Discolored Streaks Running down on body paint

Hi, I’m a new Tacoma 1st gen owner and hope someone can direct me on what I can do to remove running grey streaks on my Tacoma paint. My taco is a white 2004, photo attached show the streaks, they’re everywhere and I’ve tried to polish and wax but they keep coming back.

 

Any chance that is the primer showing through? I have 040 White and the primer underneath is pretty similar to that gray color.

 

Polish and wax is only going to seal that stuff up

Wash, then clay bar.

 

My 2018, white, Jeep Rubicon does that.
I would suggest an iron x product.

 

Thank you, I forgot to mention that I paid for clay bar service last and it didn’t help either. Not sure about the primer because it seems to appear after some rain etc. but doesn’t go away until I polish. Thanks for all the feedback.

 

Do the streaks appear after you wash? I would say hard water. If they appear after rain? Air pollution.

 

Sounds logical but I never see the results on other cars, what makes my taco show it? Maybe the clear coat has degraded, if so, what can I do to restore it? Of course other than a new paint job or complete clear coat reapplication.

 

Single stage paint, no clear on our trucks.

Just drive it and enjoy it.

Unless you bought an ultra low mileage garage queen, I wouldn't worry about anything as our trucks are old.

 

I hear you, but yes, mine has 46K miles on and I’ve made so many mods it’s really cool and updated.

 

I got those streaks all the time on my first gen. The logos on the doors were the worst offenders, but the black trim under the windows would make streaks like that too.

 

Hi Eli,
Do you happen to take it to a car wash?
I found out the hard way (on an older BMW) that some car washes use an acid in the water. My whole car looked even worse than that and I had to follow up with hand buffing (paint was thin and did not want to take a chance with powered) the entire car. Never went to the car wash again.
Carwash was in Coeur D'Alene and BMW was an 14 years old at the time. A good coat of wax probably would have protected it.

 

Could it be coming down off of the door sills? Window sills? Weather stripping? Ive seen that when i detail and its usually coming off of decaying rubber after it gets wet. The water emulsifies the rotting rubber and it streaks down the paint work.

 

Great points, I did look for decaying plastic, molding, etc. but maybe it is the car wash bc I use it regularly. I’ll have to try to do it by and hand see the results. For those who experienced it with molding decaying, did you replace the moldings? Or were able to treat them somehow?

 

Really no way to treat the moldings. If that's the issue (it's my guess too) then you would need to replace the belt moldings on the door. They are pretty easy to do if you decide to do it yourself.
If you plan on keeping it you might want to checking into the cost of getting a clear coat applied to the whole truck. It won't be cheap, but it will help the paint last for a years to come.

 

You say "they're everywhere", but is it just on the doors? If so, I would say the weatherstrips are the most likely culprit. As said above, they are extremely easy to replace - I've done it on multiple 4Runners and about to do it on my Taco.

 

Thank you everyone!!!

 

i may have clear coat on mine, but i am not sure
some shop told me i probably did anyways
how would i get to the bottom of it all

 

i do get hard water spot and streaks on mine, seems to clear up off the black at the DIY wand wash with the spot free rinse setting
i have never waxed my truck and only did the de-oxidizing polish a couple of times

 

At least on my 2004, that's not true.

Either I have a clear coat that's chipping off my bedrails (where I sanded down for the bedliner), or when the paint delaminates it turns clear.

 

I'm always willing to accept that I'm wrong.

I've just read on here multiple times that our 1st Gen Tacoma's don't have clear, but that could be for certain years/paint colors?

I'm sure just by looking at my truck, I can tell I have no clear coat at all.