First scratches on new Taco :-(

Today is a sad day...I got the first scratches on my new 2016 Tacoma...4 weeks old. Was driving to work this morning and some vehicle must have kicked up a rock or something and it ricocheted off the top drivers side front panel. I included a pic of it. It looks to be down to the metal. My question is how best to repair...without having the whole panel repainted? Would a dealership be able to just touch it up? is there anything I could do myself? The paint is a the Blazing Blue Pearl color.
Anyway suggestions would be helpful. Thanks.

 

I got some of those on my drive home from the dealership lol. royally pissed me off. im sure you could get a body shop to repaint it but it wouldn't necessarily be cheap. the dealer should have touch up paint that you can buy if they didn't just give you some to begin with. im sure theres a thread on here somewhere on how to properly touch up a scratch. it wont be flawless though. I just put a dot in there and let it dry just to seal off that metal that's exposed. you cant tell much unless youre right up on it.

 

Oh man that sucks, sorry dude. But if it will make you feel any better (misery loves company) a UFO hit my truck in two places, one small pin size ding on the hood and on the top, barely missed my W/S (sight of relief) so I count my blessing. :/

 

Try finding a person who does touch-up repairs on paint. I see a guy around here at the dealerships who has a mobile truck and touches up their used vehicles. He does really good work and would be a lot cheaper than having the entire space repainted. With this guy, he uses a small airbrush to go over the area and then some clear coat. Not sure where you are, but any nearby city would probably have listings for people who do this type of work.

 

http://www.brandsport.com/toy-00258-008t0.html

or this one.

https://www.amazon.com/ColorRite-Toyota-Yaris-Automotive-Touch-up/dp/B00KXOBN8Q

 

I've tried touch up paint myself and it always looks like shit afterwards -- maybe worse than just living with the scratch. I'd say pay someone to touch it up, but it will never be 100%. Meh.

 

Those look like full on chips. Either way, I would think they could possibly be spot repaired. I'd contact a body shop.

 

In addition to my 16 taco, we also have a 16 RAV4. A week after we bought the Rav we ended up with similar damage to the hood. I tried to have it touched up by a professional and like Smitty said, it looked like shit. Note, that metallic paint is also harder to touch up. I ended up taking it to a body shop and the entire hood had to be repainted. Needless to say it looks great, but it also costed over 500 bones too.

 

Same! I've got a few on my hood already and a lot of road rash on the flares and a ton of missing paint on the underside of the doors. I just ordered some mud flaps for that reason, didn't even think about it since my last truck had them from the factory. But the hood is nothing I did unlike aggressive tires + gravel roads. One is right in front of the scoop and the other is on the front of the hood right above the grill. 100,000 miles on my Tundra and not a single one on the hood or sides, 10K on this guy and already two chips on the hood.

I also just had a large rock slam into my windshield on the way to work on the highway out of nowhere, lucky it didn't break the dang thing it hit so hard. Caught it on the dash cam and it's large enough to see flying though the air.

 

There have been some complaints on the board here that the paint on these third gen tacos is like an eggshell...brittle and thin. Have to say, so far, I have been lucky. No chips and no door dings -- knock on wood. I did however ding the tailgate already.

 

That Sucks

 

My first gen, clean as it is with less than 30k miles on it, has little rock chips all over the place from off-roading. The KO2's are great tires but jesus h christ do they ever pick up and chuck huge rocks. The first few minutes after getting on to the highway off of a trail are just "clink CLACK CLACK clink clink CLACK CLACK" until all the rocks are out of the tread.

Mostly it's all under the truck and hitting the frame, but occasionally they hit the body and I have to apply some touch-up paint. Make sure you do it right away if you live in a wet climate as the exposed metal can start to rust.

 

To me, using a place (often mobile) that specializes in small repairs might be best, if you can see some samples of their work. Same concept as the paintless dent removal guys. They come to you (and car lots) and do minor repairs. Some of them are pretty good. It's blending the metallic that's tricky, as well as blending the clearcoat.

If you want a show truck, that's the answer. It just became a $500 chip, and can happen again next week.

Unless you know and trust someone in a dealer body shop, I'd never take it there. Unless they are a big time - all brand prefered insurance carrier shop, chances are they'd sublet that work to a guy like I mentioned above.

You can do some careful touch up (read how on line) that will prevent rust. But if you are anal you'll see it everytime you look at the truck. Alternative is to get it out in the woods and use it as a truck. That chip will become fairly insignificant after a few trips.

I'm bad enough about my sports cars and some other models that I know it would frustrate me too. It's on my list of why I refuse to buy a new truck and why I refuse to buy a metallic/pearl colored truck............

 

People driving behind must love you

 

Hey, I've got mud flaps

 

Paints have had the reputation of being pretty soft/thin on most vehicles since around the mid 90's.

And I'm a fan of actually having bumpers in metal/chrome to reduce those lower panel damages on the nose. Another reason I enjoy my base black bumper. No color matched stuff to fret over!

Also a reason I have no desire for a tire/wheel package that extends outside the body. I can beat up the rockers enough with them in the wheel wells.

 

Also prefer metal/chrome bumpers. They look better on a truck IMO rather than a bunch of paint everywhere....makes it look plastic. However I will say if you have to have Fender Flares, best to not have them painted. One thing toyota made sense with on the TRD OR - flat black fender flares and no paint. Seen plenty of Sports driving around with painted fender flares all scratched to hell.

 

I would do OE black flares on my white base in a heartbeat. But I have a 5 lug, and I'm under the impression that they don't fit...........

 

I've been eyeing Dr. Colorchip for these exact reasons. I may put in an order for 'just in case'

http://www.drcolorchip.com/

 

I had mine less than a month before I got too close to a bush out in the desert and ran the branches all the way down the passenger side and on the plastic fender flares. Up close you can see the scratches. Not as bad as the chips though I see in here for sure.

The way I look at it is that it was going to happen sooner or later, unless you really baby the thing and don't use the truck as a truck.