weak roof, hood?

so ive noticed the roof and hood on my truck seems "not so rigid". i was doing a full detail today, and just the slightest amount of pressure applying and removing wax made the roof panel start to cave in, it was hit by a basketball(looks that way) when the previous owner had it, which resulted in a nice size dent thats not noticeable unless your in the bed looking at the middle of roof, but the two panels just seem very flimsy. as far as i know the hood is oem..so has anyone else noticed this? i can see the hood kinda "buffeting" in the wind at 55 or faster. it wouldnt take much of a hit at all to dent it to hell and back! is this normal of the 05 and 2nd gen in general?

 

is there a way to cheaply and effectively reinforce these? im a welder/fabricator so i have access to steel and welding equipment ..just dont think i should have to go that route.

 

At the automatic car wash, I was going through the high speed blower at the end, and it blows full force, right on the center of the vehicle. I was creeping until I got to the center of the hood, and had to gas it when I saw it made the hood U-shaped. It popped right back out, but I still wont go back to that automatic wash.

I think they are just that flimsy, nothing really to worry about.

 

Yeah you can see the hood flexing when you are driving at highway speed. They use thin sheet metal on these things. Even my 99 Tacoma did it.

 

I dunno about you guys trucks, but my hood seems pretty damn sturdy. But IIRC my roof does kinda have a "tin can" feel to it.

 

Beats me. My truck has no noise or shaking at highway speed or under a blower.

 

I was wondering when somebody would bring this up. I put a dent in my roof duing one of my first washings, fortunately, I was able to pull it out with a suction type dent puller. That was my first experiance with a three piece cab. There is a good reason they made it that way, - to cut corners and save money by using a thinner sheet metal on the center section. That is why they don't offer a sunroof and don't recomend you install one. You won't see that B/S on a "old school" Toyota.

 

It's probably done to cut weight. You can thank the gubmint.

 

No more doing this,

 

I'm not to worried about my roof. In the near future, imma convertible chop my cab making it more jeep like. Caging the whole mother furher. Toyota and other manufactures are trying to make vehicles that are throw aways, not meant to be kept forever. If your worried about, do an exo.

 

Almost every vehicle made today is made with thin sheet metal. It's not a Toyota exclusive. That said... I personally wouldn't try to reinforce it (hood especially) since it has built in crumple zones if that's what you were referring to bracing. The outcome in a front end collision might not be desirable.

 

You would have to repaint your hood and/or roof if you tried to weld on any sort of reinforcement.

The Government has no control over how Toyota decides to engineer their vehicles to meet CAFE standards as long as all vehicles meet current safety standards.

 

good point on the crumple zones! ill just keep a plunger in the storage compartment under rear seat

 

This

 

x2 I would not have thought about that, good point