Rusted Roof

I still say Toyota should add an extra clear coat to Tacomas purchased in your area and an extra frame undercoating in my area. This country has vast differences in weather conditions these trucks must navigate and making Tacomas for those condition, seems like common sense to me.

 

I see a lot of discussions of sealants and waxing, but the fact is mine is only rusting in this one area. The rest of the roof and the hood is reasonably fine. Coatings or not, we are in a decade long drought here...there's no water to rust it at all.

 

Well, You cannot say that anymore. Now you do. I would say you should have been performing some stop measures before it got this bad. It didn't happen overnight.

 

Get in the habit of using a spray sealant after every wash. If you don't wash and maintain the paint it will oxidize the coating rapidly and wick in moisture. Paint is designed to protect the steel it covers. If the finish no longer beads water it will absorb moisture and dirt particles. If you combine that with extremely high temperatures the results are as seen here.

Additional clear coats or mill thickness can actually make the finish more susceptible to damage. When a coating is used it is important to not get it too thick or thin.

On my vehicles in Florida I use Optimum Products. I also use a spray sealant after every other wash. I spray the sealant on a microfiber after it is cleaned and wipe the vehicle.

If what you do doesn't deliver the results you want you have to change what you do.

 

What is this sealant you speak of?
Granted it's not much of a worry with my white truck. Darker the color quicker to bake out

 

How are you guys getting "5 years old"? He said 2007. Which is exactly the same year of my truck. That is TEN years old as 2017's are out. BTW I have a radiant red DCSB and the roof looks just like the rest of the truck, perfect paint. Something had to wear that paint away to produce something like that.

 

The only time I've ever seen paint that bad here in the Pacific NW is when the owner used dish soap to wash the vehicle regularly and never waxed it.

 

Man this thread is depressing.

Maybe I missed it, what color paint is that OP? Is it Black Sand Pearl? You mentioned clear coat so I don't think it's regular Black.

 

That is how I got 5 years, because rjbiii said his picture of the rusted top was taken when it was 5 years old. It amazes me how that can happen being only 5 years old and think they should have 2 clear coats applied from the factory.

 

Yes, If you don't wax or seal it regularly

 

You do not tend to see this kind of paint damage where I live, but then I like to say that there are elementary school aged children who have never seen a sunny day in northeast Ohio.

It might have been on Car Talk where they joked about buying a salt belt car and a sun belt car, and putting the interior of the salt belt car into the sun belt car in order to make one good used car.

I have seen white cars here where the paint has peeled off of the body in large patches. Perhaps they have since solved this problem, but I still wonder if white paint is actually less durable.

 

Never had anything mounted to the roof. No racks, never a travel carrier, etc.

I live in California, so it only gets washed maybe every month in the dry season using standard auto parts store wash. I'm not a wax nut, but kept the hood and roof well sealed whenever they stopped beading. If anything, the vertical surfaces of the car were neglected, but show no damage.

Yes, BSP, but the clearcoat and paint seem to have just disappeared in the main rusted area.

 

Hawaii has a lot of 2gen Tacoma's with rusted roof.