3rd gen door panel scratches

Anyone else experiencing scratches on door panels? Light use, no abuse...any fixes?

 

yep, the interior plastics are all very scratchable. be careful cleaning your instrument panel, too

 

"made in China" melamine infused? chalky look'n abrasions on the verticle part of the panel. Maybe some protectant would be helpful

 

Yep, same here. 303 spray seems to hide them pretty well.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...p/B00KN0UOEE&usg=AOvVaw2cNp1uSd12EP0N_t97qeO0

 

It's a truck. Don't want cuts and bruises? Ridgeline might be something suited for you.

 

Why does owning a truck automatically disqualify you from wanting to keep it nice? I constantly see people say "its a truck, its supposed to be beat up and shitty looking" If you own a van are automatically supposed to have "cheese its" and "cheerios" all over the floor?.

When you go to buy a old truck, which one is worth more... the one covered in dents and a interior that looks like a raccoon lived in there or a clean dent free truck with little to no damage in the inside?

 

Don’t even worry about. Just don’t look at

 

The truck was designed to be beat up. Theres no leather in most options because most people use a truck for work. They put cheap plastic panels in so you don’t have a gaping hole with wires plunging out of your door. Ridgeline and other model trucks support luxury features because their demographic is family or older people. Tacoma is a truck, not a luxury vehicle.

 

Just did a quick search. Looks like you can get a few products that will restore it to black, but as far as scratch resistance, not sure how well they hold up overtime as I haven't use them personally. Only ones I have experience with are Mothers Back to Black used on outside trim pieces. As noted by others, these plastics....

especially this, are prone to scatches, so it's hard to avoid

 

Thanks crippled, haven't tried back to black yet

 

WTF are you talking about, the model designed for heavy offroading only comes with leather...
The SR and SR5 are designed more as work trucks, the offroad, sport, limited and pro are not. The tacoma is a utility vehicle because it has a bed, thats about where it ends. Its too small to haul a heavy trailer, the bed size is too small for most work applications. Its a weekend home project truck at best.

Work trucks died when single cabs died

 

Understandable. Still don't see how this supports not wanting to keep it nice for as long as possible, even if just for yourself

 

I'm having similar issues with mine, but in different locations. My pops has some lying around so i'll probably test it out next time i'm over there

 

But the point is it's a truck designed for work. Plastic door panels are if anything cheaper to replace than leather or textured rubber etc. When you buy the truck, you should already know what the interior is like before taking it home. SR and SR5 just have more plastic but it's the same truck. As I mentioned previously, yes, some models come with leather options. But think about the marketing aspect. You limit your demographics if you don't add leather, a media player, tweeters and adaptive cruise. The fact is, it's a truck.

 

Yea, Right.
Those who beat up their trucks most likely beat up everything else they own as well.

Here's a 96 with 414,000 hard trouble-free miles on it. It's first 100,000 miles or so was used as a auto parts delivery and driven daily mostly by teens.
Anyone can keep a truck nice if they choose too and aren't lazy.

 

Just because you don't use your truck for work, doesn't take away from it's purposeful design.

EDIT: Some people also work in rugged conditions. I wouldn't think auto parts delivery would have anything to do with the inside of your truck.

 

Yes, the hard plastic interior panels and components are fairly delicate in the Gen-3s. Keeping fingernails trimmed helps as seem to be the source of most door panel scratches.

 

Yes, anyone can keep a truck nice, but saying "its a truck, it should be damaged" contradicts keeping it nice. Something cant be both damaged and nice at the same time.

 

That thing is absolutely beautiful!

 

"It's should be" and "designed to be" are completely different things. You can keep your truck nice, but that's on you. If you scratch something that was designed cheap because they didn't want you tearing something in the door on the worksite, that's on you. As I said, its cheaper to replace plastic door trim than to replace one with built in luxury. Why would you want fancy upholstery if your going to lay cement all day.