Paint Defect

Hey everyone. Has anyone else seen this on their Tacoma?

The paint looks to be blistering and rust is starting to show on the left side. This is on the door rail (best way for me to describe the area) on the roof. The raised area next to the tracks for the roof rack.

I just noticed it until a couple of days ago while washing the truck. I wash my truck regularly and take good care of it. Clay bar, wax and polish twice a year. I'm thinking the blisters just appeared recently. I didn't notice the blisters when I clay barred and polished back in the spring - late May.

Took it to the dealer. They took pics and sent it off to Toyota Warranty. Because it's just out of warranty (67 000 km) they'll cover 60% of the repair bill. They'll cover the left side but need a reassessment on the left side. Dealer said they couldn't see any issue with the right side. It is a smaller area but the same sort of defect.

 

Lot's of threads on this issue. Seek a you shall find.

 

Yep. Did that. Didn't see many threads with the paint blistering in this area - mostly on door sills so I though I'd ask. Guess it's common enough.

I also took my Tacoma to an independent auto body shop for a quote. They tell me it looks like there just isn't enough paint in those areas. Debating on going through dealer or not. Might actually be cheaper for me to go through the independent shop. They good work.

Sucks to have to do this. Ignore it and it'll only get worse.

 

That looks like weld splatter in the first picture, the second one looks like coiled metal shavings that got in the paint.

 

Super White paint is well documented as being doo doo. I cant say I've ever seen a defect like that before. Looks like contaminants underneath the single-stage paint.

 

Truck goes in next week for the repair. They'll paint both panels (upper roof rails) with the defects. Toyota will cover 60% - my cost will be about $400 Canadian. I plan on keeping the truck so figured I might as well get it done before it gets any worse.

 

Good plan to nip it in the bud but have you spoken to the dealership yet? Paint issues on something 3 years old is ridiculous. I mean we bought Toyota's, not Dodge's

 

Which plant was it manually?

 

was this a mexico tacoma? lots of issues with those.

 

Yep. I spoke with the dealership service manager and warranty administrator. The service manager was helpful. The warranty administrator has been handling the claim. He says because I'm over the 3 year / 60 000 km warranty Toyota Canada will cover the repair under their good will program. Based on my mileage they'll cover 60% of the repair. Not sure who else I can escalate it to. Maybe Toyota Canada directly?

Tacoma came from the Texas plant.

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/consolidated-super-white-040-paint-issue-failure-thread.689940/

 

Haha if you check out the forums you'll see it doesn't matter where the truck was made. If anything there are more problems with the trucks assembled in the US. Regardless, those plants are only where assembly occurs. Most parts are manufactured elsewhere and shipped in.

 

From the pictures you provided it appears to be a poor prep during manufacturing.
Normal rust blisters do not look like that.
That looks like contaminates that were painted over at the factory.
Rust would blisters the paint and would not have such fine details as it lifts. It would NOT be so nicely conforming to fine shapes as in your photos.
Their only stance to deny, is that you failed to identify it during the warranty period. (That's BS!)
I would bet that those are contaminants that were painted over.

 

THIS!!

 

Truck was in the body shop last week. Picked it up late Friday in a rain storm. Didn't give it a thorough inspection - didn't think I had to. My fault. Body shop did some work for me in the past and it was flawless.

Next day I discovered the truck cap leaks. They slid the cap back and forth to access the back of the cab and messed up the foam gasket. The paint also has small dirt / dust particles in it, the tape line is clearly visible and the paint is rough in places. And there's a 6 inch blast of overspray on the black part of the truck box between cab and box.

Body shop manager looked it over on Monday. Said it should have been cleaned up better. Back in the shop today to see what they'll do. Not sure how they'll fix the dirt particles in the paint. They're small as a grain of salt but they're in the paint so I don't know how they'll fix those without repainting.

Not how I expected this to go...........

 

No kidding. I recall white GM trucks in the 80s doing this. I totally feel bad for any owners that have this issue ... as said, it's not a Dodge!

 

I use to have a body shop in my family that mostly did restoration work. I can tell you that there is restoration work and insurance work, which insurance pays less of course, so shops "may" cut corners.

I also know another guy that runs a shop and he has a hard time finding anyone wanting to do body work anymore. One of his guys that use to work for him did some work for me while he was on vacation, and the guy didn't even buff off all of the polish. I first thought that it had scratches when I went to pick the car up. I was like, did you really think that I wasn't going to notice that?!

 

OP, something has come to mind and I want you to check it for me real quick. Can you pull off the door seal that covers the pinch weld, it just slides off. But I want you to look for the factory spot welds (they should be little circles with a tiny dot in the middle) Look around the entire door jamb pinch weld and make sure these welds are uniform all the way around. Do this for both doors on the side that had these defects.

If you notice that these welds are not uniform going all the way around, or they disappear completely for a section of pinch weld then I know how those contaminates got there.

The spiral metal is most likely from when you drill out a factory pinch weld, there is a special drill bit that is used to drill out these welds and it makes those kind of shavings when used. The "splatter" part looks like well, weld splatter caused by welding a pinch weld with a mig welder. The factory doesnt use a mig welder in this area, so the only reason that splatter would be there is if the panel was cut off and replaced at some point using a mig welder (most body shops use a mig welder to replace spot welds)

This all leads up to the truck was hit or damaged in transport. The truck was then repaired at port and there was no need to report this as it was taken care of internally.


*I am trained as a auto body tech in college, and spent several years working at a body shop doing this kind of repair.

 

Hmmm. Interesting. I'll see if I can do that over the weekend. Wonder if the dealer would tell me if they did any repairs before I bought the truck.......

It was raining and dark when I picked up the truck yesterday so I couldn't do a thorough inspection. But from a quick glance it looks like they addressed all issues.

 

The dealer wont tell you if there have been repairs because they wont know. Generally if something is damaged in transport its fixed right then and there with zero documentation.