Waxed The Truck Today - A Few Thoughts

I drive a lot. About 30K/yr or so. I drive quite a bit on dirt but no crawling for fun. Most of my driving is on interstate. With that many miles I don't get to wash it a lot and only wax it maybe 3X/yr. So, a few observations:

My truck is chipped up. Not worse than previous vehicles but not better either. I have a bottle of touch up I got at the dealer and I touch it up just about every wash. I had a big chip on the hood this morning (size of a pencil eraser) and touched it up.

Before washing this time (one bucket method, rag and car soap) my truck looked like the back of an 18 wheeler with "wash me" written on it. I had to wash it twice it was so dirty. This comes from 3K miles in a month during rain and snow and mud. But, it came clean and didn't look too bad. I got the grease blobs off the bottom and errant gum strings. Oh, I hit a possum a few weeks ago and I think I still had a few bits of it stuck to the top of mud flap. Cleaned this as well.

It waxed right up, no problem. From 10 feet away it looks like a new truck lol. I use Mcguiars Cleaner wax or Turtle Wax. Why? Because that is what I have, no other reason. For those of you in the snow and salt states: CLEAN THE BOTTOM FLANGE OF YOUR TAILGATE. Meaning, when washing, wrap your rag around the bottom of the tailgate and clean the backside where the spot welds are. That gets really dirty and I could see where it would become a potential rust problem.

I use my truck to haul many different things, from luggage to a pallet of parts. I also tow a variety of trailers, both personal and for work. So, I have some dings and scuffs and that's OK. I consider myself to be in the 95% group of regular guy ownership, who treats their truck like normal.
Just my observations. Hope this helps.

 

Good job.

 

I am hoping to get a wash and wax in before the weather gets any worse for winter.

 

this stuff works good between real wax jobs http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41zhxGuV2AL.jpg?w=650

 

Mine as well! My A-pillars especially, seem to become the victim of chips regularly and is now a mess of blue-coloured acne. This is my first vehicle so I wasn't too sure whether it was because of lower quality paint or just the result of all my highway driving... guess I have learned to just live with it. I have 3M on the front and first 24" of hood/fenders and they are doing their job mighty well. In hind sight, I would say my biggest regret is not going for 3M on full hood + A-pillars + first 12" on the roof.

 

I used to do that but after awhile the clear bra gets holes in it and it looks much worse than touched up chips.

 

Just ceramic coat it. Better protection, will last years, and will save you all the headaches and maybe some rock chips.

 

I'd like to shake your hand...finally a real live Tacoma driver, no complaining, helpful and making a living driving, taking care of and using his truck like his truck was designed and engineered to do!

 

Thankfully I took my tail gate off 9 years ago and It’s been sitting in my basement untouched ever since

 

Possum killer

 

Try this while it’s wet from a fresh rinsing of soap. Does a remarkable job for $4.99

 

This! But you should of got it coated when it was new

 

Maybe next time or time after lol.

 

Truthfully, I run the crap out of it, load it heavy and then clean it up and out to haul a C suite member to meetings.