Beating the AZ Sun?

I just bought my first pick up in a move over from the land of sports cars, so please bear with me if I'm asking truly stupid n00b questions. I've literally had a pickup truck for 48 hours now.

Anyway, I tend to keep my vehicles for a while, and I've seen the our AZ sun do a serious number on rubber trim, gaskets, and plastics on nearly every other car I've had. After just a handful of minutes in the sun yesterday, it was obvious this composite bed is going to get H-O-T hot.

Scratches and dirt notwithistanding, how does the plastic in our taco's hold up to the AZ sun after years of sitting outdoors? (I've got a different queen occupying the garage unfortunately).

This might be more of a "detailer" questino, but is there any special treatment you guys do to keep the plastic from completely drying out? Or is a tonneau cover / cab really the only way to go here?

 

They make a rubber condition you can get at AutoZone. But what I do is once a year before summer, is whip the weather-stripping down with silicone spray lube on a rag. Tires they make all kinds of stuff. Keep a good wax on the paint. Tinted windows and a dash mat. Use a sunshade in the front window. The bed gets hot, worse if its black. Just how it go's . I have a spray on liner that's held up for 8 years no problems.

 

Will definiately be using the standard old back to black, plexus, and plastic protectors... but I've not had black plastic LIVING in the sun before.

Hmm interesting. You sprayed on a liner on the composite? I suppose it's probably tougher than the OEM bed itself. I bet that would hold up great!

 

oh you have a 3rd gen. I have a first gen 2004. Best bet would be to ask the guys in the 3rd gen section

 

I've had my Taco since 07, she's been outside 95% of the time I've owned her. Vegas heat is pretty much equal to most of Arizona, so being my plastic and rubber has kept up for years I think yours would too. Only thing I do is I make sure to put a sunshade up at night so when I wake up the inside isn't as bad as being in direct sunlight where you can physically bake cookies in the back seat. But as stated above, you should post this or request a mod to move this over to 3rd gen threads, they will be able to answer better being they own the same generation as you do. Congrats on the new truck though, hopefully you like the 6spd auto because at least 50% of new owners don't, it's schizophrenic, doesn't know exactly what gear to be in and likes to change a lot, but again, if you've driven something similar in yours cars for a while, then maybe the 6spd auto is fine for you. I know for certain I prefer my 5spd auto anyday, though a 3rd gen 6spd manual swap would be better. And again, this is a truck and I always hope people understand what to expect from a truck... It will get dirty, It will get scratches, It's a truck. With that said, I do use Turtle Wax Trim restore sometimes, depends on if I'm in the mood for cleaning the truck up to make it presentable for say a night out, but for the most part, its a simple clean top to bottom every once in awhile. I am getting a full detail inside and out for the first time ever in the 10 years I've owned her. She deserves it after almost 100k mostly trouble free miles.

 

Thank you! I'm really glad it's holding up. Helps me feel better. I'm sure the plastics will fade. i'm not worried about that. I just don't want them becoming brittle and cracking. But I definitely understand it's a truck. that's why I bought it. I was using my E55 wagon as a "truck" and it was eating me up. I intentionally didn't buy some pimped out leather and chrome show piece truck. This things for REAL FRIGGING WORK!

That said, hey mods, I'm happy double posting, but perhaps it'd be better if someone could help me move this over to the 3rd gen forums?

\m/ keep calm and taco on \m/

 

@98tacoma27

 

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