Lexus' Paint

I have an sc430 and I am disappointed in the chipping on the front of the car. I had a mercedes and jaguar and neither one of them chipped like the Lexus. I have been told that Lexus' paint is soft. I know you can buy a bra but they seems silly to me. I think Lexus should improve their paint rather than sell you a bra or some crappy looking plastic shield to cover up their shortcoming.

Reply to
W. Wells
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On Sun, 11 Sep 2005 13:10:43 GMT, "W. Wells" graced this newsgroup with:

the problem with MOST modern paint jobs isn't the fault of the car maker. The EPA mandated water based paints which are MUCH softer than the..well..non-waterbased paints. Hence the reason so many cars today scratch and chip so easilly.

I had the same problem on an 03 Explorer..as well as an 00 ES300 and even our daughters 99 Sentra.

And I'm not even going to go into the fun we had with the "soft as clay" paint we had on our 99 Durango.

Reply to
nospam

I bought an '87 F-150 that as made the first year Ford was forced to use water-borne paints. The technology was just "not there" and the thing rusted almost from the start. Car companies went to galvanized paint which circumvents the problem later. Too late for me.

Reply to
GLitwinski

get the 3m or Llumar paint protection film installed, quit the bitching, and enjoy life again. Trade the bloody thing in every year or two for a new one if the chips bug you that much.

Reply to
Rumple Stiltskin

The steel on a Lexus is not as rigid as on a Mercedes... for example, if you touch the hood, its much softer than another non-japanese luxury brand... however, i will still take reliability over things like paint and steel...

Reply to
Dan J.S.

On Fri, 16 Sep 2005 16:31:25 -0400, "stu" graced this newsgroup with:

uh..no..it's the other way around. thanks for playing.

Reply to
nospam

I think you guys need to distiguish between "Soft and Hard" and "Brittle and Flexible". If the paint was "soft" it would not chip since the movement of the paint would diffuse the energy needed to chip it. Thats like saying that Play-Doh chips...I know thats on the extreme side but you get my point. Soft or hard, if the paint is flexible it will diffuse the energy rather than break or crack. It mostly has to do with the way the atoms are held together. Think about a bucket of sand....if you slowly push your hand into it, technically, it is soft; but try to punch the sand and it won't budge. Also, in a thin layer like paint on a car the properties change. Steel is hard but sheet metal bends easily. The point is that water based paint is not soft nor flexible; it is hard and brittle. A good example from the industry is Lacquer automotive paint; hard but extreamly brittle.

Reply to
MikeGallagher

Reply to
W. Wells

On 19 Sep 2005 09:00:39 -0700, snipped-for-privacy@paintworldinc.com graced this newsgroup with:

not true. the paint is soft. You can scratch it with your fingernail unlike older laquer based paints that were very hard and even harder to chip.

Reply to
nospam

Whether you wish to refer to it as hard or soft, my experience also reflects that the Lexus paint is quite "fragile" and chips easily compared to competitive brands. Fortunately for Lexus, most people don't care about the appearance of their car and don't complain, and the few of us that do care are not complaining loudly enough to attract their interest for a solution.

s
Reply to
stealth

I'm definitely NOT like "most people" when it comes to the appearance of my car. In fact, I am probably teetering on being obsessive-compulsive about the cleaniness and mechanical condition of my cars. For some reason I have been that way about all of my vehicles since I first started driving at age

  1. Having a really nice ride can be a wonderful thing at times, but it can also stress you out beyond belief for no good reason whatsoever. :-) Sometimes it's just not worth concerning yourself with. At least the cosmetic aspect of it. I could never let go on the mechanical side of things.

Ron M.

Reply to
Ron M.

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