mysterious paint chips

Where are the chips appearing and what color is your Prius?

 

I think the Blizzard Pearl paint chips easily. At least more easily than other cars I have owned. But it doesn't do it for no reason as far as I can tell.

 

My BP has got road rash so bad on the front bumper it is sad. The plastic underneath is black so it shows up pretty bad.

 

We don't have enough miles on our Prius to contract heavy road rash, but there are 3 small chip outs on the nose around the 'T' logo, I'm working on. I bought the 070 touch up paint at the dealer. The bottom of the chip outs are black so before using the touch up BP paint, I purchased some Rustoleum primer to cover the black. The primer is a flat white egg shell color. Using the sharpened toothpick method, one coat (small drop) has been applied to each flaw. I'm surprised at how well the color matches. I'm thinking maybe I should hold off on the Toyota touch up paint and use a drop or two of clear gloss poly-urethane to seal it. Workin' on mysteries, DG

 

Great suggestion! Actually at this point the hood is doing fine for me... no major dings. The plastic bumper on the other hand has just been pelted. I don't know where to start with that. Although I was really interested on what a couple of owners have done with the vinyl covering. I wonder how well that would work in cold climates?

 

Tons of chips on the front of mine as well...and I'm just barely over 1K miles. Between that and the birds I can't escape, I feel powerless.

 

Gads, just 1K! Do you drive on dirt roads?

 

The paint is easy to chip and crack because of the new environmental friendly water base paint used since the late 90s.

 

No. Its because Toyota has cut cost too in their paint. Very thin layer to make it light weight also to save more money. Look around the car and see which part of the car is not cheap? They tried to cut cost everywhere and thats where all the problems are arising to date with Rattling, Radio, Paint, Satnav issues.

Go get yourself a paint gun tester thing and you can test the paint layer and you will see how thin the paint is. I never took my prius on the motorway yet and it has a few chips too and I was amazed at first but after I found how thin the paint was I am not anymore.

That is also the reason why I put a lot of money to put on a protective layer on my car now.

 

Thumbs up on that! And its not just Toyota, its as if they are all using water colors.

 

To be brutally honest, I think some of them were already there when I purchased it (having already accumulated 32 miles). Weather was bad on the day I purchased it so I couldn't examine it as closely as I would have liked. I think the others above me are onto something about the thinness of the paint being the primary culprit.

Hsialoc, what did you do in terms of adding a protective layer?

 

No doubt about the thinness/type of paint. Even my 97 Camry was easy to ding. The rocker panels looked as if they shot with a shotgun. I ended up painting them with a bed liner.

 

The first trip my Gen3 took was across the state to have Reno (Armortec) apply VentureShield film. The Gen2 paint isn't as durable as the paint on my 2000 Intrigue and I was disappointed to learn that the 2010 wasn't an improvement. At least silver hides them better than gray.

 

I had mine done with a product called Clear Shield manufactured by one of the window tint companies. Covered front bumper, headlights, mirrors, and hood up about 2 or 2 1/2 feet. Cost was $600. This isn't Alaska but we do get below zero F. every winter. I am very pleased, got hit with lots of rocks and no dings where the plastic is, I did get one small chip on the hood past where the plastic stops. Definately worth the money, my previous car had chips all over the front, especially the plastic parts below the grill.

 

The water base paint is very brittle and easy to chip and crack.
Thinner paint makes it less susceptible to rock chip and the secondary effect is to compensate for the higher cost of the paint.
The use of water base paint is required by the EPA and all manufacturers have to compile, not just Toyota.
I agree that Toyota have reduced the quality for cost.

 

Is this the one? Automotive | Paint Protection | Clearshield

 

Yes it is, I don't know if it's any better (or worse) than the other brands or not, I think there are at least three. It's what the guy at one of the good tint shops sold and it has worked out fine for me. Care is no problem you wash it and even wax it if you want to, just like the rest of the car.