Rust Protection/Prevention

I'm looking to buy a 2020 Taco next spring. My hope is that the Taco will last me 10+ years so that I can give it to my son as his first vehicle. I've read about the frame rust issues on the 1st/2nd Gen's and living in Upstate NY I'm all too familiar with winters turning vehicles into rust buckets after 5 years. So I'm wondering what, if anything, some of you have done to prevent corrosion build up on your Tacos. Basically, what works and what's a waste of money.

 

I live in this shithole too. Mavcoat. Or you could do fluid film like the others, but let’s not kid ourselves here. We paid good money for these trucks, let’s not shellac it in goat sweat.

 

Fluid film is the go-to rust protection/prevention product that's recommended often on the forum here. I'm in Pittsburgh and bought my truck last year. I coated the entire underbody with about 6-7 cans of it. It generally seemed to have held up well. Recently I found this: https://www.fluid-film.com/undercoating-locator/. Use the locator to find a certified shop that will professionally do the undercoating. They use much more of the product and use a high pressure gun to atomize and spray in all the hard to reach places. I can almost guarantee you that they will do a better job that you can do yourself.

There are other oil based coatings that you can do like NH-Oil and Waxoyl. They all work similar to Fluid Film. Just make sure you don't use any sort of hard/rubberized coating like Zeibart. That's nearly the worst thing you can do, since those type of coatings quickly peel away, exposing the metal to the elements, thereby causing rust to start occurring. Then the rust spreads to the metal under the coating.

 

Theres a million and one threads on here about it. They have some good ideas in them. Personally I use Fluid Film. There are a few products like it, but this one seems to work very well and is readily available locally to me. Can do it yourself, or pay someone to do it.

Bottom line is whatever you use, it will work best if you do it at least once a year

 

Yeah, I've heard similar stories about the rubberized stuff. Is Fluid Film something that needs to be re-applied? Maybe the better question is how often does it need to be reapplied? Depending on how much a shop wants to charge me and how often I'd need to do it, I could easily see picking up the equipment to spray it myself. That way I could spray the wife's vehicle as well.

 

You can buy it in bulk, use a spray gun and do it every year. It might cost you $50 a year for your truck doing it yourself.

 

Fluid Film for the win. My frame after 5 years in Saltachusetts.

 

Yeah, that's not horrible. Would finally give me an excuse to buy a bigger air compressor/tank. And I could do both vehicles. If a shop did it would the application last longer or is it still a "once a year" kinda thing regardless?

 

Or depending on where you are from there are always Fluid Film Days going on.

 

Here is what I do .. but I also have OCD. I have owned many Toyota's and always get compliments about how nice my frames and undercarriage look.

Vancouver , British Columbia for reference.

I spray the inside of the frame with fluid film only as well pop the rocker sill plugs out and hose down in there as well.

What I do for the exterior frame / diff and everything else is after every winter put the truck up on the hoist and scrub down any rust spots that pop up and spray them with a black rust inhibitor spray paint, repeat every year, I typically do this every spring.

Its a lot of work yes, but I just prefer this route over hosing down the truck with fluid film. I do a lot of forest service road travelling and find that the fluid film acts like a big sticky tape for dust and dirt and in the spring i spend sooooooooooo much time in the spring hosing that down / chipping away to get it all off before i re apply more fluid film, I would just rather spend the time attacking any areas with a wire brush and rust spray paint as its actually less time spent and not nearly as messy.

I did a ceramic coating on my truck when it was bran new as well to seal the paint.

Also, wax your truck a lot specially on the door sills and bottom of the doors and all the little spots to keep water from building up and settling there. I do all my door jams and even pull the plastic door sill protectors up and wax all in there around the pinch seam monthly. Wax + ceramic coating will help a LOT to protect the paint / clear coat which is know to be a bit thin on these trucks from allowing the sun to have its way with it.

I also have this electronic device that plugs into the OBD2 port that is suppose to protect the body from rust but that's most likely just a gimmick.

I have a 2001 Tacoma with one of the worst frames they ever made and its absolutely immaculate still.

My 2 cents

 

That looks new, is it garage kept?

 

Nope outside all year

 

I’d do it yearly either way. It’s not a paint, it’s good stuff but it will wear off, so for the price, I think yearly is worthwhile if you plan on keeping the truck. I’ve also heard Woolwax is good, but I haven’t used it myself. Same idea though.

 

I admire your OCD and attention to detail. Unfortunately I lack the time and energy for that kind of commitment. If I had a bigger garage with a lift then maybe.

 

Yeah, once I get the equipment the yearly cost of the film isn't too bad. Just wish I had a lift, it make that kind of job so much easier.

 

Well, as it was stated earlier, often times you can find local groups that have fluid film get togethers and one of them may have access to lift. Look around in your local area threads on here. Good luck

 

Yeah, when the time comes I'll look into it. At the very least I might be able to find someone who will let me use their lift for a couple hours while I hose down the undercarriage.

 

Just had my 2019 done with fluid film a few days ago. I wanted to get it done before the first winter as I don't think anything was changed with the frames from what Ive seen.

 

wow. very nice!!! i bought one that was neglected, but it can be saved with a little work! i hope mine will look like your one day!!

 

I hear rust check in NY is good