A.R.E. BullS#!%?

so i purchased an A.R.E. cap for my tacoma and 15 days later get a call from my dealer saying i need to stop by and have the "gas door" removed and sent to A.R.E. to have the paint matched because A.R.E. says there are 10 shades that match my particular paint code.
when i got to the dealer they told me they would have to "drill out the rivets" to remove the "gas door" ...WTF???
is this a bunch of non-sense or has anyone had this same issue with A.R.E.?
this just sounds like crazy talk to me?

 

What color? I recently ordered an ARE tonneau "lid" through a local dealer and all that was required was the paint code. The ordering system correctly identified the code as "Inferno".

 

Many stories of this. One genius solution was to ask for paint sample cards for a proper match vs invasively dismantling your truck. Still better than giving them your drivers door I suppose.

 

You aren't the first person to bring this up. They are trying to get the best possible paint match but going about it absolutely the wrong way. I'd buy from another vendor before I let anyone pop the rivets on my fuel door.

 

The paint code is for one color only!

 

Let them contact Toyota instead of using your truck as a guinea pig.

 

Um, they didn't need that from me at all.

 

Try PMing @areaccessories

 

Got the paint code from the door of mine. What color is your truck???

 

If you've ever needed repairs done at a body shop they have a handful of colors that go to each paint code. It is to allow for fading and manufacturing differences. A vehicle painted at one factory won't necessarily be exactly the same as another and a vehicle in the California sun for a year won't be exactly the same as one that spent a year in Alaska.

For example, for my 3P1 Impulse red truck the body shop had colors ranging from very orangey to very pink. All looked pretty much the same until you held them next to each other in the sun.

All that being said I wouldn't let them drill out the rivets on my brand new truck.

 

Painting the cap to the basic factory code will be fine and you will not be able to tell the difference if there is one. It's not as if they have to blend a panel or match some amount of age/fade. It's a brand new truck. The separation in cap/seams etc. will make it impossible to see any difference unless they screw up the mix.

 

the color according to my window sticker is: "silver sky metallic/graphite w (01DD6/15)". when i drove the 50 miles from work to the dealer he was on the phone with someone else telling them them the exact same thing he told me about my paint code, "they would need to remove the gas door, send it overnite to A.R.E. because there are 10 different shades that match that paint code and they will not offer a warranty if we did not send it in"?(sounds like a script?)
they have the paint code, paint name and vin number for the vehicle, which is just two weeks old. according to toyota, they have never heard of such a problem. A.R.E.now wants me to run around and find an auto body shop that can scan the body for the exact recipe of my paint ... boy did i screw up going with these guys

 

If every potential ARE customer with that paint code has the same issue, then of course - it's a script. Nothing shady about telling the different people the same story.

Sounds ridiculous though, I'd go with another brand. Your dealership seems fine, no reason not to see what else they can get you into.

 

well after speaking with 4 different auto body shops, i should say reputable shops too. the consensus was, that it is not that ridiculous of a request. all four of these shops thought the best way to get a match was to send in the gas door for a perfect match and yes they would do it if in my situation!
all these shops would need to "match the paint to the actual vehicle even with the factory paint code" and especially it being a metallic paint.
so lesson learned here ... so what the heck do i know? a lot more than i did yesterday that's for sure
so it goes, i'll have the door removed and sent out to A.R.E. for a perfect match.
thanks for the input
m

 

Yes and no.. but good luck!

Hope you're happy in the end.

 

my only hope is to be happy in the end! drilling two rivets ain't rocket science, i've done that a hundred times! getting my door back "undamaged" then reinstalled as factory is more of a concern for me
i still have this evening to ponder the issue, drink a few beers to possibly convince me i'm doing the right thing, then decide for sure tomorrow morning if i'm thoroughly out of my mind to do this

 

Interesting. I wonder what part they want from a Ford truck. No fuel cap there.

 

Hi everyone! As indicated above, we normally do not need the gas door for our paint matching capabilities. However, there are certain paint codes (this is not just a Toyota thing, it happens with every truck manufacturer) where there can be extreme variances in the shade. Using the gas door as a scanning point gives us our very best shot at matching the paint as closely as possible. We wish more than any of you we could input the code and spray out the exact color, but that is not the case all the time.

We understand it is a huge inconvenience to remove the gas door (even before the riveting started), but we think that doesn't come close to the inconvenience of having a cap or tonneau cover that doesn't match the truck.

Feel free to ask any other questions regarding this process, I'd be glad to answer.

Andy
A.R.E.

 

Thanks for chiming in.

 

Just got my V series put on today and I sure hope I don't run into any problems like that...