Prius Roof Refinish

[The Critic]

The Prius is done. The body shop sent me these pictures. It looks good from 5’ away but I have not seen the results in person.

@JeffKeryk is a great friend for recommending this place and for letting me use his truck to get home.

 

[Chris B.]

Some Honda paints hold up well. This is a 2012 Accord with 150,000 miles that is a daily driver that is outside for 12-16 hours a day and sits in a garage at night. Paint is near perfect with no signs of clear coat failure. Headlights were polished about a year ago:

 

[Chris B.]

27 year old GMC Sierra. This Lagoon Green color had a nice clear coat and I've never seen this color fail. Lots of reflections off the hood and roof:

 

[MSCH]

The Prius is done. The body shop sent me these pictures. It looks good from 5’ away but I have not seen the results in person.

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@JeffKeryk is a great friend for recommending this place and for letting me use his truck to get home.

looks good... from here anyway.

 

[The Critic]

Some Honda paints hold up well. This is a 2012 Accord with 150,000 miles that is a daily driver that is outside for 12-16 hours a day and sits in a garage at night. Paint is near perfect with no signs of clear coat failure. Headlights were polished about a year ago:

Beware…IME it will go from perfect to failing in a matter of weeks. It is very sudden.

 

[MrGraybeard]

I’m surprised it failed like that given your climate. I guess it must be associated with the CA air pollution. I’ve had lots of vehicles with older paint that has lived outdoors and kept better.

I get the fade, especially silver. But I’m surprised with the peeling given the care you give to your vehicle finishes.

I've owned a couple cars that spent 15 years or more in the Southwest. My '82 MB 300cd (manganese brown) came from Los Angeles. It had faded but intact paint, while the door and window gaskets were badly eroded. I assume that came from the air pollution/ozone in the city.

My '83 BMW 633Csi (black) spent most of its life in New Mexico and west Texas. The clearcoat is badly damaged on all horizontal surfaces -- oxidized or crazed.

Interior trim on both cars also had been toasted pretty badly.

 

[MrGraybeard]

One thing about the Prius -- on my wife's Generation 2 (2007), the point where the drip rails meet the hatch is a well-known leakage point. A lot of the cars of that generation often have the auxiliary battery sitting in water. The fix is to seal up that point with some silicone while the drip rail covers are off.

 

[JohnnyG]

Good looking paint job! It's more of an ART to be able to paint like that, even with today's advanced systems.
It also appears that the top of the windshield has suffered from the same affliction that your roof paint did.

A little off topic, but if you think your roof was bad, you should see what the Florida sun and black mold does to a Toyota Solara convertible top. Especially the tan colored ones! Actually eats holes through the fabric!

 

[JHZR2]

27 year old GMC Sierra. This Lagoon Green color had a nice clear coat and I've never seen this color fail. Lots of reflections off the hood and roof:

GM paint from back then seemed to be Ok. My 98 S-10 paint is still like new and lived outdoors in full sun for many years.

 

[MrGraybeard]

GM paint from back then seemed to be Ok. My 98 S-10 paint is still like new and lived outdoors in full sun for many years.

I remember seeing lots of GM cars, particularly Chevies, with paint failure down to the primer in the '90s. Maybe that was a little earlier. Blue seemed to be especially vulnerable.

 

[JeffKeryk]

My neighbor's tree where the paint blotches used to be.

 

[JHZR2]

I remember seeing lots of GM cars, particularly Chevies, with paint failure down to the primer in the '90s. Maybe that was a little earlier. Blue seemed to be especially vulnerable.

Oh I’d seen it back then too. I remember that maroon Chrysler paint failed a lot.

 

[Marcozi]

27 year old GMC Sierra. This Lagoon Green color had a nice clear coat and I've never seen this color fail. Lots of reflections off the hood and roof:

I wonder if the paint is water or lacquer based.

 

[paulo57509]

I wonder if the paint is water or lacquer based.

I think GM is all water based now. I think CA assembly plants were the first to use water borne paint because of state regulations in the late 1980's with bad results. I think GM was all water based paint sometime between 1992 and 2003, based on the GM vehicles I've owned.

On some years, you can tell from the SPID what kind of paint was used. My '87 Camaro SPID indicates water borne paint (Van Nuys Assembly, known poor paint source). This was most likely during the transition years:

 

[CBR.worm]

I had a friend that worked in an auto body shop tell me that the white paint Nissan used on the ~95-~99 Maximas was indestructible. I don't remember what year he told me that, but I wonder if those are still holding up well. The early Lexus LS400 paint seemed to hold up pretty well.

 

[drtyler]

Always wanted one of these C/K/Sierra 1500 in this color back when they were new. Didn't see very many then; complete unicorn now.

27 y/o would imply that it's a 1996, correct? So it has the better Vortec engine too. Nice truck.

27 year old GMC Sierra. This Lagoon Green color had a nice clear coat and I've never seen this color fail. Lots of reflections off the hood and roof:

 

[Chris B.]

Always wanted one of these C/K/Sierra 1500 in this color back when they were new. Didn't see very many then; complete unicorn now.

27 y/o would imply that it's a 1996, correct? So it has the better Vortec engine too. Nice truck.

Its actually a 1997 made in 1996 so close enough! Yes it was and is my dream truck! The inside is as nice as the outside. 93,000 total miles.