03 Paint Problems

[scottara]

Yesterday I was getting in my car in the morning and i noticed large amount of what looks like chips of paint gone from my drivers side fender, door, rear doon and rear fender.

I took the truck to a body shop because i was unsure of what might have caused these chips and the guy at the shop said they all look like blisters in the paint where there was probably dirt in the paint when they painted my truck.

So i will be taking it to the dealer tomorrow morning to see what they think and if i can get this repaired. I am just so upset, i have only had the truck for a month and I baby it, there is no way this is from anything other than a defect.

The thing that really scares me is the guy at the body shop said they will have to sand down and repaint the whole side of the truck, just luckily it is so new so there shouldn't be any paint matching problems.

Has anyone out there ever heard of this problem with toyota?

Let me know, i will write back with what the dealer decides.

 

[Thai]

Here's something to consider: resale value MAY decrease if you start to repaint certain sections!

My BMW dealership put a dent in my M3's door. So, the dealership had to repaint the whole door for color matching...it looks good. I was talking to a friend of mine (a used car salesman at a Lexus dealership) and he took out a little electronic device. This thing is used to measure the thickness of the paint. So, basically, it can pick up areas that were repainted (because the thickness at that area is different than the rest of the car). My friend immediately pointed out correctly the area on my BMW door where work was done. Pretty cool device!

Therefore, repainting may decrease the value of your car.

So, just food for thought....

 

[scottara]

yeah not really a problem for me because it is a lease. But thanks anyway.

 

[mhallack]

I have noticed that my titanium 03 SR5 4x4 V8 chips very easily...even with the optional Toyoguard! (yeah, I thought it did a lot ;^)

 

[jharris2]

Any details?

Mine went through 3 hailstorms in 1 night -- golf-ball sized and larger, 70+ mph winds. Of course, this was a couple of months after buying it and we were 300 miles from home at a friend's house.

The truck came away with a just few tiny dents that are almost impossible to see unless the light hits it just right. No paint chips, though.

 

[mhallack]

Details...

Well, its probably my fault, but the 4Runner is a little large for our garage, which is not too much of a problem until we open the liftgate. A couple of times early on we opened it and rested the edge of it against the top of the garage door. Even though we did this VERY gently, it still came away with a sizable paint chip both times. It has not been a problem since we took some wooly material and wrapped it underneath the garage door edge.

My wife had another minor mishap that chipped the paint. I'll have to ask her exactly what happened.

My experience has always been that we pick up small dings, but have never had much of an issue with the paint chipping (with any vehicle).

I do have one small paint chip (about the same size as the ones on the 4Runner) on my Mazda MP3, but thats kind of understandable since I was hit-n-run, side-swiped by a Ford Exploder (I was saved by my large alloy wheels which evidently cut pretty deep into his tire/tread).

What's everybody's recommendation on touch-up paint?