I came out to my white xB2 in bright sunlight and noticed some paint imperfections down near the front passenger tire at the bottom of the front fender near the door. There are these little brownish/rust colored spots that seem to be under the paint. I tried clay and it wouldn't even remove them. Then I have one of those dots on my door. I am not sure if you can see this on any other color than white.

Then tonight when I was trying clay, I noticed at the bottom of the panels there is really rough orange peel. This leads me to believe the car was polished while all the panels were on the car and when they got to the bottom, it was difficult to polish correctly. I'll post pictures of the spots later but the orange peel I just noticed a few minutes ago.

Can anyone check their white and confirm? Orange peel was easy to see in flourescent lit garage, not in bright sunlight. The spots in the paint are easy to see in bright sunlight but not in a flourescent lit garage. I didn't have enough time today to scan for all the brown/rust colored spots, will post pictures later...

 

I suggest that you bring this back to your dealership to have them work on it. These types of paint discrepanies are covered under warranty.

 

Here they are. And yes I am going back to the dealer. But just wanted to know if anyone else noticed the orange peel or spots.

 

i will check mine today, thank you for the heads up.

 

Looks like rail dust. A little clay balling should handle it, fairly common.

 

I tried clay for about 5 minutes and it just won't come out. I will stop by the dealer to see what they think.

The orange peel down low on most of the panels is pretty bad. I will try to take a pic of it too.

 

Uhm, that's by design. If you look at any Toyota, look at the paint on the bottom of the rocker panels (especially the trucks). That area takes extreme abuse from road debris, so they put a special kind of primer on it, and that's what it looks like. It's supposed to help it not get chipped down there.

 

Very good to know and it would make sense. Thanks for the clarification! I like your informative posts BTW, you are a great service to the community.

 

So you're saying the orange spots are by design? Any Toyota you say?

Ok, I don't own my PW 05 xB anymore, but none of the pictures show orange spots and I checked my uncle's 04 Matrix, no such thing.

Could you clarify once more? And provide some photo examples of this being a legitimate practice?

 

Orange peel, and orange spots are not the same thing.

The orange spots are most likely rail dust. It's fairly common and usually can be removed rather easily, although he appears to be having a bit of an issue getting rid of them. I'm not an auto detailing expert, so I'm not the one to help him on that, although I'm sure the dealership will be more than glad to take care of it.

Orange peel is a texture in the paint that you see on all normal cars. If you look closely at any paint job, you'll see little lines and wrinkles in the paint, that's known as orange peel. The only way to get rid of them is through a very very high dollar paint job. That's the kind of thing that a Ferrari owner will pay upwards of 50g's to have a black Ferrari repainted in black to get rid of.

What he is talking about is an exagerated peel look that Toyota applies to the rocker panels of all their cars to help prevent paint chips on an area of the car very vulnerable to road debris.

So, to reveiew: Peel != spots.

 

I had those on my wife's brandnew white ford freestyle...Tried claybaring but couldn't get it off...Took it to the dealer and they buffed them out and re-waxed the car...

 

I don't know what it is, and i can asure you that there is no need to go off on the deep ends. I had the same problem on my white 95 Grand Am I bought brand new and also my altima which also was new. Don't know what they diod for the altima but the grand dam, they sanded and repainted the Dam thing.

 

He's right I'm and engineer at the plant where Toyota makes the Tundra. We put on this clear sticker to prevent rocks from scratching the paint. It isn't a sign of cheapness, it is actually quite clever since the film isn't noticeable at first glance and it does what it is supposed to do. So which would you rather have, a car with scratched paint that will rust or a scratch free car with slightly textured clear sticker on the bottom.

The discoloration is probably from where rust leaked on it in shipping. The dealer will just buff it out. A clay bar won't work because the film is a soft plastic, all it will do is knock some dirt off it.

 

Are you like doogie howser or are you fibbing about your age?

 

Doogie Howser I suppose. I'm on Co-Op there for 6 months. I'm there as a plastics and paint specialist. Don't believe me I can easily prove it to you.

 

Ahh, Co-op makes sense.

where you studying and which plant are you at, Indiana or Texas?

 

Mechanical Engineering
And i'm at the Indiana Plant. (The best Plant, LOL)

 

Well, if you were at the Texas plant, you wouldn't be at home on the pc, you'd be up in New Braunfels toobin or at the Schlitterbahn, San Marcos floatin on the river, or maybe even in Austin listening to some live music and scopin out the scantidly clad honeys in the hot Texas sun before heading out to 6th street to see some more live music and scantidly clad tippsy honeys. So, I'm not so sure about that "best plant" tag ;-)

Anyway, congrats on your tour of duty, I know that Toyota is delivering your paycheck with an armored truck, and that if you stay on for the 3 tours, you'd probably get an offer from them that would have to be measured in moles ;-)

You're gonna get a heck of a lot of knowledge out of the program as well. All my friends that co-oped got offers about 15% higher than everyone else and landed much better assignments/locations.