valkyrie said:
LOL! Okay.. all of the 00258 Toyota/Lexus touch ups are color only. People rarely buy the clearcoat touch (00258-0000C) up for a variety of reasons... cost, adding more globs to thier touch up glob, unaware, whatever. It is available and recommended.
this is what started the whole thing...adding paint unnecessarily and making it look worse!!
I just wanted to add to what you have said on a few levels
I have watched the parts manager at the Toyota dealership for over a decade dull out touch up kits...he always sends people with metallic, mica, pearl colors out the door will two bottles...white,straight black and red he doesn't bother but with one...because the clear coat does nothing for them and tends not to match when added in his extensive experience dealing with it!
valkyrie said:
necessarily. Most of the distributor/dealer applied paint sealers (polymer or otherwise) are bogus- either not really applied or some diluted wax based product good for a very short period of time. A complete waste of money (as with the undercoating/winterizing- they actually cause more harm than good.
yup that is the reason I brought up the winterization..to let people know that not every thing is Toyotas fault that go wrong with a new car!
a polymer can be many things...as a polymer is many monomers linked together!
in my example it was part of the base coat mixture in the actual formulation...an anti UV, anti oxide and a bonding agent....not a Polymer sealant as in the Meguiars Polymer Sealant wax which I have used on top of my clear coat to keep it from oxidizing and moisture spots and it does last longer than traditional waxes and carnuba...then there are top coat polymer sealants which are like lacquers which truly are bogus for use on a car!
Toyotas Blue paints are not cheap formulations...that is why they appear so limitedly...many companies want to have these colors formulas especially the imperial blue!
valkyrie said:
Having worked at Toyota dealerships in Florida & Texas, I think I've seen 'em all- snowbirds with Northern cars, Florida rust & fade and Texas fade. It's just a fact some pigments/paint types are more prone to fading & chalking than others, and the clear coat seems to have little impact. The real factors are UV exposure, environmental factors (acid rain, road film, care (type / frequency), hard or soft water, commercial car wash detergents, wax (composition/presence of abrasives & quality) etc.
I have also worked at several dealerships Toyota, Subaru, GMC and did detailing on a hugh range of new and used cars along with dealer prep on fresh from the factory cars and spent lots of time in and around the paint booths at body shops and with pro painters...the telling story is how some makes and models coming from the harshest of sun in AZ and all over the US don't show the problems that others do in climate controlled pristine environments ...some Dupont formulations of Red don't fade like Toyotas formulation neither do PPG's or BASF's it is truly a factor of base paint mixtures and formulation...paint technology has advance greatly in the past decade and costs have fallen greatly...the difference can be patents and trademarks that allow one company to have a better formulation that others for certain colors! House of Color has awesomely rich trademarks and patents for colors but you don't see them on factory cars!!
valkyrie said:
Many people have the impression that clear coat is some type of armor plating, when in fact it is not. It is susceptible to the same aging/destructive factors paint is. Clear coat generally brings out the color of the mulit-layerd paint, which would appear flat otheriwse.
clear coat is simply a mineral free pigment free layer of paint that comes after and bounds to the base coat to keep the pigments and minerals further removed from being exposed to surface imperfection...paint on a car is like human skin... blemishes, scratches, discoloration, pours, blisters, oils, minerals, wax, dryness, cracking and so on...like skin there are solutions to help all of them...and like human skin different pigments have there strong points and there weaknesses...a clear coat should ideally be less porous, usually a clear coat will not affect the color spectrum of the underlying pigments but if applied on in a number of layer as thick as is done with show cars and hot rods it will add a depth by bending the light reflection...factory clear coat usually isn't thick enough to change the depth...though some luxury makes do go the extra few steps.
... a clear coat will not cast a shadow or show a hard edge when scratched like a pigment or mineral mixed in layer would...the simple reason it is so popular of a finish, it takes longer to show signs of age and abuse..like skin, paint will shed from its layer and eventually die!
color sanding a finish is what really adds to a paint jobs depth...
and there is an orange peel effect from automated factory painting that makes some new cars look less than spectacular straight off the delivery truck!
valkyrie said:
I've seen brand new cars come in with rust speckles all over them from rail dust settling on them for only a week. It is not as durable as some night think, but with proper care the finish will last a long time.
Ditto...new cars rusting thru because paint or metal where not prepped right or like the old Toyota bed sides made in N. America that where not dipped in a zinc bath when the imported cab and fenders where ...
I have done restoration work on some cars...it is amazing to see a twenty+ year old paint job come back to life...I detailed an oxidized orange Mazda 626 before it was to be sold and added about $2000 to the price with a half days work... some paint jobs are easier than others to care for...Toyota owns trademarks for paint colors, the formulations are patented!! some popular colors are owned by other companies limiting the ability to copy them...and vice versa!
