After 105,000 miles in my 2006 Prius, the exterior of the car has been pock-marked with many little dents - I guess from road debris - pebbles, rocks, whatever, getting kicked up by other vehicles into my car. I was wondering if anyone had similar denting/dinging on a Prius, and what you did to fix it, if anything. I am pretty sure that body work would be very expensive, as these are all over the body of the car, and would each require filling and/or sanding, painting.
Hi Jim, Yes, this is called "road rash". If it is bad enough for you to feel the need for action, then a complete repaint would be warranted.
i had like 2 dings in only 5000 miles, its worse for black cars if u can afford the $700 or something, get the 3m invisible film installed in addition to the paint job, heh on the cheap side wax and polish might temporarily hide some roadrash clay bar might remove some, if its not deep enough you could also spend a few dollars and fill them in with touch up paint and a toothpick but it will not look 100 % good as new after only 40,000 miles i probably need the hood repainted.
I had my bonnet resprayed when I bought my car with 61,000km on it, now I have 102,000 on it and it looks as bad or worse. One dent from a rock is over an inch across and 1/4 inch deep.
I have a black Prius and have 12,000 miles in 6 months and have no dings. I had the 3M installed the first week I got my car and been very happy. I travel alot on the highways and have found the protection of the 3M adequate. I hope your repairs are not costly.
This is the first car I have owned so I don't know if it is because my other vehicles are higher off the ground or what but I have 5k miles and about 6 or 7 dings in the paint. No dents but it is like the paint is chipped. I mean does toyota use crappy paint or is this normal? My wife's buick doesn't have any dings in the paint and it is 4 years older and many more miles.
back in the 80s toyota would sublet you to a body shop and pick up the tab on the paint job if it was new, not anymore i posted to an earlier thread today about front end masks.. and i am considering trying krylons front end mask in a can, its a spray can, costs about $8 and you just mask off your car and spray this stuff on.. dries quickly.. washes off with soap and water!
We were told that the highly aerodynamic design tends to pick up road rash pretty easily and sprung for the full coating on the new car, put on two days after we bought it. I hope it was money well-spent.
Car sheet metal seems a lot thinner than it used to be. Don't forget the hood is aluminum. "Road Rash" is a pretty common complaint now A co-worker picked up a 2008 Chrysler Town & Country minivan, he frequently drives gravel roads to get to his second home. The front of that minivan looks like he dropped out of warp speed into an asteroid field
Can't comment on other cars but the Prius' sheetmetal is thinner because the use of ultra-high tensile steel means they can use a thinner sheet and still retain equal crash worthiness as high tensile steel. This saves weight. How do you protect the front end? Toyota doesn't sell the mask any more because loose stones/pebbles accumulated at the leading edge will scratch the paint. How does 3M hold up?
A lot of cars/trucks, etc now appear to have much thinner sheetmetal. Eg lean over onto a car roof, you might put a large depression into the roof. I think the 3M clear film thing might be the best approach to reducing Road Rash. I'd stay away from car bras, they appear to catch dirt and small stones, and then scratch hell out of the paint
