I've been thinking that someday I'll need to repaint my Proton - from all the paint chips, small dents, etc - there's a technique of adding crushed glass to the paint that gives it this almost metal super-brilliant look. Probably outrageously expensive and a few years down the road.

The underlying sheet metal is zinc coated, stamped steel. The zinc coating was something Isuzu touted as a rust inhibitor - I haven't heard about any differences in doing paint or body work to it - it's not the same as galvanized (which does release some nasty gasses when welded).

-- John