Fatally Disappointed--The Thread I never wanted to write.

I wouldn't try a re-paint, if it is coming from underneath the same thing could happen to the new paint. Or you could try a repaint on one area first, say the hood for example.

 

Perhaps you could have your car wrapped in vinyl advertising, earn some money for it, and make lemons out of this lemonade.

 

A body wrap that shouts "An Unhappy Toyota Customer"

 

Yeah, I was thinking that too... but trying to be nice.

 

If Toyota or insurance doesn't take care of you, then I would either live with it or trade it in. Say you keep it for 4 years, you'd take a loss in resale due to the spots. I'd argue that if you repainted, you'd take a larger loss due to faded paint plus whatever you paid for the paint job.

 

Ok, I understand all of that (and all your frustration) but, the bottom line is, you still have the problem. Now you have to either do something about it or , live with it. A clay bar is not nearly agressive enough. They are for a showroom finish which means polishing. You need something to cut not polish. If you still have the rubbing compound, and you truly want to try to fix it, try what I said on the least visible spot and report the results back to us.

The body shops don't want to touch it because of the liability. If they screw it up, they have to fix it at their expense. I would encourage you to not seek anymore outside assistance for 2 reasons, 1) any third party will be concerned about the liability of ruining the paint and having to cover the paintjob at their expense and 2) they don't care nearly as much about your car as you do.

As I said before, you have to decide if you want to fix it or live with it. If the answer is, you want to fix it, then you have nothing to lose by trying this option. If the spots are only in the clearcoat, then the worst case scenario should be, rubbing compound or high grit sandpaper to the color coat and respray the clear. Buff it out and you're done. If its into the clear then repaint that particular body panel. Either way, it should not be that high of an expense.

I'll let you decide what you should do but just remember, I'm here to help and bounce ideas off of. I've been doing this kind of repair for a long time and I know a thing or two about it. The least we can do is make sure the body shops don't take advantage of you. If you want more advice or have questions, I'll be glad to answer them. Other than that, I will stop pressuring you. I truly hope this all works out for the best.!!!

 

I still have a scientific curosity what caused this and if there are more cases. The more cases could be other motorists exposed to the same highway event, or more Prii with the problem. I am thinking Electric Me wants to get this looking better with a paint job. But waiting a little might help to see further data. I would be tempted to purchase some Toyota touch up paint and cover a few spots and monitor.

 

Fatally dramatic. Should have skipped this thread.

 

^^^Yup.^^^

I actually happened to notice one of these spots on my blizzard pearl car today. Even with a fingernail it felt perfectly smooth - yet we can get this out.



I went to work with some Meguiars Ultimate Compound (which is abrasive, yet polishes out so nicely that it can actually be a last step product before waxing if you are in a hurry - this also means its hard to damage your clearcoat with this stuff).

Cleaned the dirt off the area then applied the product to a Lake Country CCS Orange pad.


Almost gone after just a minute or so. Another minute of work and.



It's gone.

Now if I had a larger panel and a whole bunch of these, I'd just use the Porter Cable random-orbital (with a cutting pad similar to the hand pad I used here) and I could do a whole panel in a few minutes, possibly even something like the Meguiars Polish which is even less abrasive than the compound.

 

You mean its not screwed up forever???? You don't need a whole new paintjob?????? You are amazing!!!!! LOL.

 

I read in a NUMMI tour brochure (Toyota / GM venture that built Tacoma / Corollas for years) that the factory paint process would take like 11 hours per car. They use clean rooms where no one can wear hair spray or any contaminants, car goes through a number of processes.

I can't imagine how any body shop Joe with a friggen draft hood can come anywhere near a factory paint job.

 

I'll check ours now since we have the same color.
I'm sorry for your pain. I'd be angry as well.
If the spots are imbedded metal and get painted over I suspect the problem could return...thus a thorough sanding and primer up job is needed.
Consult the insurance company.
Painting will lower your car's trade value significantly (even a quality job) since , as the used car managers will tell you, the next buyer will only assume it was badly damaged and repainted. I've been there several times.
Take the insurance settlement and work at the spots yourself. Save the insurance $ for part of your next auto down-payment.

 

Sheesh folks. This is not a Toyota issue. This is not an insurance issue.

It doesn't require sanding and primer. It doesn't require a repaint.

I don't know how the solution could be presented any clearer yet here we are after 6 pages...

 

You're preaching to the choir with me, Electric.

 

If you haven't personally tried rubbing compound, you can't say that. Bring the car to me and I'll get this off for $500. I get the feeling you really don't want to fix it. It sounds to me like your happy to just keep complaining about it. The people telling you this also have liability issues as I explained earlier. I'm telling you if you want this fixed, refer to my earlier post. The solution is there. If you don't (which is what it sounds like) stop letting it get you down. Life is too short to be unhappy about car paint for more than a day or two.

 

LOL^^^

I almost write the same post a week or so ago.

You don't know what's been tried other than the acid wash. You didn't use the resources I provided you initially to find a real detailer in your area, you didn't even call your guy back to find out what was done. I am 99.5% certain this can be removed with relative ease.