Since I've had the fiberglass top off for the summer, I decided to cut the sliding windows out and replace the metal trim pieces. A couple of years ago, I bought some like new, rust free trim parts off ebay. They had no signs of rust anywhere. Not one spot of bubbling. The only thing was the black coating was faded. So I decided to remove that stuff, and it is tuff. I wanted to go to bare metal and put metal etching primer on before repainting. To my surprise, there were very small, snowflake shaped little rust spots starting.


so I lightly sandblasted the whole thing.


primed, painted and reinstalled.

 

This is the back view showing the screws that hold the trim on the window frame.

 

Very nice, you've got a really sweet 4runner thats all I have to say.

 

looks good and clean!

 

Those are powder coated and it seems that over time the powder coating lifts and traps water underneath causing the famous bubbling. I sanded off the lifted areas on mine and painted them with a zinc primer and repainted them, but I have no doubt that the rust will likely turn up again. Next time around, I'm going to get the fiberglass replacement pieces.

 

I'm repainting the top right now, and will do my trim next. thanks for the pics and insight. I'll post pics when done. Looks great though!

 

I just noticed that one of mine is starting to show rust and wondered if I can "save" it. I guess if I can make them last another 26 years, I will be good with that

 

damn your glass is mint. ahha good job!

 

Looks great!! I like the epic shot of the 4rnr reflection in the window. Swanky!

 

thank you for your insight and sharing this valuable info.

 

Thanks for the info ..

 

Mine were faded and not rusted. I painted them the lazy way with Satin Black Rustoleum. They look fine.