I just picked up my truck from the dealership and noticed a weird rust problem. The truck had been at the dealership around 2 weeks and had been sitting in the rain. After I took her home and washed her I noticed the entire body is covered in thousands of rust spots about the size of grains of sand. The majority of it is on the hood and roof, with very little on the lower 1/3 of the fenders and doors. By the way the truck is white and fairly new and Im unsure of the quality of the paint job. Any way I told the service manager about this and he told me to bring it in so they could see it. Upon inspection he said it is from "acid rain" here in San Diego, and offered to "acid wash" the truck and detail it for free. I then took the truck to an independent auto paint shop for inspection. The paint guy told me it is superficial paint damage from the new metallic type brake pad dust and that all cars have this damage but it shows up more clearly on white. He then proceded to appl,y a wax and buffed it out and the rust disapeared. I attempted to do this myself at home but it did not work. Heres my question... If there is rust on the surface then I assume whatever damaged the paint reached bare sheet metal in order for rust to occur...if thats the case I dont want to just "buff it out" because I may run into rust problems later. Has any body else seen or heard of this? What would you guys do in a similar situation? any advice or comments are appreciated... sorry for the long windedness.

 

You didn't say what year yours is, but my white 93 has the same thing. I figure it's from the 5 years I was living near the ocean and the 2 years of bay area dew. I don't know if it's superficial or what, but I just buff it out once in a while with some wax. There's still little spots left, but it's not worth it to repaint it, considering I scratch it up everytime I go wheeling.

 

No worries, it's common surface contamination called industrial fallout. The body shop used a more aggressive treatment with a buffer and chemicals not available in most homes. Now that the surface is clean, I'd still wash with Dawn, clay bar, polish and wax the entire vehicle, not just the horizontal surfaces.

I Googled industrial fallout and got 3,250 hits. Here's one selected at random:

http://www.edwardwillett.com/Columns/carcare.htm

Keep in mind that Toyota White, Red, Black and Yellow do not have clearcoat. They need regular (every 2-3 months) waxing, especially in a marine climate.

 

loyota33:

What dealership is this, if you don't mind me asking?

 

My 95 4runner started getting tons of little rust spots on it when I bought it last winter and brought it up here to the snow belt. This was especially noticeable around the kickpanels where all the salt from the road was pelting the paint. So, with snow still on the ground, I washed and waxed my 4runner and removed all the little rust spots no problem (using turtle wax Finish 2001). Then waxed the exterior 2 more times this summer for the upcoming winter.

 

The dealership was Toyota of El Cajon.

 

I noticed that on mine too!!! It looks like crap too when you get really close. I gave it a good washing and put on NuFinish for wax. The spots all went away but a few have come back

 

I tend to disagree.. I think personaly someone was grinding near the truck and hit it with a coat of grinder sparks.. This is also a very common thing in body shops.. The spots don't really hurt it per say (unless it is colse) but they will rust on the paint.. brake dust is not normaly only on the tops.. if it is brand new it is more likely grindings from train wheels braking while transporting. I think you will find that the shop got it on there myself..

Lee, who has cleaned this off many cars that were in the shop..