Paint Quality / Quantity.

[silly sausage]

I've spent most of this glorious day cleaning both our Toyotas and I'm sad to say I'm really disappointed with the paint quality and quantity on our Rav, it's a late 2011 reg and with 14k on the clock is very well looked after in general, however it appears that the slightest airbourne partical seems to mark the paint which must be as soft as butter, our Landcruiser is an 09 build 10 reg and the paint does seem considerably better,it does slighty less miles than the Rav but the same kind of journeys, our last 09 Rav certainly wore better than this current one, is it just the current tyrol silver or has anybody else noticed the lack of paint on later models ?

[IanXT4]

You probably need to blame European regulations, I believe there has been a move away from indestructible super toxic Isocyanate based two pack paints. These days I believe its fashionable to paints cars with water based paints. (Sounds a bit like water colour !!)

[Manxrav]

As far as I,m aware Toyota paint is "Soft" compared to German car makers.

Regards Clare

[anchorman]

I think you are looking at a very small scale here.

You can be unlucky with paint chips but if any of the owners has normally driven close to the car in front you are more likely to have suffered. You need to be far away they have landed or bounced and lost a bit of velocity. Most paint will chip if you hit it at road speed with a small stone.

In any case, if you could determin hard and soft (which I doubt) then surely soft would be better.

[igormus]

As far as I,m aware Toyota paint is "Soft" compared to German car makers.

Regards Clare

I would agree with Clare

As an example --- X5 (BMW) -- a radiator ribs are bent because of high road speed but the black paint has no damages -- how can it be ? Even a small bird as died/dried has been found under the bonet :)

Of course the drive manner is important

regards / Igor

[acetip]

It seems some colours appear to be ' softer ' than others

As careful as you are,if a road has been chipped there is always some idiot who is driving a vehicle thats not their own and they dont care about its welfare will ignore speed restrictions and go tearing along showering others vehicles with stones.

Had this happen to me one morning about 6am,but from nowhere a police care appered and pulled hm up.

The car i had then was a VW Jetta TD in Diamond Silver.and i always boasted that you could throw a brick at it and not mark the paint.

As the car was 1986 reg i suppose this was before the water based paint inroduction.

[CharlieFarlie]

I've spent most of this glorious day cleaning both our Toyotas and I'm sad to say I'm really disappointed with the paint quality and quantity on our Rav, it's a late 2011 reg and with 14k on the clock is very well looked after in general, however it appears that the slightest airbourne partical seems to mark the paint which must be as soft as butter, our Landcruiser is an 09 build 10 reg and the paint does seem considerably better,it does slighty less miles than the Rav but the same kind of journeys, our last 09 Rav certainly wore better than this current one, is it just the current tyrol silver or has anybody else noticed the lack of paint on later models ?

Paint on Japanese cars is both thinner and softer than say a German car...

On the Rav you will typically find 6 to 7 microns of thickness .. This again will typically be made up of 3 microns of base-coat and 4 of lacquer.. ( Measured with a Defelsco positector ) This gives 3 microns of lacquer (safe) to play with when polishing...

A German car can have 10 microns and is far harder ! But hard paint is more prone to chipping through stones !! as the hard surface has far more surface tension so chips nearly always come away bigger !!

Yes the paint on a rav is soft but it makes it far easier to correct when it gets swirl marks it light scratches.

Water based paint has been with us for quite some time and while its not ideal its far better than when it first came out. It plays little or no part in the hard or softness in the paint..

Careful washing of soft paintwork or correct washing teqniuques are essential on cars with soft pain as each time paint correction takes place a tiny amount of lacquer is removed . Depending of course on the depth of marks and the cut of the polish !

Colour makes no difference at all its down to the lacquer !

Determining whether a paint is hard or soft is very easy.. Simply polish a small area by hand.. If it removes the marks easy its soft.. If not its hard !

I much prefer to work on Japanese cars like Toyota as its far easier to get great results fast. Downside is of course the results are marred far more quickly... You cant have it both ways !!

Polishing paint on say an Audi or BMW is very hard work indeed ! Results are slow and because of the high cut polishes required its a risky business even with a dual or multi level Paint Thickness Gauge.. But the finish is more resilient and the need to polish is far less often....

What would I chose then ?? Japanese every time !