First Blood....

First blood story on my '16 -

Minding my own business sipping a 'Horton's one fine evening, the parking lot is almost empty, and I'm not even close to the establishment's main doors. Older couple pulls in, and despite my almost inaudible warning of "don't fucking do it".. yep, they park right next to me. Literally every other spot is available. FFS!
Spidey sense starts tingling when I get a closer look at the heffer in the passenger seat. 250-300 all day long and a super nasty scowl. She opens the door a crack, and then I see it. She has her right hand on the top of the door frame for extra leverage. Oh shit.
Yep, as the overwhelming force is applied to that door, it moves out at a high rate of knots. THUNK.
I stared in disbelief and said aloud "Really?"
No acknowledgement, just the same nasty scowl, a door slam, and a slow waddle away from the scene. I look across the roof of the only other car in the lot, and there stands who I assume is the husband. Our eyes meet for a fraction of a second, then he looks down, closes his door, and slowly follows his beloved. I couldn't even stay mad. The guy looked defeated, kinda dead inside. He knew though, oh yeah he knew.

 

I feel there is an inverse trend in the width of people v. the width of parking ‘spaces’…

 

I think you're onto something. Around here the lines also seem to be a petty guideline for a lot of people.... Especially folks in full size trucks, the higher off the ground they are, the more likely the rules don't apply to them.

 

I’m glad it is not just me getting older… - It’s not, just in parking skills, door opening etiquette, honesty, and basic decency…

The degradation is rampant and steeply declining!

 

I understand completely as I'm the same as you. There is a difference in putting a snafu on an item for its actual intention. I can stand damaging my truck in the urban world for some reason and over react. However when I do damage it while off-roading, I'm the complete opposite and brush it off.

 

Just picked up new 2022 MGM Tacoma 13 miles on it, stop to pick up a loaf of bread with the wife, some wiggler pulls in hits just behind the front tire backs up and drives off. Kicker is call the police and they said are you sure you didn't hit something going off road.

 

My wife and I were mowing our property. She put the tailgate down to get something out. Well the trailer was still attached, and I went to move the truck. Turned that bitch around in the field and didn't notice it until I went to put the mower back on the trailer. I didn't know it was down, and really had forgotten how little clearance there is between the down tailgate and the trailer jack. Left a nice curve to the top of the tailgate...


That was on a Saturday. Then the following Monday morning driving to work, a truck threw a rather large rock into the corner of the windshield. Chased him down and got them to split the deductible with me on the replacement.


So yeah, lots of shit can happen in a few days that will leave a mark. Some replaceable...some not so much.

 

My first was some light pinstripes, then they just kept coming….now she’s “well loved”

 

OOF!

Beautiful color though

 

Self inflicted - doesn't count

 

One vehicle that crowds the line or parks over just crams every other vehicle in that line when everyone else parks.

 

Was standing in the rear of my bed, leaning over to wash the front roof of the cab. Unbeknownst to me, my belt buckle was gouging the left rear back window That little "V" in the glass:

 

Picked mine up at my previous work (A TOYOTA DEALER). Parked it in employee parking. It had 1km on it. Hadn’t driven it besides to the gas station and back (and off the transporter). A construction crew was unloading and proceeded to slam a ladder into the tailgate, taking it right down to bare metal in a 2 inch by 2 inch square. Never fixed it. I got over it quickly.

 

There was a tiny scratch the dealer left on it the day I picked it up. I decided it wasn't worth the time to complain and buffed it myself.

First real blood was when I pinstriped it somewhere over Crested Butte. It took me a full weekend of buffing when I got back, then a ceramic coat the weekend after.





The last blood happened on the most recent camping trip: tree branch fell, knocked out the right mirror glass, I found the mirror body cover half buried in mud but otherwise intact.



So I guess I'm replacing it with a set of Spotter mirrors next week.


But that's how I do whenever blood is drawn - replace it with aftermarket. It's not enough to rebuild with OEM. It will be better, stronger, faster

 

Unfixed door dent here then there, handful or two small hardly noticeable scratches, broken trim piece, another small fender bender, couple sprawls in windshield, spilled drinks inside cab, broken console latch... To each their own... I have worked too hard for what I own and refuse to allow all the smalls add up to the point I don't care anymore.

 

Offered to drive the new truck on a hunting trip shortly after getting it. A few of the younger guys in camp wanted to run to town for something, and I begrudgingly handed them the keys since it kind of comes with the territory when you only have a few vehicles with. Comes back with a nice ding right in the middle of the driver's door that I didn't notice until the next day when I caught it in the right light. Still hurts (only slightly) because I see it everyday when I get in it. It gets (mildly) easier after the first one.

Since then it's been mostly self induced while wheeling, namely a few rear bumper corner caps, pinstriping, etc. Also have had one run-in with a deer, and a nice hole in the middle of my passenger seat when a buddy's cigarette cherry decided to blow into my truck while he was standing outside smoking and talking to me with the passenger window down. That one hurts because it's the first thing my passengers see when they get in. Another few dents from some hail damage, made the mistake of having the shop fixing my bumper from the deer incident have their PDR guy pull the only really annoying one on my hood in my sightline, without getting a quote first. That was a $350 mistake.

I don't remember if I've had any ~2 year stretches of somewhat consistent (and annoying) minor damage to any vehicle prior, but they were also all 20+ years old with 100k+ miles. The shine of "new" definitely wears off fast.

 

Anything from the cab back doesn’t count. It’s a truck.

 

I haven't even put 600 miles on my new Limited and I already scratched the crap out of the bed by hauling a bunch of stones in it.
Thankfully a can of Herculiner later and I can't even tell that I scratched it up aside from one scratch that went through the plastic part of the tailgate.

 

Buy a Tacoma TRD Sport because I'm never ever gonna lift it or take it off-roading. Get it ceramic coated, get Predator Steps, get an apartment with covered parking, park away from everybody at work, it's sitting pretty.

Nine months later, get talked into going on an off-road trip. "Don't worry, this trail is wide enough to where you won't get pinstripes if you're careful." That part was true but... Smoked the Predator steps on the rocks. Owwww, ow ow ow. I was known as Nerf bar steps that whole weekend lol