6th gen's dent easily?

[glocke12]

I just picked up my 6th Gen TRD ORP on Thursday, drove it to work friday, errands on Saturday, and spent 4-5 hours detailing it today.

I was just outside looking it over and I noticed a dent in the right front, where that " seam " is that runs down the center. I have absolutely no clue where the heck that came from and am thinking that I possibly put it there when I was leaning over waxing/buffing the hood while standing on a work platform.

I'm ~215 pounds, and I know I wasn't leaning over with all my body weight resting on it, and thinking it through just now I am not even certain that I caused it but I can't think of how else it got there since I didn't notice it until now. I was able to pop it back out most of the way by gently banging on it from the other side but its not perfect, and probably never will be..

Since its going to be a daily driver for my 40 mile commute stuff like that is bound to happen but Im pretty irritated its happened already.

I've owned 2 other 4 runners and a tacoma, and I've never ran into an issue where body weight put a dent in them as a result of leaning on them.

Its nuts and I am really puzzled by this. I'll probably Debby a body shop to see if they can address it, but I'm also tempted to see if it can be repaired under warranty as i still can't believe im responsible for it.

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[Badkarma8541]

I had one on the upper left fender. . I have the underground and I didn’t notice it but three days later when I was putting on my hood struts I’m looking at it asking myself is that a dent or is that just like playing tricks with me? i it was and my dealership fixed it for free.

 

[brumey]

Free. ??? Thats unusual.

 

[coloradomarmot]

I think the body is aluminum rather than steel, if so, it'll dent easier.

 

[Badkarma8541]

Well, it’s Sat in quality control hold from March 3 to April 3 at the port. So who knows when it happened? But literally, you would really have to look for it to see it the way the light plays on the paint.. dropped it off. They pulled it out. It was lil bit scuffed up.I had already personally ceramiced the whole vehicle. They also gave me 150 bucks for the girl to come out do a color correction and she receramiced it. I’m good, but I’m not good enough to put a buffing wheel on the new paint. Lol

 

[ScoMay]

The hood is aluminum. Not sure about ALL other non-plastic body panels, but I’m pretty sure they are NOT aluminum.

 

[glocke12]

The hood is aluminum. Not sure about ALL other non-plastic body panels, but I’m pretty sure they are NOT aluminum.

well if thats the case, its a pretty mild steel. I've attached a couple of photos of the dent that I have that I believe just came from me standing on a 4 foot platform, bending over to reach the upper center part of the hood to wax it, and resting my knee on the panel. I can't possibly think of how else it happened, because I picked it up Thursday, drove to work friday, and it basically went undriven for the most part sat/sunday. I was even putting effort into being careful when I was waxing it like that, and was only lightly leaning into it. There is no way this would have happened on my 5th gen, that thing was bomb proof on the outside and it certainly had its share of things bumped into it and it suffered no damage.

My dealership offers a year of free dent repair which is good, but before I knew that I stopped at a local place that does PFDR and they basically said that due to its complexity, I'd be better off taking it to the shop they trained at. The guy said something about needing a special tool to do this repair and that he didn't have it but the other shop did, so I think I am just going to pay to have this fixed and hopefully have a better repair than what the dealership can offer.

It stinks, but like I said this is a daily driver for me, and given the number of deer between me and work a deer collision is inevitable within the next year or so.

 

[glocke12]

Two different PDR guys told me they'd have problems fixing that.

Surprisingly Allstate will cover that as a 2k+ body repair under my comprehensive coverage, all I pay is the $100.00 deductible...

Frankly I am stunned and not sure what to think about the fact that these are so easily dented. One of the PDR guys had a special light and he went around the vehicle showing me all these tiny dents in the body I hadn't noticed. I think they were put there when I was climbing up and down the elevated work platform I was using when I was waxing it and just lightly using the body of the vehicle for support as I was climbing down. I was being super careful when doing that to not apply all my weight or too much pressure but apparently it doesn't take much.

Those dents will be take care of for free by the dealership since this vehicle comes with a free year of dent/ding repair. I think its pretty obvious to me now why they offer that service.

 

[brumey]

That will probably increase your insurance premium next year.

 

[glocke12]

It is what it is. Its a not even week old vehicle and I get physically ill looking at that dent. Its visible from 30 feet away

being stupid and not paying attention/thinking things through should be painful and expensive

 

[Jakethewhippet1]

It looks like impact damage to me not hand pressure. I see the dent on the sheet metal where there is an edge. To dent an edge, it takes much more force per Sq inch than to dent a mostly flat panel. There also seems to be another impression above that. The second one is round, about 2 or 3 inches in diameter. In the middle of the upper impression is a dime sized spot that is above the rest of the impression. This seems quite odd. I don't think you did this with your hand.

 

[glocke12]

It looks like impact damage to me not hand pressure. I see the dent on the sheet metal where there is an edge. To dent an edge, it takes much more force per Sq inch than to dent a mostly flat panel. There also seems to be another impression above that. The second one is round, about 2 or 3 inches in diameter. In the middle of the upper impression is a dime sized spot that is above the rest of the impression. This seems quite odd. I don't think you did this with your hand.

Well, like I said I was standing on a 4 foot tall Gorilla work platform, leaning over to get to the center of the hood to wax/buff it and more than likely resting my knee/thigh on that section, thats why I said I think I managed to do that. I dont want to talk about that dimple...

If its impact damage, I've not idea how that occurred. I picked it up Thursday night, drove it home. I drove it to work friday, than back home. Saturday I ran one local errand locally and parked far away from anyone..no one was even out when I was out. It's remotely possible it was there at the dealership when I picked it up, but I think I'd have noticed that. Id put it at a 5% chance or less its a " pre-existing condition".

The manner in which I washed/waxed this vehicle is no different than how I did my 1998 Taco, 2003 4runner, or 2011 4runner. The 2011 4runner was a beast and I was always loading stuff in and out of it and accidentally bumped stuff into it all the time, and up to the end the body was in fantastic shape, no visible dents anywhere.

I'm 56 and remember when we'd be able to sit on the hoods or trunks of vehicles and hang out for hours and those cars suffered no damage from that activity. I'm afraid to even breathe on this thing or even look at it wrong for fear of it " self denting " out of spite....

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