What is going on here I think clear coat??

Hello everyone, I have a 06 double cab. And recently I started to notice a haze on the roof of the truck on the very front in the middle. When I wash and dry it is still there. Here are some pictures at night and day. More visible during the night. Do anyone have any thing to clear this up?

 

Try wax. Paint can oxidize and wax can take it off.

For a comparison, below is a pic of my idiot neighbor's car that he lets sit in place and rot on the side of my house. It's a good way to study the break down of clear coat and paint. Note the really dark area above the middle part of the windshield.

 

What is a good wax for it? also should I polish the area??

 

I've talked about this before in another thread. The detergents in windshield washing fluid that helps it dissolve bugs and bird droppings also helps strip wax off the roof, which is why the roofs on so many cars fades before the other parts of the car. The best way to avoid it is to wax your car at least once a year, and with real wax not the spray on stuff.

 

Most wax won’t last a year let alone 6 months. There are probably several spray waxes (I know of several spray sealants) that are superior to “real wax”.

 

Wax annually with Mothers synthetic and call it good. I wax in September before hunting season and winter. Here's how it looks after almost a year.

 

Repaint is the only choice.

That's broken down/peeling clearcoat. No 'elixer' will fix it.

 

I use MeGuires Gold twice a year and then touch up between the 6 month paste wax with Lucas quick shine. Both are at Wal-Mart.

The Megs Gold has carnuba which really works well and goes on easy.

IMO you most likely have caught this in the early stages. If you use the two products I mentioned above over time and the issue still persists then I would progress to polishing. That's a whole other can of worms to get into and there are threads and websites dedicated to just polishing.

Throwing a good paste wax on ASAP should at the very least slow down or stop whats happening.

Don't let your truck rot like my neighbor! LOL.

 

Thank you for all the help. Time to wash and wax it. I am going to us a paste wax. It is Meguires ultimate paste wax. Is that good?

 

A lot of people seem to like it.

 

Or Line-X the cab roof. Then you won't have to bother with waxing the cab roof. I was going to get mine done but I decided to step over to the Honda camp mid February.

 

Or do what I did. Monstalinered my whole truck, now I don't have to ever wax the whole truck, hell I barely wash it anymore

 

If you are trying to protect your car, virtually every modern sealant (autogeek is your friend) is superior to any wax. There is no debate on that front. Wax will give a superior shine, however. I had the same thing happen on my last Tacoma. I knew I was selling it soon and threw on a ceramic coating (Cquartz) which helped to stop the damage and moderately covered up the problem. If that car would have been mine long term, I would have vinyl wrapped the roof. Now that I have a new Tacoma, I ceramic coated it immediately and wrapped both the hood and roof. If that it too much work, I would seal it once a year, which is what I do for my wife's vehicle.

 

You need to show your neighbor better alternatives to windshield wipers. Those things look like they would just smear your windshield to hell at the first site of rian.

 

As others have mentioned it's the start to clear coat failure. Unfortunately our Tacomas don't have that much clear. You can compound/polish the roof and that will make the clear coat failure a bit less noticeable. If you plan to keep the truck get it ceramic, quartz or silica coated and that will help slow down the deterioration of the clear coat. If you do use carnauba wax just wax it at least once every 2 months. A polymer sealant will last up to 6 months so maybe every 4 months (3x a year) and just use a spray wax to maintain it.

 

Lovely isn't it LOL...he's kind of a moron. He just lets cars sit and rot. For me it's a spectator sport. It's also an opportunity to study what happens when one totally neglects a car.

When the clear coat started peeling off it looked like Saran wrap sloughing off. As it sits now the paint layer has third degree sun burn.

It's interesting that there is a pattern and symmetry to to paint decomposition. The front middle part of the roof just above the center of the windsheild is where it started and where the damage is worst. My pic just shows it as the darkest area but it's the most damaged area.

BTW the orange newspaper bags on the wipers were added in december in preparation of a snowstorm. Never a dull moment.

 

Sunburned.

You might come back from it, polish & wax.
Your neighbor unfortunately is too far gone.