Toyota thin paint ?

[Pontiacfan]

I have heard that Toyotas have thin paint. I do not have a paint thickness tester , so I just have to take peoples words for it. I am in dire need of Polishing my Toyota Tundra , but am half scared to hit it with my Flex. I wanted to use Chemical Guys V34 , V36 , V38 on it. Anyone got any ideas ?

 

[tuscarora dave]

Pretty much all paints are thin nowadays. I have corrected the paint on a ton of Toyotas using a rotary polisher and the paint on just about every one of them was a bit on the harder side and required a lot of buffing to reduce or completely level out the defects. I wouldn't be too concerned with buffing your Tundra's paint using your 3401. Just follow good practices such as always test first using the least aggressive method first.

Remember, using a Flex 3401 is already a lesser aggressive method than rotary polishing so I wouldn't expect a Flex 3401 with a finishing pad and finishing polish to correct heavy paint defects but you never really know until you try. I have in many cases been surprised what I was able to achieve using M-205 with a finishing pad with a flex 3401. Then in other cases it really did nothing to the defects other than to make them shiny.

I know you're talking about using CG products so I was just using M-205 as an example. You'll likely end up finding that it will take quite a bit of work to get the defects gone on your Toyota paint. Remember, all paint is thin so if you can catch a fingernail in the scratches in your truck's paint. I'd recommend you NOT try to buff those deeper scratches out because they are probably through a great percentage of the clear's film build. Just give it an overall swirl removal and learn to live with the deeper scratches.

 

[tuscarora dave]

I know the quality of this video is pretty crappy but it shows the defect removal. This was a rather deep scratch in this Toyota paint. It was not a nail catcher but I could feel it as I ran my fingernail across it.

I was using M-105 which it pretty aggressive on a rotary with a Dynabrade attachment and 4" Cyclo light cutting pad which gets the work done a lot faster than a 3401 does. You couldn't see the scratch after I was done with that area but it was still there, just visually reduced.

I posted this to somewhat ease your mind about your Toyota's paint. It is quite resilient paint but as with any paint it can be over worked and cut too thin. Just get a feel for things in a mild to medium aggressiveness kind of way and you'll have the feel for the correction being achieved in no time at all.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zo-hRJejqpk]Scratch removal with M-105 and Dynabrade random orbital polishing head - YouTube[/video]

 

[Pontiacfan]

Thank you very much for the post and video. It does ease my mind some. I will give it whack with the V36 then go down to the V34 if needed. I understand it wont take out everything , it has just been neglected for so long it needs something. Thank you again.

 

[tuscarora dave]

Thank you very much for the post and video. It does ease my mind some. I will give it whack with the V36 then go down to the V34 if needed. I understand it wont take out everything , it has just been neglected for so long it needs something. Thank you again.

You're welcome. Just check the progress of your work every few section passes to see what's going on between that pad and the paint so that you can get a true feel for what needs to be done and that you are not removing more clear than what is necessary to achieve the results that you're after.