Terrible paint on fender flairs/bumpers?

you haven't seen anything...get this; Toyota used a single stage paint for their Alpine/Super White....unheard of in this day and age.

 

Yes, i loved the non painted flares on my ranger. Felt better taking that guy offroad. Flares on my taco are getting beat up a bit and it shows more. Too bad no DCSB OR MT in canada, because thats what i wanted originally. No regrets though, i love my tacoma.

 

The Off-Road flares have a different part number. They are not the same. To what degree the part differs, I don’t know but there are two distinct part numbers.

I replaced a flare early in and when I was ordering a replacement I had to make sure I got the right one.

 

I thought acura/honda do the same?

 

Thats why my flares are smooth like my paint, makes sense now.

 

Nice!

 

Thanks!

 

The paint quality is not a problem that's exclusive to Toyota, it's because the whole auto industry switched to water-based paints. They started playing with them in the 1990's and were fully switched over by the mid-2000's. I had a 2nd gen Tacoma for a few years which I disliked for a multitude of reasons, one of which was the paint dulled and scratched ridiculously easy. Mine was so bad that once I was loading stuff into the bed and my t-shirt rubbing the bedside made a dull spot. I showed it to my brother the auto body guru and he gave me a history lesson on water-based automotive paints and their lack of durability compared to old-school oil-based paints.

I feel your pain. I hated my mid-size double cab Tacoma. But I love my compact regular cab Tacoma and my "twin turbski" F150.

 

What’s interesting is that the front bumper does have slight texture. I tried to get a mild scratch in my bumper (noticeable to just me) repaired and the body shop said there was no way they could repair the scratch without knocking down the texture on the whole bumper first.

That being said, when I had the headlights out, it almost seemed like my truck had a clear bra on it giving it the texture, but I’ve owned it since it came off the carrier and nowhere in my paperwork was there any mention of PPF on the truck.

 

Happy to see more people research the trucks PRIOR to purchasing. I wish everyone would do that.

 

I used this and the texture roller I believe. It has a gloss finish, not sure if they sell a matte finish. I’m happy with it.

 

Not sure if its been mentioned, but my MGM front passenger door, is a different shade from the rest of the truck. Been that way since it rolled off the lot. Like @Skydvrr said, Toyota paint isn't the greatest but the tacoma itself is an unbeatable truck.

Even when I had my 2nd gen taco, the painted fenders were def a different shade of black from the rest of the truck. Paint on the fender actually looked really dull.

 

Nice, that turned out really good. Thankyou for sharing.

 

Thank you sir! I loooove black vehicles. Cement is an awesome color man.

All of my vehicles were black and MTs. Well for a short time, i had a 2003 silver accord with AT. It was lowered and loaded, nice car. But man, i hated that thing with a passion. I got a really good deal on it from my buddy and my ex couldnt drive MT, so it happened. I was so happy when it was gone.

 

Interesting, i inspected every inch of my paint in the sun and its 100% perfect, no flaws at all. Built in texas, if that means anything.

 

Any prep work involved like sanding them down first or did you just clean them really well and started painting? Also did you take them completely off the truck or leave them on during the painting. Thank you in advance.

 

I cleaned the flares with acetone first to take any wax/grime off. Sanded them lightly with 400 grit (dry) until the shine was dull, used my air compressor and blew off the loose stuff, wiped again with microfiber cloth or similar, self etching primer, rolled on two regular coats, then a thin coat which was using less product and rolling it on lightly. Let it tack up/dry between coats. *I tried the can and it looked bad, the texture wasn’t uniform, so I immediately wiped it off and did the above steps.

 

That door was repainted. Either got a dent or scratch in transport when new. Dealer fixed it.

 

Agreed. Working on a lot back in the day it happens a lot more than people might think.