Terrible paint on fender flairs/bumpers?

If it bothers you re spray them with good ol lacquer solvent based paint, although it might give you cancer it will also give you a show car finish. Worth it? Maybe.

 

Yup it’s a truck not a show car. The cars at SEMA and other shows have 10k paint work. My dad showed a few cars when he was with us and the paint was perfect. You did not get around his vehicles with any jewelry or clothing with any kind of metal on them. As a kid it was well let’s just say annoying. I miss him.

 

This is true. PPG even puts out a customer pamphlet that explains why bumpers often do not match body paint exactly.

 

But your body paint matches

 

The paint on the 4Runners looks better than the paint on the Tacomas. I'd imagine the 4Rs paint isn't perfect and the same problems with paint could be found on both vehicles.

 

Sounds like me to an extent. Thanks for sharing your story.

 

A big part of production paint today is hiding imperfections instead of fixing them. I remember cars in the 80's and 90's where reflections were smooth and you could read names on a business card in the reflection. Today even on luxury cars, there is a purposeful orange peel to hide things. It looks good and shiny from a distance, especially on these really deep metallics (Mazda Soul Red is one) but up close there is a ripple to the finish that is just different.

I think overall Toyota paint is in the bottom half of quality, but it's really dependent on certain colors that put it there. On the other hand, Toyota has some of the best colors available especially in SUV's and Trucks. I was really torn between Cement and Barcelona Red, as my final 2 choices, but I like most of the colors the Tacoma has been available in.

 

You really need to move on. All this whining about Tacoma paint will not change a thing. It is what it is. I'm a paint guy. The paint on my black 2019 is horrible. But it looks good clean from 10feet. I live with it. Because that's what is on it. Move on and find the paint you desire.

 

Op,for transparency, if you get a light color you will probably also get small tiny orange flecks as something in the paint oxidizes unless toyota has changed something. It is very noticable on white up close. Doesn't change anything with the paints coverage or protection but thought as an fyi would be open with you.

 

I looked at 20 cars from various makes at the grocery store today. none had bumper covers with that obviously different paint on them. I just don't want to walk by and see its obvious. I am going to look at some more samples of tacomas. doesn't help there is only 1 for sale at the dealer near me.