Seriously crappy factory paint

Hum, it’s an off-road truck. Go blast it through some jungle, rocks and mud whist cranking AC/DC and park it out front covered in raw earth under a full moon and you’ll think it’s the most awesome looking truck you’ve ever seen.

 

My 17 taco paint is miles ahead of the paint on my wifes 17 RAV4. I wheel and scratch my truck whereas the RAV is a typical RAV. Looking at the paint on both, you'd think the RAv was the off road rig.

The paint is not exactly thick on either vehicle.

 

That sucks. I got a door ding in the driver side rear fender above the wheel and it's killing me.

 

Back in the 70's and 80's, paint was good and durable.
Unfortunately, it wasn't good for the air nor the people spraying it. FYI, before going to college and becoming an engineer, I was a bodyman and my specialty was painting... during that time frame lol. I graduated college about the time that VOC (Volatile Organic Compound) federal and state laws were passed outlawing those paints and thinners. Then came water based paints and... there you go. Paint has been sub optimal on every car ever since.

 

Where I live, a lot of the roads I drive down for fun give you the infamous ‘BC pinstripes’ from the overgrowth.

The hilarious thing is my Toyota paint, which has the dealer applied sealant, and a layer of good wax, gets scratched to shit, while the colour matched paint on my canopy, which also was also waxed and sealed using the same products, shows very few scratches. Some scratches come off the roof of the cab, and basically disappear when they hit the canopy (camper shell).

It is literally like the paint on the Canopy from Century, is much higher quality than the paint on the truck itself.

Good news is another coat of wax mostly covers it. I assume what it is, is that the Toyota factory clear-coat is very soft and shows the scratches.

This photo attempts to show the scratched rear passenger door contrasted with the front passenger door (hard to photograph), which was re-waxed just before this photo was taken:



There is hope.

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/az-bs-thread-5-0.431790/page-3633

 

It's not the paint as much as what is underneath the paint on a cap. Fiberglass gets a gelcoat, which is baked on, then it gets a gelcoat primer, again baked on, then sealer, baked on and then the paint, which is baked on too and lastly, the clearcoat and, you guessed it, its baked on lol. Pretty much anything that is fiberglass has a gelcoat and it is far superior as an underlayment for paint than steel. BTW the paint is exactly the same as what's on the truck. I just checked ARE and Leer websites. But yeah, fiberglass always holds paint better than metal.

 

Interesting. It is a drastic difference between the apparent “hardness” of the two surfaces, though the paint is perfectly matched. Century is a division of Leer, or from the same factory.

 

hmmmm. I was thinking my paint was durable. Hubcap got obliterated in front of me on the highway and a chunk smacked my bedside. Fiqured I got a dent or at least a scratch. Doesn’t look like it even got thru the clear coat but did put a small ‘ding’ in the flare. I don’t really care tho. It is a truck, an ‘offroad’ model at that...

 

But yours is made out of cement. Mine is made out of silver.

 

Nah, the good fairy of the western deserts will help you meet up with one of those fury, long eared friends of the miners from long ago that go “hee-haw” and you will get your wish; a new grill and bumper. Well, thats sort of how it went with my 1st Gen near Oatman.

 

Ouch! I've heard stories about those burros.

 

several good coats of wax a year also help a lot..

 

I got Expel protective film on my Taco Pro; Front bumper and headlights. I recommend it.

 

You get what you pay for.
I have 3M and it's been great. Xpel might be better