Roof gone rusty

My 2004 tacoma, has been in immaculate conditions until a few months back when suddenly, it started to show heavy areas of rust on the roof. Very strange thing, almost happened overnight and only on the roof. Rest of the body paint still looks really good.

I am thinking to plasti dip this mess, but of course I will sand down to metal the rusty area.
Can someone advise the following:
- what's sandpaper should I use ?
- should I primer first? As far as I know you don't need to do it with plasti dip, even if I am going to sand down to metal.
- any color suggestion? There are not many color choices with plasti dip, so I am thinking a red roof, considering the truck is black.

If you have done it before, any suggestion is great. I have watched a few youtube video for generic cars. It seems pretty easy, but for Tacoma owners if you have some specific I tip, I would love to know it.

Thanks!

 

Sand the crap out of it! My buddy had the same thing happen to the hood on his 09. Skip the plastic-dip and use actual paint. You'll get way better protection from this happening again. An since its the roof, getting a perfect match shouldn't be too much of a hassle. Definitely prime. Use self-etching primer where you go down to bare metal and a good high-build, sandable primer for the rest. I used a combination of 80 grit for the real rough spots and to feather where I sanded to bare metal, 120, 180, 220, and lastly 320 to smooth it all out. This is the result:

Not bad for a few cans of rustoleum and a half days work...

 

I don't think camper shells are metal. They are made of fiberglass, the process may be different to remove that. Sanding down too much might ruin it

 

Yeah, I thought about doing what you described, but I am not that experienced with car painting. Also I was looking to get it done in a faster way, so if it happens in other parts of the car I can perform the same procedure.
I shopped around to a few body shop and the cheapest was 400 bucks to do a proper job (3 days procedure with multiple coats of primer, paint and clear).
So, after watching several youtube video, I decided to save the 400 bucks and try plasti dip. Worst case scenario if in a year I see an issue, I can easily peel it off and spend the 400 bucks. If it last at least 3/4 years I am happy and for less than 30 bucks I can re-do it every 3/4 years if necessary.

Anybody else has plasti dip their tacoma in similar circumstances ?

 

Sorry I looked and thought that was a camper shell. Lol

Sand away down to metal. My bad

 

This condition is caused by condensation... and the sun's UV/drying process.
It is commonly seen here in the SW.
Primarily found on vehicles that are always parked outside.

It didn't happen over night...
it's been happening for years.

Would be less problematic...
if the roof/hood were dried manually
instead of letting the sun bake it.
But that requires more effort.
And generally people are too lazy to make effort.

I park my rig in a garage...
15 years later... paint surface is as good as the day I bought it.

 

I don't even know what to say in response to people being lazy if they're not drying the roof every morning.

 

answer:

a good coat of UV protecting wax,
applied twice a year, offers some protection
against condensation and UV damage.

 

My protocol when stripping a panel was 40-80 grit all the strip down areas, then hit the bare metal again with p180 to get rid of the p80 grit scratches that remain, then feather the paint out with p220-p320, and finally any paint area not taken down past clear coat will be sanded with p600 grit. Hit the whole panel again with a grey scotch brite pad (approx p800 grit) and clean with a wax and grease remover. All areas with bare metal NEED/HAVE to be coated with a metal etch primer (2 part preferably but rattle can will work). You can now choose to either primer the either just the spots you stripped down with 2-3" of overlap between coats, and making sure that your final coat is approx 6" past the bare line of base coat, OR prime the entire panel with light coats on the unnecessary areas, and primary focus on the stripped areas.

Also, the p at the beginning of the grit# means that they use the European grit measurement, and thus are finer than non p grit#. Example 320 grit is practically the same as p220. This matters due to bridging and dye-back/shrinkage, where a scratch is to deep for the paint, but not wide enough for the paint to run into it, and the dries over the scratch (bridging), then after about 1 week the paint will shrink into the crack.

 

You write like poetry.

 

I'd probably have the roof wrapped in vinyl until the truck received a full paint job.

 

I wanna know where you get a real good paint job for 400 bucks. Took mine for an estimate and it was $3000. Maaco will do the enamel pretty cheap, but you get what you pay for...

 

I would sand it down and then use this system with a UV protected top coat.
https://www.kbs-coatings.com/System-Sampler.html