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.

On Sun, 11 Sep 2005 13:10:43 GMT, "W. Wells" <otf70 (AT) nc (DOT) rr.com> 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.

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.

If someone tells you "I'm from the government and I'm here to help you", be
very afraid.
"HarleyVa (AT) nospam (DOT) com" <nospam (AT) nospam (DOT) net> wrote

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.


"W. Wells" <otf70 (AT) nc (DOT) rr.com> wrote

"W. Wells" <otf70 (AT) nc (DOT) rr.com> wrote

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...

If the paint was soft it wouldn't chip.
"W. Wells" <otf70 (AT) nc (DOT) rr.com> wrote

On Fri, 16 Sep 2005 16:31:25 -0400, "stu" <stuart8181 (AT) yahoo (DOT) com>
graced this newsgroup with:

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

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.

The paint comes off when a rock hits it.
<MikeGallagher (AT) paintworldinc (DOT) com> wrote

On 19 Sep 2005 09:00:39 -0700, MikeGallagher (AT) paintworldinc (DOT) 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.