Rust bleeding through paint on rear hatch

whiskywizard

whiskywizard

New member
I'm a bit miffed about a minor corrosion problem.

My wife's T4R has about a dozen small spots of rust coming through the paint. All are on the rear hatch. In a couple of cases there is a blister forming in the paint with no bleed-through. All are small. The rust spots are 1-2mm (<1/16"). The blisters are 3-5mm (<3/16").

The dealer took a look and readily agreed to get it into their body shop on Monday. I'm confident the sanding/painting will be fine - it's just that I hate to repaint. It's never quite as good as OEM (as OEM should be).

Has anyone else experienced this same problem?
 
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I'd like to know how that could possibly be happening with an essentially new vehicle unless someone took a sand blaster or some such action and pelted the back of your wife's vehicle causing bare metal to be exposed. And you mentioned blistering. Yeh, I'd like to see some close-up pics of that for sure.
 
Follow up -
The dealer's body shop is out of service while they undergo a large expansion. They farmed the work out.

They did a truly $hitty job and I haven't been this angry in a long time.

  • The rear hatch is painted; it's white, but it's not Blizzard Pearl white.
  • They left the hatch open while they did the prep work, and the interior is coated in white sanding dust. No attempt whatsoever to clean up.
  • There's a swirl scratched into the filler plastic that's between the rear hatch and the bumper skin. It's obviously from an RA sander.

It's heading back in this weekend.
 
That would piss me off too. Why is it so difficult to get decent body work done? I've never had any luck finding a good shop myself.

I had some work done on a Silverado a few years back when some blind idiot ran into it while it was sitting in a parking lot. Anyway, the body shop painted the backseat pop out windws shut. And the color wasn't even close to matching.
 
Man, that really does suck and no, that should not be acceptable at all. I know that you are taking it back to them and I hope that you don't get the same person working on it because they obviously are inept. Usually, there is at least one person (depending on the size of the shop) who is experienced etc. Whenever I've had work done, I've asked the manager to identify his best person, have them come out and talk to me and at that time I try to explain how absolutely OCD I am about body work and what my expectations are and I ask what it is he will do to ensure my satisfaction. If the resulting work meets or exceeds my expectations I will bring back whatever future body work needs to be done on any of our vehicles to that shop. Since the dealership vouched for this shop, in this case they need to stand behind getting this corrected.
 
Follow-up to the follow-up...

I went back into the dealership last Friday. As I drove in, the service manager ran out and greeted me by name before I had even closed the driver's door. He said he'd already talked to the bodyshop and they knew what had gone wrong. According to him there are a few colour codes for white that are very similar and have slightly different suffixes. When I asked why the bodyshop would return the car with the incorrect colour, and the interior filthy, he didn't say much. He promised up and down it would be corrected and the vehicle detailed fully. I agreed to give them the truck early in the week to follow.

My wife took the T4R in on Tuesday AM. They gave her a loaner. They called that same night to say it was done. Service Manager asked if they could keep it overnight so their detailer could clean it properly the next morning.

My wife picked it up Wed. It looks and smells like a new car. Colour match seems good; I can't tell the difference.

I realize I still need to post pics of the rust. I'll see if I can get to that tonight.
 
whiskywizard said:
Follow-up to the follow-up...

I went back into the dealership last Friday. As I drove in, the service manager ran out and greeted me by name before I had even closed the driver's door. He said he'd already talked to the bodyshop and they knew what had gone wrong. According to him there are a few colour codes for white that are very similar and have slightly different suffixes. When I asked why the bodyshop would return the car with the incorrect colour, and the interior filthy, he didn't say much. He promised up and down it would be corrected and the vehicle detailed fully. I agreed to give them the truck early in the week to follow.

My wife took the T4R in on Tuesday AM. They gave her a loaner. They called that same night to say it was done. Service Manager asked if they could keep it overnight so their detailer could clean it properly the next morning.

My wife picked it up Wed. It looks and smells like a new car. Colour match seems good; I can't tell the difference.

I realize I still need to post pics of the rust. I'll see if I can get to that tonight.
Click to expand...

Good to hear you got everything resolved. Blizzard Pearl is a beautiful color, but I, too, worry about the paint shop's ability to match it. Sounds like you finally found someone to do it right.

On a side note, my wife is ordering a Prius v Five AT as soon as my company lease goes in effect in April and she's set on Blizzard Pearl for it, too. I might then have 2 vehicles that are hard to paint. lol
 
Another Rusty back hatch on 2012 Blizzard

Same problem here- I was told that it's always the back hatches and the front hoods- and bodyshops are getting used to seeing it. Glad about your end results but yeah, I didn't fork over the purchase price to be able to say, "Now that I bought new, at least I'll be clear of repairs for...6 months!" Thought I was paying for the pleasure of original paint, too... Am at the beginning of what I hope will not be a nightmare
 
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LLL said:
Same problem here- I was told that it's always the back hatches and the front hoods- and bodyshops are getting used to seeing it. Glad about your end results but yeah, I didn't fork over the purchase price to be able to say, "Now that I bought new, at least I'll be clear of repairs for...6 months!" Thought I was paying for the pleasure of original paint, too... Am at the beginning of what I hope will not be a nightmare
Click to expand...

Check your PMs. Sorry I was so slow replying.
 
I have a similar issue on on my blue 2012 4runner, but I have not made it in yet to get it fixed. I also have a weird fan noisy coming from the climate control blower fan, but that has been inconsistent and hate to take it in and not have the noise occur when I bring it in.
 
Just noticed this rust showing up on the hatch of our 2011. The paint is blistering and the rust is bleeding through. Sucks that this is happening to a relatively new vehicle with only 30k miles. Will be visiting the deal this week. Ergh!
 
I had the rear hatch on my 4runner repainted in July of last year due to the rust bleeding through the paint and now it has returned. Has anyone had the rust return after a complete strip and repaint?
 
Rail rust on blizzard pearl

My 2011 bp 4 runner has the electronic module and extra protective finish and also has many rust specs developing. At last oil change I mentioned the rear tailgate was starting to bubble through, and dealer agreed to repaint. When I said the sides were also displaying signs, but like Prius post, hard to see unless clean, dealer did have toyota approval for anything else. I am still hoping to get the whole vehicle reprinted, keep you posted.
 
This issue has been happening for years. My 04' had the blistering issue on the tailgate. I now have a 14' and am worried that it is going to show up again. Seems crazy that Toyota hasn't fixed this issue.
 

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Was going to wax my 2012 4Runner Limited this past weekend and noticed 3 very small spots of rust starting from under the paint and clear. I used to work at a few Toyota dealerships and one I'm still friends with the service manager and other people at the dealership. Going to set up an appointment today to get this fixed so it shouldn't be an issue seeing it's under the clear/paint. I know what the causes this issue with the 4runners and other vehicles but I won't say anything to the dealer when I go in. What I believe is the cause is rail dust. Rail dust is exactly what it sounds like, it's dust that is created from the trains wheels and when the vehicles are in transit this dust embeds itself into the paint. I know manufacturers started being concerned about this problem about 15 plus years ago because auto manufacturers started applying that white protection material to the vehicles for their transit to each dealership. This white protection sticker doesn't cover every square inch and the areas where my rust is starting is most likely the area where this sticker wasn't on. After looking closely at the areas around this new rust I can see a few other spots of this "rail dust" embedded into the paint but has not worked it's way down to the metal to start the rusting process. My father's 1999 Avalon has these small rail dust spots all over his car but i don't believe any of them has caused the rust he has now. He waxes his Avalon a lot which is probably why his hasn't developed rust like my 4runner. I will let you guys know what happens when I take her in.
Another note, I've been working in the automotive field for 16 years working at a couple restoration shops and from my experience once rust starts on metal it will almost always come back unless the contaminated part of the body panel is cut out and replaced. There really isn't any chemical that can be applied to the infected area to prevent the rust from coming back. There is a product called POR-15 and it's great stuff but great when applied to a bare metal surface that has not had any rust contamination. I've seen a few rust repair jobs where the rust wasn't too bad but after the rust was sanded down and none left to be seen. Por-15 was applied and it was body worked then sealed, primed and painted. Two of the repairs only lasted about a year and the other the rust came back in 6-8 months.
For this reason I will be demanding a new Toyota rear hatch be painted and installed. Since my 4runner is a 2012 I only have a couple more years on the vehicles rust warranty so I don't want it coming back after my warranty expires. I don't want the rust to come back at all to be honest. Have any of you guys with this issue requested a new panel for the repairs and what did they or didn't they do?
Thanks for reading guys!
 
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