Tender Paint

WhiskeyCop

New member
Has anyone else had a problem with their paint being easily damaged?

Washed the 4Runner this afternoon and had piece of bug on the upper painted portion of the grille just below the hood. Soaped it up good and went to work. I noticed it looked like all of the bug did not come off but upon closer inspection, it looks as though it etched into the black!

Had a spot a couple of weeks ago on the front of the hood that did the same thing!!! It may have been a rock chip, but wife noticed it while she was washing the bugs off.

I have never driven a car before that the paint seemed so easily damaged.
 
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Just picked up the 4R from the body shop today after a paint can fell off the shelf in the garage and put a dent in the fender and chipped off a 1 inch piece of paint.. so yes.. seems like it's a little "tender."
 
I agree. I am very disapointed in the paint quality.

Mine is Mag Grey and it is CRAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There are scratches all over the car that wont buff out and I have no idea where they came from, no tree branches, no door dings, just scratches everywhere.

If anyone knows of anything I do not in regards to repair, I would love to hear.
 
I hate to admit it, but yeah, the paint is isht.

I drove across the country on new years eve and a little bit of road salt and some ice from a semi or two and I managed to have some really bad paint chips in 3 separate spots.

I had a 10 year old Honda that didn't have paint chips that bad after 150,000 miles.

So, yeah, cutting corners and all that. Prepare for el cheapo paint from the japanese pals at ToMoCo.
 
7200+ miles and the only scratches are the ones I inflicted when I got it.

Maybe it's the Mag Grey?

Mine is Classic Silver Metallic.

I mean, like in two days bug guts ate clear through the clear and color? I understand waxing and all, but my work car is a 2007 silver Crown Vic (75k) that I have NEVER waxed and rarely wash (other than touchless when I get my oil changed) and it has held up pretty good...

With the 4Runner having such a huge front end, I guess I need to wash the front bumper daily?
 
Mine is Classic Silver Metallic.

I mean, like in two days bug guts ate clear through the clear and color? I understand waxing and all, but my work car is a 2007 silver Crown Vic (75k) that I have NEVER waxed and rarely wash (other than touchless when I get my oil changed) and it has held up pretty good...

With the 4Runner having such a huge front end, I guess I need to wash the front bumper daily?

To be fair, the bugs down there are freakin' huge. Like small birds, really. But also, that part of the body is plastic and may have flexed at impact. I imagine microfractures were a result and the bug juice did the rest.

We drove through 3 National Parks, sometimes following a herd of bison which means piles of poop two lanes wide, we drove on pavement, dirt, gravel, and a metric ton of animal poop, we killed more bugs than a can of Raid and my Shinju looks awesome. No wax, no paint shield, no deflector, no scratches.
 
Glad I went with white :)

Yeah I hear that, mine still didnt come in and I keep wavering black/white/black/white....WHITE. My friend from work just got the Rock Warrior Tundra in Black and he was telling me he had some surface scratches on the hood from the car wash and he tried to buff them out and its now worse, almost gray in some spots. He said he used a liquid rubbing compound and it looks like shit.
 
I have a black TE and the paint chips are starting . The wife's black Lexus looks like it has gone through a war zone it has so many chip on it. My 2007 and 2010 FJ Cruisers are not much better. I have to say I have never been impressed with the durability of Toyota's paint.

"Tender" is too kind. But hey, what do you expect when you spend $40K for vehicle? LOL
 
This has happened with my last 3 Toys...2005 and newer. I think they went to a cheap painting process somewhere around that time.
 
I've been trying to decide on a color too and have been leaning towards Blizzard Pearl, but why is white better? I would think underneath the paint would be dark.
 
So what did Toyota do different with their paint process? My '04 (Galactic Grey) has maybe two very tiny paint chips on the hood and none at all on the bumper cover, so I think it must be VERY durable. What's different about the newer paint jobs?
 
I've been trying to decide on a color too and have been leaning towards Blizzard Pearl, but why is white better? I would think underneath the paint would be dark.

I read in another post that the lighter colors use dark (black) primer and the darker colors use light (white) primer. One would think that it would be vice versa. I guess Toyota really wants us to see how sh!tty the paint is.

Jed, my 01 has good quality paint as well.
 
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Yeah I seen this on my Runner too, small hair line scratches here and there. My '10 tundra has been doing alright (Color: Slate Metallic). One of the reasons why the paint is so 'tender' is because their using this Eco-friendly paint. I used to own a '05 IS300 and it also suffered from small hair line scratches after a few weeks of owning it.
 
Is this something that we can address with Toyota? This is my first brand new vehicle so I have never had a warranty.
 

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