Clear coat fail

The sun in South Texas is brutal. The clear coat on my 2011 SWB has failed big time. Anybody have a good fix just to keep it from eventually rusting?

 

Sand down, cut and polish or sand and re spray clear.

 

There's no way to fix other than a respray or wrap, you're basically just in prevention mode at this point to keep it from getting worse. Put a nice solid coat of good quality wax/sealant on it and keep it up every few months and that should help slow down the degradation. I'd recommend something like Meg's Ultimate Liquid wax which is technically not a wax but a hybrid polymer sealant so it's pretty durable, it's cheap and it can be picked up at any walmart.

Also, covercraft sun shade FTW! Love mine it was worth every penny.

 

I’ve just been putting rustoleum bedliner on every 5 years. No rust still, and that’s with it being in Indiana/Ohio and Kentucky weather.

Worst part is that the rest of the truck will look like that in a year or two.

 

Yeah, the hood has started, just not as bad yet.

 

Yeah, covercraft shade is worth every penny! My second one for the Tacoma (first one lasted over 10 years) and ordered one for my 2024 Tundra the same week I bought it.

 

VERY good wax with UV protectorant and doing that often will help. You might can save the hood, but the roof is too far gone. Wrapping it would be your cheapest way

 

That’s just the beginning. Nothing will stop the deterioration. It almost always starts on the roof or hood. The clear coat will continue to deteriorate all over the rest of the truck. The only solution is a new paint job or a wrap. You can slow the process down, you can cover it up but it will continue and it will look like shit. It happened to my truck at the 10 year mark, I speak from experience. Yes you can do things to prevent rust but again it’ll still look like shit and the deterioration will continue.

 

That's what I'm afraid of, but I don't want to repaint at this point. I've worried over the paint for its whole life not going places where I would get pin stripes, etc. but don't want rust either. I've kicked around the idea of having it coated with bed liner, but I'm sure there are plenty of negative with that too. A guy down the street from me had his 4Runner completely sprayed with bed liner?
Maybe a wrap, anybody with experience on how long a wrap would last?

 

www.monstaliner.com

A much smoother bedliner, and available in colors

Can DIY a panel at a time if you wish

 

Once you do a diy fix with the paint you probably lose a good percentage of resale value. On the other hand a 2011 isn’t probably worth a professional paint job. Just be aware of that. Good luck!

 

a quality wrap will last 5-7 years cost you 4-6K as well depending where you live

 

In the same situation right now.. Not ideal

Best way to save money seems to be through acquaintances with connections. Quotes from them who do good work have been 30-40% cheaper than calling a random shop. Can’t seem to make a decision on paint vs wrap yet though as I’m probably overestimating my time horizon with the truck.

FWIW, can at least pause continuing oxidation using a good bit of sealant on a regular basis. Good way to bide time on making a decision. This is with a hood where the clear coat is virtually gone (throwing previous owner under the bus here):

 

For making such a good truck, Toyota really skimped on the clear coat. I have noticed the darker shade of blue seems especially prone to failure. I have seen other Tacomas and even Corollas in this color with worse paint damage compared to other colors.

On mine, the hood and roof were really bad. I decided to try wrapping the hood first since I have limited painting experience, and I believe that to do it properly you would need to spray it with a proper gun and follow up with a high quality 2K clear.

I ordered five different color samples of 3M 2080 vinyl and settled on Midnight Blue (#GP272), which matched the best. I had to sand the entire hood down to remove rust spots and the damaged clear coat. After that, I sprayed the whole thing with epoxy primer for protection and finished wet sanding with 800 grit.

I did the same prep work on the roof but ended up using one of those big “turbo” cans of Rust-Oleum gloss black enamel instead. That was about three years ago and the roof still looks great. The vinyl on the hood has started to lift a bit at the edges in a few spots, but that is expected for a truck that lives outside and goes through Connecticut’s temperature swings.

For around $100 for a 5'x6' piece of vinyl every few years, I have zero complaints.



Current pic, 3 years later...

 

My 2007 Black Pearl is down to bare metal on the leading edge of hood and bad on the rest. My roof was first to go (neglect). I did a cheap bed liner on the roof several years ago and its not aging well. I'm going to use Monstaliner on the hood, roof and tailgate if the humidity ever get to reasonable levels as it is a humidity cure product. I have had excellent results with it on my Samurai.

 

Paint guy I know said they changed their paint process in like 2012 or something like that.