Tailgate paint chipping?

Yeah still not sure how any stones are hitting it and causing it. I have found a few other owners who seem to be having this same problem, paint seemingly randomly chipping off and only one one panel and not the whole vehicle. Not all tailgates.

 

So dirty "brushes" at an auto wash? Seems plausible to me. If I ever go to an auto wash, I do touchless

 

So it seems like the Tundra paint job is just, almost, universally thin. Might depend on the color, but some of the 'fancier' colors, all seem to have reports of chipping much easier than expected, or scratching or peeling. My Tacoma certainly went through way worse conditions and never chipped. It had its share of scratches but all from things you'd really expect to damage your paint.

I've never had a vehicle repainted and I realize the cost can vary quite a lot. Does anyone have a best guess on what a high quality paint job would cost across all panels of the vehicle? At this point I have chips on all panels except maybe the roof. And this is from 95% high way driving, not gravel farm road uses.

 

I agree the paint may be thin. Mine is chipping along the driver side. I have friends with tundras of different years who use the same car wash without issue.

 

Yup. Every dealer and detailer that has seen it has been convinced it was faulty paint. But I have no way to prove it and there have been no recalls. So. It I what it is. Maybe one day I’ll get a whole new paint job

 

Years ago I got Chevy to repaint my black truck due to "crows feet" on the hood and the roof. If you take it to a Toyota dealer, make sure that it is one with a body shop. I drove 40 minutes out of my way to go to a Chevy dealer with a body shop but the service manager was able to spot paint defects since he dealt with them regularly.

 

I have several on my tailgate as well. I'm thinking it's probably from pulling a trailer on a gravel road and having the rocks bouncing off the trailer and it it. When I had my Tacoma, I actually had a rock that bounced off of a big barbeque grill I was pulling and shatter my back window.

 

I've had something similar happen on a past vehicle that I only washed by driving through a "touchless" high pressure wash for over a year consistently. Eventually I was able to correlate the paint chipping to the continued high pressure wash. I'm sure Subaru's lousy paint played into the issue as well. Learned my lesson and only hand wash now. Just a thought.