Q: Clear coat is all messed up, what happened?
I drive a 2006 Toyota Tacoma that I have steadily put miles on over the years since I bought it. It sits at 85,000 miles, which is new for a Toyota Truck. The paint is in terrible shape though. I am pretty disappointed. I hope Toyota saved a lot of money using that small amount of clear coat over the whole car. It certainly will cost me some money when I trade it in! Is there anything I can do to reverse the fading?
Hello! Thank you for writing in about this problem. This is a fairly common issue with this generation of the Tacoma model. Most of it likely comes down to poor paint prep, thin coating, or contamination when the vehicle was built. There really isn’t much that can be done to reverse paint fading except to have the faded areas sanded, primed, color matched, and clear-coated. You may be able to delay additional fading by using a clay bar to remove contaminants, then following up with a mild cutting compound, a mild polish, and then a high-quality wax. If you choose this route, be sure to use a dual-action orbital buffer with the proper pads or bonnets for the step you are performing.
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