Henryv

I was washing and waxing the runner today and noticed a small spot of rust I never noticed before. Its smaller than the size of a dime and is located in the small space between the rear bumper and the runner itself. I also have two thin 1" scratches near the roof above the rear door that have been there for a while and look like it has some rust in it. So if I just leave these be will anything bad happen? Or is there something I can easily do to fix it? I'm not too worried about it because they are small spots and in the area I live in there isnt any snow or salted roads but they are pretty much the only major imperfections on the rig and if possible I would like to fix it.

cruizin01

If they are not in open view too much I would probably just get me some touch up paint and keep it covered. If you dont do anything to it, it will prolly get worse.

cctk2

Having Lived on the Pacific coast for 30+ years, Im well acquainted with these little cancer spots youre talking about. And thats exactly what they are. Cancer.

Theres is only one way to eliminate them I do believe. 100% of the rust itself must be removed. Not 99%, but 100%.

Now, Ive been working with various "rust neutralizing" products with some success, but I wont go so far as to say it will absolutely control this problem.

If you ignore the rust it WILL get worse. If you just paint over it, it will get worse. Its kinda become my conclusion that you can only Slow it down, UNLESS you remove it 100%. That might fall under the constraints of what we shall call "Body work".

Research is whats warranted here. Good luck.
Just a word of advise though, if you plan to hold on to yhis vehicle a long time, do something about it NOW.

cruizin01

I wasn't trying to say that painting over it would stop all rust or make it disappear. I think we all know that the only way to stop the rust is too completely get rid of it, but like you said it takes bodywork and usually alot for just that small spot. Thats not always practical for most folks.
I had a few small dents one having a small spot of rust on it and I ended up painting the whole truck cause I knew I wouldn't be happy with anything else.
Anyway good luck

Henryv

Ok so I been searching and reading more on rust and touch up paint and will go at the larger of the two with the sandpaper, rust converter, touch up paint, langka technique. Im hoping this will work out well because it is in an area that you would have to look closely to see it so its a good test area but I still would like it to look good. However, the smaller one is like what would happen if u had a deep key scratch or if you took a knife to the truck. It is thin and I'm wondering if for that using only the rust convertor would work because I dont want to sand that part because of how thin the actual scratch is. Thanks for all the help.

butnut

I have a touch up biz here and for some reason, late model to new Toyotas are very rust prone to even a pencil point sized chip on the roof. This is the only place where I see rust form from such a small chip. The hole turns brown and 'spider legs' or rust veins grow under the paint from the chip...very ugly. Don't know if a diffferent steel is used or no treatment is used up there. I'm always checking for rock chips on my Runner, especially on the roof edge, found some and touched it up quick. For a scratch, here's what I'd do. Get a big needle and carefully scrape the scratch to remove loose rust. Next, get some 'metal polish' like Blue magic, Flitz, Semichrome etc, get a rag and with a toothpick, rub out the rust. You'll see the rag turn brown, keep doing this until clean. The polish has abrasive and cleaners to attack surface rust. Get some naptha or lacquer thinner and clean the scratch with the same rag/toothpick method to remove any polish. The scratch is now clean and ready to accept touch up paint and after dry, the Langka wipe. Rust is cancer as has been said, gotta catch it early or it will get worse. Good luck.

Henryv

That is an almost exact description of what the scratch looks like except its a thin scratch so it doesnt appear too ugly. THanks for the help, I'm going to go at the rust as soon as it stops raining for a while.

kyle_22r

i thought toyota learned their lesson about using cheap steel from their 1st and 2nd gen pickups...guess not

i wouldn't mind keeping my bed, but it's got cancer on the typical spots(seam above the fenderwell)...i'm either going to build a flatbed or try to find a rust free long bed box and bob it

rugerm44

Down here in the south at auto zone they sell a product called rust eater.Take some coarse sand paper fold it up and sand the rust outl if you can. Spread the stuff on it and about two or three hours it converts it into primer.Then touch up with paint.Looks better than a rusted hole.The junk works .I have tried myself.A year later still no rust. It dosent hurt the surounding paint either.

kyle_22r

if i want to save my bed, i'm going to have to cut the rust out and weld a new piece of sheetmetal to it, as the rust has eaten all the way through. i have a good sized dent in the side behind the cab though, so i might have to just end up building a flat bed

oldsub86

f had rust spots on my old truck that needed work but I knew I was not going to get to them for a while. I took a sharp chisel and scraped off the rust (these were spots at least as big as a quarter). Then I smeared bees wax on them to keep them sealed up. My truck didn't look any worse than it did with the rusty blisters and it did help to keep the rust from eating holes through the metal. I cleaned it up good the following summer and had the truck painted. The spots did not come back so I guess I helped it.