On the hood, just beyond the 3M plastic covering is a small, silver-dollar sized area where the clear coat on the paint has begun to deteriorate and peel back leaving the paint exposed.
Has anyone seen this before? What kind of disturbing thing is this?

 

Likely from a stone chip. To fix it, you'd need to have the hood repainted. I don't know of any quick/cheap fixes for that kind of damage.

 

Agree. Strip entire hood down to bare metal and repaint.

When you see paint peeling like that on a Toyota/Lexus, you have to wonder if it has been repainted before.

 

^^^ most likely a rock chip on the highway took off a chunk of the clear and then it slowly started to peel back from where it was exposed... this happened on my old car and the only correct way to fix would be to respray the entire hood...

 

Great

Well, it's off to get an estimate at Doug's Place...

Thanks for your feedback, fellow forumists.

 

Mine is 2007 original factory Blizzard Pearl and it's peeling on the roof and around the windows trim. I called Lexus last week and schedule to take it to the nearest Lexus dealer this Monday. I've own Toyota and Lexus all my life and this is the first which is not Lexus/Toyota quality like. I'll update what Lexus have to say once I find out.

 

It's sad to see how Lexus is saying to their customer screw you because your Lexus vehicle is out of the 4 years or 50,000 miles warranty on the paint even if they know it's a defect. I finally got a called from Lexus today and they say that they can't honor it because it's out of warranty. Despite knowing that it's probably a defect paint job from the factory, they want to use technicality with the years and miles. They even know I've own lots of Toyota and Lexus, they basically say they don't give a damn about it. I'm so pissed and can't really do anything about it. So sad and this might make me think of other company besides Toyota or Lexus if I ever want another car someday. I believe Lexus should change their slogan from "Relentless Pursuit of Perfection" to "Relentless Pursuit of Rejection" at all cost.

 

When I went to a reputable body shop to get an estimate for the hood that's when I found out that the hood was not factory. It had been replaced by the previous owner after a small front corner fender-bender. The shop says you'll never get as good as factory with paint and finish. This is from a shop that has all the business for Mercedes, BMW, Lexus and other "high-end" cars in our town.
The best solution, in my case, would be to find another undamaged hood of the same paint code and just replace it. So, if anyone knows of a wrecked, black GX470 with a good hood...let me know!

 

This is true. The local paint shops don't have the infrared heaters to bake the paint (one reason why factory paint shops can cost $900mm to build). And if they did, they'd have problems with melting any plastic parts they just taped-off instead of removing.

Chip H.