood piece, door edge and door cups. Now just waiting towork some suntek edging on the fenders to protect where the flares sit.

Again may sound overboard but I had some fluid hit my truck on the Interstate that straight ate through the clear coat and paint in little spots and the line the flares rubbed in my old 16 Limited quickly pushed me to this point that I wont play with my TRD Pros paint.

 

It's not the paint that sucks it's the little bit of clear they put on. On factory clear you might get 2 or possibly 3 good buff jobs out of it before you run the risk of burning through to the paint. The body shop I work at you could get probably 4 or 5 good buff jobs. And that would include wet sanding bad spots.

 

Well I thought doing a little off-roading.
Now it will be a real challenge to fix this paint

 

Just Line-X the whole thing.

 

Your not gonna buff that out. Looks to me like your rear door was already painted. Due to the color difference. Maybe it's just the picture. Probably gonna have to repaint entire side. Not all the clear in the world would protect it from those kind of scratches.

 

Toyota has to use shitty paint because if they didn't, the vehicle would last forever, nobody would buy a new one and Toyota would go out of business. Simple really...

 

Just a thought, Badass imop
https://www.tfltruck.com/2018/10/ca...ra-with-a-line-x-coating-video-demonstration/

 

I agree that the clear is thin...what you are doing to the paint is beyond any clear or ceramic coating's ability to resist scratches...agree with previous recommendation to Linex the whole truck...

 

FFFFFFUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKK

 

Ok I will be better soon, I will think about your replies

 

I agree with this blame the lame government, especially the EPA, my 2016 Silverado had really light coat of paint as well! Scratches so easily compared to my older 2008 Subaru Forester.

 

Yep, paint is not what it use to be. The new water based paints suck. I have to redo my deck every year.

 

At least it’s better than Suabru’s paint. Owned 3 Subaru’s and their paint would scratch just from touching it. My WRX and STi both had severe swirl marks from a microfiber towel. Same towel on the Tundra makes a nice shine and now marks.

 

Real shi$$ty thin paint

 

Agreed, the navy blue on my 2011 Tundra has a bunch of bug marks, swirls, a couple of bird shit spots in the paint. My 1992 Lexus had WAY nicer paint than my truck, despite that car being 26 years old with 105,000 miles on it when I sold it. Had fewer rock chips, marks on the front, etc. Same thing with my old 1995 Cadillac, way nicer paint despite it being 16 years old, 1999 Camaro Z28, a car never known for its quality had nicer paint as well at age 10 and 120k miles.

 

Fresh out of high school, I painted cars for 13 years. Paint materials have changes dramatically because they were lead bases with polymers and pigments added. Things changed as the government started to regulate the industry, they got smarter and found out body shops were discharging too much into the air and surrounding environments for VOC ( Volatile Organic Compounds) this is solvents being released into the air as paint dries. ( little history lesson) Nowadays most paints are low VOC. Because of that, we have clear coats over base coats.
The clear is used for 2 different things. Hardens the base coat through chemical reaction and gives a shinny surface as protectant. If you look at a new paint job on any new vehicle, most are about 0.40MM to 0.60 MM thick. (there is an electrical sensor made to measure this) I just had it done on my truck as it has been scratched several times from the dealership when they service it. I complained about how many times they had to repaint it and proved to them it was too thick,(worried about cracking and pealing and my paint warranty too) and now they are stripping all the paint off and repainting some of my truck at there cost...

Sorry, I got off the beaten path, The clear coat is super thin so you don't have much material to work with. Be careful not to polish through the clear coat. Easy to do.
If you have the money for the new clear 3M material used to wrap a vehicles, I'd do it if you can. Or invest in a cheap harbor freight buffer, pads and compounds can be bought a automotive paint stores.

Mostly California, New York, and Liberal city's will not allow high VOC paint to be sprayed. Texas and many other states you can still buy quality paints and reducers and hardener's. Condensed population areas will have the VOC law in place, out in the valleys or rural areas not so much. Less population to consider for PPM (Parts Per Million) to be exposed to.

If the scratches are deep, too late...

If you decide to color sand out scratches, start with 2500 grit and water/dish soap in a spray bottle, do a small area very lightly and check your work frequently, then clean, dry, buff out with a grittier compound at first, then move to a finish compound that fills and stops swirl marks. Be careful, things can go south quickly if your not. Good luck... Or body shop it an forgetaboutit...check the work they do to your satisfaction, after all your paying for that.

 

I just bought the 2019 Ascent for the wife, I'm not experiencing that issue yet.. hope not but I told her to be careful with the paint. Our 2017 Impreza did better against scratches more than my Chevy.

 

Hondas are worse. I always thought they used crappy paint that they knew would start to fade in 5 years right when the warranty expires. Then everyone on the road sees these Hondas driving around that look 30 years old and think to themselves wow Hondas really do last forever. Next stop, Honda dealership.

 

The paint is bad on all new vehicles not just toyota. I'm pretty sure the back doors and the front doors are painted at different times or at different factories because i have seen many that don't match perfect. Mine is solid white and there is a slight difference from the front doors to the back and also the plastic grill pieces are a shade out.

 

I really think I can buff out those scratches on my truck. But I am looking into that Linex ultra I think it is called. I bought a truck with off-road package want to use it off road. Though I should not have been so fast to follow my buddy. Should have walked it first, but I want to enjoy the truck.

 

When you spray it with water practically disappears, we will see.

 

White doesn’t have a clear coat either.