2nd Gen potential rust BESIDES the frame?

While modding and maintaining this truck I've found a few rust spots in unusual places as well as some places that have a strong potential for rust. Thought I'd share what I've found, especially with so many people discovering Fluid Film (for more info on this stuff, just search). Please add any additional places you've found rust as well. BESIDES the frame...which has been discussed to death throughout TW .

Here's a few links to 2nd Gen rust or potential rust:

Specks of rust in the paint
Rust near rear door handles on double cabs or this one.
Removing rusted bed bolts
Painting rusted bed bolts
Rust under rubber door seals
Polishing rusty chrome bumper
Rust inside door
Protecting against rust inside door and tailgate
Inner fender and firewall seam
LCA/Lower Control Arm Bushing rust
Rust under/around headlights
Cowl area near hood hinges





One place that has been discussed before is behind the lower portion of the front fender, i.e. behind the front mud flaps. You can read this, or just what I've got below:

My highly prized rust sniffing dog alerts me to the driver side door jam:


Just stick a finger under that rubber gasket/flap and pull up a little to see if you have leaves and junk in there. This is what I found:


I removed the mud flap and pulled out the leaves. Under those dry "leafy" leaves were decomposing leaves and a little mud: a wonderful moisture trap and breeding ground for rust:



Luckily I found no rust, only the potential for future rust. The only way to get it completely clean was to blast it out with a hose; preferably from both the door jam side and the mud flap side. To do that you will have to remove the mud flap and pull aside a little bit of the fender liner. Simply park the truck with the wheel turned sharp (left to remove the drivers side; turn right to remove the passenger side), remove some plastic rivets & fasteners with a flat head screw driver and a few 10 mm bolts and that's it. Then I blasted out the junk with water and let it dry. But don't get too crazy with the water when blasting from the mud flap side, esp if your door is still open...my seat is still wet . If you've come this far you might as well coat this area with something; I sprayed the area with Fluid Film, but everyone has their favorites. At the very least clean that area out once a year.

If you want to go one step further, you can prevent/discourage leaves from getting behind the fender in the first place. Leaves typically find there way into the cowl area, at the base of the windshield. From there they blow into a hole between the inner and outer fenders, right where the hinge for the hood is. All you need is to put something in that hole to keep leaves out but will allow some air to circulate. I used some scrap drawer liner that I rolled up. Chances are you have something that will do the job:



One more thing: see that rubber plug in the third picture? You'll see it when you remove the mud flap and inner fender. Remove that plug and peak inside. My camera would not get a useable picture of it, but that's the inside of the area below your door sill. Nothing real useful, just interesting.

 

Great info. I noticed that all the screws holding my headlight assemblies were starting to rust also, I live on an island in Alaska where rust is an ongoing plague. Thanks for the heads up.

 

This is probably not very likely place for rust on most Tacomas, but I need to mention it since I did have rust, not just the potential for it. Apparently my headlights were too far back. Just a tad. Just enough for the rearmost edge to touch the fender in a very small spot and were rubbing the paint off the fender. But since it was happening on both headlights, you may want to check yours.

First, a picture of the rear edge of the headlight in its' old position; it's hard to see so I put an arrow pointing right to it:


And here is the same spot with the headlight loosened and pulled forward a tad:


This had the potential to become expensive if left alone. By catching it early I was able to clean it up, put a coat of Eastwood's Rust Reformer (in silver) on the spot and reposition the headlights so they weren't rubbing the paint off the fender anymore. It's easy to find, easy to repair, so give yours a look when you get a chance.

 

I'm finding nicks in my paint above the windshield on the roof, most likely from rocks, but since the paint is not as thick as the rocker panels up there, its a breeding ground for little rust spots.

The biggest rust spot that I believe is a huge failure on Toyotas part is the A/C Condensation drain. I've already rerouted mine. One day I may provide a writeup on it.

 

Good one....I had forgotten about it. There is a write up of sorts:Coupe's AC drain mod

I haven't gotten around to it yet, but one of these days I want to search Home Depot for a cheap metal tube with a 90 degree bend in it.

 

I believe I used 5/8's hose. Perfect fit. Dropped it out behind the cab mount, away from the frame.

 

I was removing my headliner for sound insulation and was surprised to find this lurking under the driver side door seal:



At first I thought it was a fluke, but in the same exact spot on the passenger side I had a similar but smaller spot of rust:



To check yours just pull the seal straight down, just ahead of where the access door latch is bolted into the roof...or around that spot for DC and SC models. I suspect a clip inside the rubber seal is wearing the paint away at this spot. The seal does a good job of trapping moisture in there and now I've got a rust spot. It's easy to find, easy to repair, so give yours a look when you get a chance.

 

if you see a little rust like that, can you just paint over it with touchup paint?

 

I would get the rust off with a bit of sandpaper (wrapped over a pencils eraser) clean it and then touch up paint. I used Eastwood's Rust Encapsulator, but that's real easy for me since their silver is a pretty good match for Toyota's silver.

 

Interesting...I'd better take some time to look over my truck for potential future headaches. Didn't know that the factory A/C condensation drain setup was a problem...better reroute that.

 

The cowl area near the hood hinges are not a problem now, but given that water will stand in this area along with leaves and dirt, it could be a problem someday. Regular cleaning will probably be enough, but a spray of your favorite rust preventer can't hurt. A picture of the area when dirty, it can actually get slimy when wet:



The arrow points out the way leaves find their way into the lower front fender area, as mentioned in the first post.

 

And if you've got the hood up looking at the cowl/hood hinge area, you might as well take a look at the body seem between the left and right inner fender and the firewall. That's the seam right below the master cylinder/brake booster on the driver side and right behind the ABS pump on the passenger side.

Under the brake booster:



And behind the ABS pump:



At least on my truck these collect a little water and dirt. That's not a problem now, but if the seam sealer and/or paint fail in this area and rust sets in....it will be very expensive to fix.

 

And the last one I got: the bottom edge of the doors and tailgate. I have no signs of rust in these areas, but since it's so common on other cars it's an area to keep an eye on.

I found one post about rust in a door; it may be a fluke, it may be a sign of problems in the future. The best protection would be to take the inner door panels off and spray your favorite rust preventer on the inside of the doors. A less complete but much easier method that may suffice until you remove your door panels for some other project is to spray something in the drain holes that are on the bottom edge of every door. It's effectiveness is probably limited, but it's real easy to do:



As for the tailgate, you can use the method as pictured above (the tailgate has drain holes like the doors) or remove the plastic tailgate panel to first clean out the crevice at the bottom of the tailgate and then spray a rust preventer. I used the later method and found a bunch of mulch from a yard project:



I also found that the plastic tailgate panel has been rubbing/vibrating on several spots along the tailgate. In a few places the paint was worn thin, in a few others it was completely worn through. This shot was down near the driver side hinge:



I gave these areas a little roughing up with a scotch brite pad, a good cleaning, and then fresh paint. That may be overboard, but I plan on keeping this truck a VERY long time.