Massive Bedside Dent From Car Wash?

I might be crazy but bare with me. I went through an automatic gas station car wash yesterday and left with a massive dent on the side of my passenger bedside.

There is a 2 hour window of time that the dent could have happened but I am fairly positive it happened in the car wash. The truck is wrapped so when any damage occurs it usually will tear or scuff the wrap. I would think that damage this bad could only have happened by someone backing into the bedside but there are no tears in the wrap which leads me to believe it did in fact happen in the car wash.

The car wash had those spinning wheels that brush along side of the truck, mixing the soap, and I specifically remember the truck getting pushed around a little while sitting in there getting washed.

I had taken off all the fender flares and wrapped over the holes when putting on the wrap, and I am thinking that this significantly weakened the bedsides and might have caused the car wash to actually damage the truck.

If anyone has any insight on this or has seen this happen to anyone else please let me know. The car wash is obviously going to deny any responsibility so thats not what I am after but I would love to know if this much damage could have actually been caused by a car wash.

Here are some pictures:

 

Doubtful.

Those spinning brushes don't put much pressure on the vehicle, that's not what they're meant to do.

 

It does happen I had one dent my driverside right in front of the gas lid, I was able to pop it back out but because of the spot it left a little crease above the filler opening,
it happened with the flares on so your flare removal did not weaken the bed side they are already pretty weak...

then a couple months went by and I hit a deer and got the whole truck fixed again......

 

Very very doubtful.

 

A dent and a crushed panel are significantly different.

Did your dent look like this?

If not, I wouldn't say "it does happen."

Dents happen, this isn't a dent.

 

i would go to them and see what they say, maybe they have a camera on the entrance / exit

 

Stick a plunger on that ish

 

I've had a drive thru car wash take off my front license plate before, but that dent looks like somebody or some animal ran top speed into the side of your truck!

Go back to the wash and watch another car go through. If a truck, bonus. If a Tacoma, double bonus. Watch the brushes/arms/equipment to see how and what it does. Maybe you can identify the cause.

 

looked just like that

I did it twice... the first time I was thinking just like the OP "it could not have been the car wash" so I popped it out and the first time it popped out fine with no long term effect, a week or two later I went through the same carwash and it happened again... this time I noticed it just after I pulled into work immediately after I went through the carwash... never to use a car wash with those spinning brushes that swing back into the car...

so YES it happens....

 

That's a significant amount of damage. If the spinning brush would do that...wouldn't the plastic side cover on top also flex and bend or get damaged? If an unpainted metal bumper or another can hit your truck without leaving a mark. Even with the white wrap, wouldn't the spinning brush leave some kind of mark. It looks fixable with a dentless repair but will take time and you can't access from the wheel well...it'll have to be from the tail light to get access or taking the whole side off and letting them work on it.

I wouldn't got through automatic car washes even if it didn't this kind of damage...the swirl mark and other fine scratches it leaves on the paint. I know you have film, but still...it's not good. Interesting you had blue truck and went with white... I like the blue.

Looking again...seems like two different blows...someone kicked your car perhaps?

 

I use to use this carwash with all my other vehicles with no issue and a couple times with the Tacoma, I think if the was is not adjusted properly I can swing too hard and hit this particular non-supported area of the bedside(longbed) and cause a dent.

 

the one time I am too lazy to wash it myself and take it through a wash haha, of course. Glad your truck is back in action though

 

Same thing happened to my truck. Same place driver side

 

Same thing happened to my truck. Except it was caused by a tree.

 

Were you able to pop it out yourself or did you take it in for some body work? I had a dent guy take a look at mine today and he said it was too big, I would need to go to a body shop

 

It wasn't nearly as bad as yours, so it's still there haha. I just wash my truck by hand now

 

Would much rather be able to tell someone it was a tree. Telling someone straight faced that you got abused by a car wash in a truck is not the most satisfying of conversations haha

 

Hahaha

 

Very unlikely the wash did this. The brushes exert insufficient pressure to put a kink like that is the sheet metal.