Pillar vinyl tape/replacements/removal

Hello everyone! Been a while since I've been on. Wanted to ask what y'all are doing to the pillars between front and rear doors....mine is a 2019 and from the factory comes the blackout vinyl tape between the doors to make it look like one large window on each side.

I've noticed some folks removing this vinyl tape on you tube, but hear conflicting reports if the pillars are painted underneath or not, or if they are painted it is not clear coated.

My vinyl is pretty faded and scratched, time to either replace or remove so wondering what everyone was doing (options). Thank you much!

PS- sorry if there's a thread on this already, I couldn't find any info on it.

 

Im on my 2nd Tundra (2011 & 2016) and removed the tape from both.
Painted underneath on both. I assume its that way on the newer models as well.

 

Thank you! Yeah was thinking it was likely painted, but one comment was that the paint was unprotected with no clear coat. I just purchased some replacement vinyl on ebay for $15. We'll see how that goes.

 

Tundra9880, how did the replacement vinyl work out? Did it wrap around the door edges like the original or did it just sit on the outside? If it worked out well, would you mind sharing what vendor you purchased it from?

Thanks,
Ron

 

Hi Ron, I bought some cheap pre-cut vinyl tape from ebay (poor choice). Did one side and it not only looked nothing like factory, but looked like crap frankly. So I chose to get out the heat gun and remove it all. Just had the truck detailed this past Tuesday and it looks great! It is painted underneath. Hope this helps!

 

Looks great! Thanks, I appreciate your response.

 

Got rid of it on my 2018 and glad I did. Before and after:





Changed the wheels also (didn't like the original wheels).

Dan

 

That makes no sense. So Toyota would paint the entire truck, then clear coat the entire truck, except for that pillar?