Rust? And possibly paint oxidation?

It looks like you just have dirt or tar around those clear plastic stickers that are protecting the paint.

 

+1 on the dirt and tar. Also paint's looks weathered on back end. Probably been polished heavily a few times and then allowed to weather. The only real fix would be to repaint and or clear coat again.

Best of luck to you.

 

It's most likely mold under the clear paint stickers/ protectors -- take some bleach on a rag and wet it down ....let sit for 10 min and hose it off with some dish detergent ... wax it.

It's odd that the clear coat would fail so soon -- does it look as if any pant work was done?

I did the rear hatch on my older Nissan Pathfinder last year -- I used a kit bought online. Came with primer and matched top coats and clear coat. I was surprised how well it worked .. all for about $50. And this was a white pearl paint with two top coats and the pearl clear coat -- four spray cans.

 

I never quite understood the reason for those clear plastic bits. They've been dutifully replaced by a body shop on ours too, both sides now I think, due to accidents. There was another post here, someone looking to buy I think, and wondering about similar condition. I would think they're applied as a protective measure, but they seem more a liability.

Is the car usually parked outside? That would likely be a factor.

 

They are to protect the paint from sand abrasion. The air over the body at high speeds directs small particles to that location.

 

Looks like she needs a good detail... Suggest you take a look at autogeekonline.net for some ideas if you want to invest in products and knowledge to DIY. Otherwise, a good pro might be able to correct some of the past sins.

 

Maybe just pull off those plastic pieces, and give the car a good polish. You can get replacements, I know our body shop did, but I'm sceptical of their value.

 

I have had good luck with the Duragloss line or products as they have a really great shine and fairly low cost relative to the other boutique polishes. For heavier scratches I use Meguairs 105. All are applied with a porter cable polisher.

 

It looks like the paint on the hatch is delaminated. If it was from not washing & waxing I'd expect more damage on the car especially on the roof. If someone used the top edge as a handle I could understand the wear on the left side. If the panel isn't stripped and repainted it'll come back maybe a year or so after the warranty expires.

 

On the sticker that says CARMAX? Just remove the sticker.

 

I suggest you first try a tar-remover solvent or paint thinner to see whether the plastic will clean up. If it doesn't, use a hair dryer to warm up the plastic before you try to remove it.

 

The piece with the CARMAX sticker is just plastic trim, and easy to remove. You might be able to find one at a junkyard.

 

heat it up with a hair-dryer or a heat gun & just pull it off/
it's not really a 'part', just a piece of transparent foil/

edit: oops, I got that wrong; I thought you were talking about the foil/

 

Sorry, it took me a little while to find. It can be found in steps 31-40 of the document I've attached. This describes a larger procedure of installing a backup camera, and removing that trim piece is part of it.

I did this a long time ago. It's a little painful, in that you have to remove all of the plastic trim from the inside of the hatch, beginning at the top of the hatch, then the two side pieces, and then the big plastic piece at the rear. Toyota sells a tool for prying off the plastic fasteners. You will destroy some of these fasteners in the process of removing them, but you can buy replacements from Toyota. There's a Sticky Thread in this area about installing a radio in the Gen III Prius, and lots of people talk about this process. I'm not all that good with my hands, and I did it. It's not as easy as just removing a few bolts, but it's not difficult, either.

 

naah, you'll not gonna destroy nething/
just take your time, be careful & pull everything apart gentle/
I did this already a few times & didn't destro nething/

side note: put a rag or something over the latch; once you unplugged the lock it's very likely to fall down & get stuck in the locked position/
then you have to crawl in & open it by hand....
(yep, been there, done that....)