2006 Paint/Clear Coat Issue?

S

sonjason

New member
New member - first post, occasional browser of this forum. Don't flame, I'm not here to hate on Toyota during their times of trouble. I only own Toyota or Honda and will continue to do so regardless of the media frenzy surrounding Toyota right now.

My problem is this... I bought my 06 4Runner "Certified Pre-Owned" in August. I also owned a 98 4Runner a few years back, but anyways... The clear coat on the 06 appears to be virtually gone in some spots on the back and top of the 2006. The truck is in otherwise very good condition and only had 39K when I bought it. Is this typical for the 4Runner or the 06 model? I am more knowledgeable when it comes to the Tacoma, but am not aware of this in that Toyota model.

:wtf:

Any info appreciated.


**EDIT** My truck is natural white if that makes any difference.
 
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If I had to guess, I'd say the previous owner or detail shop who didn't know what they were doing went after it with a rotary buffer and burnt up the clear coat in places.

I see 3rd and 4th gens all the time with a showroom new finish still.
 
As already said it could have been buffed to "clean up" for selling, or it could be worse. Not to worry you, but there's always a chance of body work even though it was certified and may have a clean carfax. My wife's 08' Accord had hail damage and was repaired (very good job I might add) before we bought it. The dealership didn't know anything about it, but I showed them the white powdery residue inside the sunroof from wet sanding as well as a couple mouldings that were taped off. I didn't care cause it was a good deal and has been a great car. Not meaning to scare you, but PDR (paintless dent removal) is very common and part of the process might include buffing to cover up any small inperfections. Is it noticable? Or just something that caught your eye? A good wax job might cover a lot of that up.

I would say it's not something that is covered under warantee b/c Toyota will just say it's been buffed or worked and that would void your warantee for the paint. Hope it works out. If you can have a body shop look it over they should be able to tell if it's been worked on at all. If in fact it has, I would stick the dealership w/ a bill to repaint/clearcoat the vehicle. At least worth a try. Good luck!
 
You can certainly try to get the dealer to rectify the situation, but I highly doubt they'll go for it. Who knows though?

I'd go to a good body shop (or two) in your area and get a professionals opinion before I returned to the dealership.
 
sonjason said:
New member - first post, occasional browser of this forum. Don't flame, I'm not here to hate on Toyota during their times of trouble. I only own Toyota or Honda and will continue to do so regardless of the media frenzy surrounding Toyota right now.

My problem is this... I bought my 06 4Runner "Certified Pre-Owned" in August. I also owned a 98 4Runner a few years back, but anyways... The clear coat on the 06 appears to be virtually gone in some spots on the back and top of the 2006. The truck is in otherwise very good condition and only had 39K when I bought it. Is this typical for the 4Runner or the 06 model? I am more knowledgeable when it comes to the Tacoma, but am not aware of this in that Toyota model.

:wtf:

Any info appreciated.


**EDIT** My truck is natural white if that makes any difference.
Click to expand...


We only flame engineers sonjason....sorry obscure inside joke. Sounds like someone parked your car outside all the time and never waxed it, or did much to protect the clear coat. The sun and the weather beating down on unprotected paint day after day will eventually have the clear coat literally disintigrating. The color of the car isn't all that involved in degradation of the clear coat.

This explanation would make sense for sure on your top, but you say they're on the back too? It's normally the surfaces facing up like the hood and top that go first. Where on the back?
 
The worst area is on the back of the truck, near the top (on sides of back glass). Other than that, the top and side pillars on the rear sides of the vehicle also seem to have the issue.

I'm certainly no expert, but it doesn't look like it was a bad detail job. It was very sunny the day I bought the truck, but when I got it home and we had a cloudy day, the clear coat damage was a little more obvious. I took the truck to a detail shop and had it washed and waxed, but the wax didn't really help much.

I will try to take pics and post them up.
 
sonjason said:
Either way the truck is only 4-ish years old... does that stuff count in a warranty for corrosion?
Click to expand...

It doesn't. The corrosion warranty only covers body sheet metal porforations. It doesn't cover the finish.

See if the CPO certification has any provisions for the finish. But being bought six months ago, the dealer might deny they had anything to do with it and it was perfect when it was sold.
 
Without seeing pic’s its really hard to say. I have sprayed several 2 coat systems and usually when you cut through the top coat you see a very noticeable difference in color. No matter how much you try and buff it you will not get a shine. In a base coat / clear coat systems it’s the urethane top coat that gets shiny not the color coat.

I would suggest taking a polishing compound and a soft cloth and give an area a good hand buffing. If you pick up any color on your rag then the clear coat is gone and the only fix is a repaint. If you don’t pick up color then you might want to give it a buffing with a finishing compound like 3M’s Finesse It or Prefect It. These are both polishing compounds not cutting compounds so you don’t have to worry much about cutting through the clear coat. However you do need to use a machine buffer with these compounds so you need to know what you are doing otherwise you can burn through the paint around edges, etc. Use a professional variable speed polisher / buffer. Start at a slow speed around 800rpm. Keep it wet and work a small area. I like using wool pads but lots of guys like the foam pads. Just make sure it’s a polishing pad and not a cutting pad. If you pick up color or if it will not take a shine then the clear coat is gone.

If there is a high amount of oxidation you may need to start with a fine cut cutting compound and then move up to the finishing compound. If you start with a cutting compound be careful not to over do it. If you are unfamiliar with doing paint work I would suggest just heading down to the local paint shop and have them take a look. A good shop should tell you exactly what is going on and if they can buff it out or not. If they just try selling you a paint job, try a new shop, unless that is truly what you need.

As for any help from the dealer, don’t count on it. When I bought my brand new 08 they had done one of those lot touch up jobs on the rear bumper and I did not catch it for a few weeks. The dealer would not do anything and guess what? I also found out that since the dealer did body work on the bumper the factory warranty was voided for that part. Very nice thing to find out on a brand new truck. I had replace and repaint the entire bumper.
 
Sounds like I should have went back when I first noticed, but I thought maybe a good waxing would solve it. I wouldn't really expect much help from the dealer anyway though to be honest.

Is it possible for a good body shop to re-apply clear coat to the damaged areas in a fashion that it will blend with the rest of the truck?
 
If the clear coat is gone then there really is no recourse other then a repaint. In the old days when lacquer finishes were used you could just give it a wet sanding and then re-shoot as the lacquer would burn in. Today’s finishes unfortunately don’t work like that anymore. In a base coat / clear coat system the clear coat must follow a color coat. There usually is a short window once you lay down your color coat and it flashes to when you must apply the clear coat. Miss that window or cut through a curing clear coat while buffing and you have to start over by shooting a new color coat.

Paint shops do use a blending agent when doing spot repairs. Most of your collision repair shops do this as a way of saving time and money when doing a repair. The blending agent is added to the clear coat and is basically a strong solvent that will soften the existing urethane clear coat so the new clear will burn in a bit. However, you still need to lay down a color coat to the area being blended before spraying the blending mixture. I don’t however claim to be an expert. I have worked with both DuPont and PPG systems and these work like this. Maybe a local paint shop has other products that they use that might work.
 
This is a crappy cell phone pic, but I believe it does at least show the damage I have described above. The shiny portion is where the clear coat seems OK, the area around it that looks dull appears to have NO clear coat.

4runner.jpg~original
 
A really good detailer can probably refurbish your finish so that you'll never notice the problem. You may want to post a note in one of the regional forums at autopia.org and they can set you up with someone who can fix it for you.
 
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