I have a 1989 ext cab 4x4 that has very little rust issues. I pulled the bedliner off last night to see how bad it was in the bed, and to my amazement, there was only one small surface rust area. My question is as follows... On the spots the bedliner has worn off the paint, what would be the best course of action to prevent rust for forming? My plan is to have the truck painted in the next year, so I'm somewhat nervous to hit it with the wrong products that will cause me to have to pay extra come paint time(ie the paint I use isn't a good base for the automotive paint in shops). Any advice is greatly appreciated.

 

Sand/grind/scrape away as much of the surface rust as possible, and cover the area of the spot with Peel and Seal (which you can buy at Lowe's, ~$17 a roll in the roofing section.) This will effectively shield said area from any and all moisture until it comes time to repaint it. You can use the rest of the roll of Peel and Seal on the inside of your doors or on the firewall to further insulate the cab from road noise.

 

+1 I used P&S to dampen body rattles on mine and am very happy with it. Now I can hear "The Purr of the 22R-E" over everything (in the tone of the Dos Equis man =- LOL!).

 

I have seen plastic bedliners save a bed or ruin a bed. If debris get under the bedliner, and gets wet it will ruin the bed. Pull the bedliner occasionally and clean under there.

Since you are getting it painted at a later time, I would just grind the rust out and cover with a good coat of primer and rattle can paint for a temp fix until you get it done correctly.

 

Yeah, a good bedliner paint would probably work better.

 

That's the route I'm leaning towards for a short term fix. Any ideas on a paint type to or not to use? I'm a complete rookie in the paint department, and I'm not seeing any info on if a professional paint job could be applied over a rattle can primer.

 

Are you going to be painting it yourself or having it done? I have had to do a little fix just before painting and have used rattle can for a small spot instead of mixing up primer. A professional shop would be able to remove your rattle can primer and prep it right if they are doing it in a short amount of time.

 

Well, it's somewhat up in the air who's going to paint it. In brief, the truck has a lot of sentimental value to me. It was my uncle's truck since new and I can literally remember falling in love with toyota trucks when I first saw this one at the age of 6. He passed away last year and I bought it from my aunt about 2mos ago. It's totally stock, and I want to basically restore it over the next few years. The paint is awful, but it has almost zero rust. I've spoken with multiple shops around nashville, and the one I am most impressed with quoted me 3,500 - 5,000 (totally taking the body apart, fixing dings, new seals, and painting with lifetime warranty) depending on what issues they ran in to. The issue is that I'm somewhat on the poor side until we get the wife's student loans paid off in a few years. I'm considering painting it myself(not with a rattle can) for now, and having them do it correctly in a few years. I just want to protect the body at this point, not expecting a perfect job. Any advice is appreciated.

 

DLewis,
Sorry about your uncle... but you are lucky to have a truck whose history is well known to you.

I like and agree with Terry's (The master restorer) suggestion. Just touch up primer and paint. Make sure u remove all rust, use rust converter/primer, then spray can paint. Profesional paint job later will take care of prep. Peel and seal where bed liner rubs on bed will help absorb some of the rubbing and tar will protect any resulting bare metal. Or stick thin rubber sheet (like inner tubing) where liner rubs against bed.

 

Thanks for everyone's input. I ended up sanding the spots down to metal(all just surface exempt one spot that has some pitting) and hitting them with rust preventative primer and blue top coat. I work part time at a local bike shop here, so I have access to plenty of inner tubes to act as a buffer from the bedcover. Thanks again for making this site such a useful tool for us rookies.

 

Suweet!
Cheers!

 

I realized today, when I got the truck out in the daylight, that the color blue that I used isn't nearly as close to the factory dark blue 8E2 as I thought is was. It only shows in a few spots at the top of the tailgate and corners of the bed where I made a few spot repairs, but it's bad enough to look awful. Any info on where I may be able to get a hold of a color matched spray can at a reasonable price? The only ones I've found have been in the $30 a can range and that is much more expensive than other Toyota colors that I've seen. I may need to make a separate thread on this. Thanks.