Pleased with the paint (not color)?

I've been avoiding driving my Super White because I have it scheduled for an invisible bra installation on Tuesday. The convincer was when I saw my first chip in the bumper and didn't want more damage before the bra went on.

California roads are loaded with rocks that want to put a chip in your car, alsmost as bad as Idaho with their sanding the roads during winter that will blast the paint off the front and create a milky view through your windshield. Hey, and I LIKE Idaho!

 

I've driven several hundred miles on dirt roads and have a reasonable amount of chips in my front bumper and the hood. I'm not too concerned, though...I have a bra for summer use and the sand for the roads here is very fine.

 

I just spent the weekend filling in the pits in the bumper, hood and front fenders. What a mess. We have about 16K miles on our 2004 Salsa Red Prius. This is the thinnest paint I've ever encountered.

 

'05 @ 33,000 miles

75% highway driving in LA

3 clearly visible rock chips. I'm sure the chips would also be visible in other cars so i voted #2.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Boxster...WRX...Prius? @ Mar 26 2006, 11:16 PM) [snapback]230765[/snapback]</div>

Geez, am I the last to notice that you're in Guam now?

Miss Alaska? (No, I'm not asking if you ARE "Miss Alaska".)


Tough call, mehrenst. Since we have no such thing as a "control group", hard to tell if it's thin paint (as many claim) or simply the configuration (slope) of the front. I'm inclined to think the latter. With my 4 Priuses, the lower foot-and-a-half of the hood seems especially prone to kick-up stones. I've had chips ABOVE the vinyl hood bra on all four. Only a full-hood clear bra would prevent this.

Present touch-up paint from Toyota sucks, too, especially silver, which is next to useless, since it "separates" right on the tip of the applicator brush and you can easily get a darkish blob with no metallic content.

 

In the first 20 miles, our '06 Seaside got two tiny rock chips...between the dealer and the clear bra installer! No more chips, though...

 

26 months, 15,000 miles. They are but the badges of courage and the marks of history. Nothing lasts forever, neither Earth nor sky.

 

i had just gotten used to my new garage in my huge suv, then i bought the prius. now i have had to adjust again...and i got two small dings in my bumper. i need to find some chip repair stuff...any info? the paint does seem really soft and nick-able...

 

Almost 20K miles and only a few tiny chips/nicks in the Silver, but I got the clear paint protection as soon as I could. A couple of tiny pits in the windshield too. Just lucky, I guess.

 

Superwhite 2005 with 15k, thank god for the clear bra! I have two tiny dings on the hood penatrating the plastic film, but the bugs and road tar wash right off.
bernie B)

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(mongo @ Jul 3 2006, 04:27 PM) [snapback]280650[/snapback]</div>

Yeah, I have been having the same problem with the Salsa Red. I just took it to the dealer who said it didn't look like a problem with the paint, then I took it to a paint repair shop and they said it didn't seem correct that there would be so many chips with a car only 9 months old. Now we are looking for others that have had the same problem with this color. Ours is a 2005 Salsa Red with 19 chips and 13,000 miles. Our chips are fairly circular, about a half cm across and very ugly. Have you heard of others with this same problem?

 

'05 Tidelands Pearl with 36,700 miles so far. I have a clear bra so the front end still looks new as well as the mirror backs. I have a couple of small chips and scratches from road debris being thrown up on the freeways by passing cars, nothing significant and the car still looks new really. Overall the paint quality seems fine. A lot better than a new Porsche Carrera I had a few years ago. All you had to do was touch that car and it scratched and chipped.

 

This is the thinnest paint I've ever encountered.

I agree. I can't believe all the scratches and pits. It's the only thing I don't like about the car.

 

I don't know about paint thickness- I've got a number of stone chips on the hood right down to bare metal and the depth of the crater looks pretty consistent with most other vehicles I've seen, but the paint certainly is soft and prone to scratching and nicks and dings.. I wonder if it's related to the low-VOC formulation that's part of the environmentally friendly theme of this car..

 

Had the car for 3 months now, only one or two rock-nicks

I recently Zaino-ed my Prius. I've never had a car before I considered worthy of waxing, and boy is it a good way to get familiar with every flaw in the paint job.

In particular, my classic silver Prius has a dimply "orange peel" texture, so no mirror like reflections for me.

Also, the bottom 1"-2" of the body shows a consistent band of paint running/dripping/build-up, as if Toyota was in a major hurry with the paint job. Not noticeable over 2' away, but come on.

Oh well, it's only a commuter car.

 

I've got a few stone chips, but my biggest complaint about the paint is that it is really orange peeled (it's black, so it's more obvious than the other colors).