Faulty Paint Job or Rock Chip Damage?

I live in Hawaii on Oahu and own a 2009 Tacoma Extended cab in metallic gray since March of 09. It has about 15,000 miles on it. A couplemonths ago, while waxing the truck, I noticed 6 small rust spots, all on the roof of the truck. I am not sure if they are caused by rocks chipping all the way to the metal of the roof, or a faulty paint job. The reason I think it might be a faulty paint job and not damage from rocks is

1) All the spots are spread out from each other onthe roof, and there are no other rust spots anywhere on the body.
2) Two of the spots are showing webbing marks underthe paint.
3) They all appeared about the same time.
4) There is an indentation about 0.5mm deep on the roof that has a layer of paint over it (it looks as if a previous layer was not applied and painted over).

It seems statistically improbable for rocks to only hit the roof of the truck with enough force to chip all the way through to the metal body. I do not recall ever hearing a bunch of rocks hitting my roof while driving, and the truck has never been parked along a street with rocks. I also previously owned an 03 extended cab Tacoma in black for 6 years that had no major problems with rust (sort of gave it away to my brother in March of 09 with about 35k miles on it when he joined the marines and got stationed in California). There was only two rock damage spots, both on the hood of the truck when it was shipped to California in 09. I recently examined my old truck again (my brother and his truck areback home in the islands), and despite being driven for an additional 50k miles, there is only one additional rust spot on the body, and again on the hood.

When I took my truck in for a routine maintenance to Toyota, they claimed all the spots were caused by rocks. I had a friend who works in the auto body business and some other friends who are familiar with auto body work and carsa nd trucks in general look at the spots, and they all said some of the spots look like it was caused by faulty paint. They also said in general, rocks should not damage all the way to the metal unless they are large or hit your vehicle at a high velocity, so the rock chip damage spots could still be due to faulty paint job. They all agreed something is not right with that weird paint covered indentation.

What do you guys think? Has anyone else with an 09 Tacoma experienced rust spots that might notbe due to rocks?

Thanks!

 

It has to do with you living in Hawaii. We got rental returns shiped from Oahu to Boise, ID. The all had this, near new Jeeps with less than 20k miles. They also had the redish brown dirt crusted in the undercarriage and suspension.
My boss said something about the cars having a "Hawaii coating" to help protect against rust chips. Dont know anything about that though except they made the paint dull.

 

the first pic is a rust boil. the webbing effect is it spreading. your three year warrenty jut ran out too. dang i think you would have had a claim on that. yes the paint prep prob wasnt done right. but you live in constant salt air. it may just be par for the course.

 

^^ this. Pretty hard to tell by the puctures but I agree on the first picture. Question is why caused the initial chip. Although unlikely, a single chip in the roof is possible. I know you said you had several so this might not be the case. But I don't have any rock chips in my hood yet but I heard one hit the roof last week! Hard to tell what the second picture is from my phone but its too bad you have all these chips. But the good news is, iirc, that there are good cut off lines if you decide just to get your roof fixed and paint it. Rather than blending a bunch of panels for color match

 

First....welcome to TW op!

Secondly your paint is fine.

Finally you need to keep up with the chips much better then you have been doing. Inspect your truck monthly and fix the chips as they appear. Your one chip must be at least a year old. Being in a salt water environment you need to take much better care of the truck if you expect it to last.


My 08' has at least 100 chips in it.

 

I have a few on the roof of my 09 ac cab about an inch or two above the window down to bare metal but no spidering. I do go over the truck a lot and try to touch up any chips, it doesn't take long before rust can get under the paint and start lifting it.

 

Aren't most companies warranties against paint defects and corrosion longer than the 3/36000. I thought most of them were 5/60000.

Maybe something to look into if you believe its a defect in the paint.

 

he has rust caused by chips....how would that ever be covered?

 

Oh yeah welcome tw op!

^ I think he was stating that info to give the op a last resort since it sounds like he(the op) strongly believes it is "a defect in the paint".

I do however believe as well that it is a chip most likely caused from a rock that has gone untreated. But if it puts the op's mind at ease that he's still covered under rust warranty he can go in and see what they tell him.

 

Spend the money and get it fixed now or you will regret it down the road when you try to sell it and the rust has gotten out of control...

 

Money? Who in their right mind pays to get chips fixed?

A Dremel, some primer/filler, and a bottle of touch of from Toyota is all he needs.

I really need to find and post the pics of me doing mine. So easy a drunken monkey could do it.

 

Wow, you get these supplies free? Awesome...

 

$5 for paint

 

I was only telling the OP that info due to the fact he seems to believe the spots are caused by defects.

 

My 09 is cover with chips. I thought I heard somewhere that )( was the first year they switched from an oil based paint to a water based paint. Mine seems to chip very easy. Most chips are down to bare metal. I was at a craft store with my wife and bought a Sharpy paint marker. Does a good job!

 

I thought it was 08, but you could be right. Either way, we have the EPA to thank for the less durable paint now. But don't worry... That's just a first step of many crappy restrictions to come!

 

I am sure all car makers are the same now but the paint on toyota vehicles is a joke. Our 09 corolla is covered in scratches, chips and cracked clear coat from bird crap.

OP a good body shop should be able to fix that for less than $200 and you would never know. Either that pretty simple to fix yourself although it may not be perfect.

 

Ya right...

Not sure the year but yeah, 09 chips like a mo fer..

 

Probably waterborne base you mean. It's been around for quite a few years now. I don't know of any shop that still sprays around here. That's why you have clear coat on top of your base now, no more single stage finishes. And you clear coat is not waterborne, otherwise it wouldn't hold up in the elements. It's true this stuff will chip easier than laquer but it shouldn't be easy to chip at all.

 

The Toyota Super White and a lot of the non-metallic paints Black and Red are still single stage paints and have no clear coat.