Land Shark
SILVER Star
So I jump in the 100 after it sitting a few days and I find this what looks to be burnt marks on my seat and center console lid. Weird! Did the sun get magnified somehow and create this? Scratching head for sure
Weird leather issue (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Land Shark
- Start date
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Looks like heat damage so concentrated sun light plus time may explain it. If this is sun damage then you should be able to figure out the direction the sun was moving and see variance in angle/strength over time. Perhaps there were focused dots that moved over time causing those stripes?
Could you park in the same place during the middle of the day, or whenever this may have happened, to see if you can figure this out? I assume it was somewhere in the 10 am to 4 pm range roughly when the sun would be stronger and higher in the sky.
Could you park in the same place during the middle of the day, or whenever this may have happened, to see if you can figure this out? I assume it was somewhere in the 10 am to 4 pm range roughly when the sun would be stronger and higher in the sky.
THIS! Focused sunlight caused this damage. Are there any defects in the windshield to act as a convex lens?
Trunk Monkey
Moderator
Looks more like something hot got laid across it than sunlight, pretty even impressions.
Land Shark
SILVER Star
- Thread starter
- #6
At first I thought the same thing as TM but it was over the course of several days not even opening the truck up. No one but me drives it and no one else has anything to do with it. I am with @jpoole on this one. it was a Cali truck most of its life so it has some really good tint. I have recently put a windshield shade in the front to see if that helps. Very weird for sure. I have owned lots of vehicles with leather and never have I seen this. its a shame because the front leather was in decent shape for a 22 year old truck.
hoser
SILVER Star
The areas that are burned do not appear to be leather.
Couvi
SILVER Star
Looks like weld beads which would make me think that there was a single, focused light that slowly moved across with the sun. Crazy!
Was the car facing north-west when it was parked? Looks like it started burning the seat first and then moved across. Any buildings with mirror-like windows near this parking area?
That's just bizarre...was your truck locked? I don't see how that could happen without someone purposely doing it. 
Land Shark
SILVER Star
- Thread starter
- #11
Was parked facing east in driveway just beside the house. over the weekend maybe I can recon during the day to see what if any "beams' of light strike that area
Land Shark
SILVER Star
- Thread starter
- #12
yes trucked locked. totally bizarreThat's just bizarre...was your truck locked? I don't see how that could happen without someone purposely doing it.
Land Shark
SILVER Star
- Thread starter
- #13
as far as I know these are original to the cruiser. so seats should be leather , no? center console top hmmm?
hoser
SILVER Star
Mine is an LX so I can’t compare but the center console in mine is smooth. But in both LC/LX, I think the center console and lower side bolsters are not leather (plus other parts) but I have never taken my seats apart. So, not 100% which sections are vinyl.
This is a mystery! If the Sun move from front of the vehicle to rear, then the burnt marks should go parallel to the length of the vehicle.
If this damage is indeed from concentrated sunlight I imagine that reflection was involved and that reflection on one/more surfaces could explain the possibly inverse direction of the burns and sun's travel.
For instance if the sun were to hit the drivers rearview mirror later in the day then it could feasibly be concentrated by the mirror and/or the drivers door window, thus burning the seat/armrest. That reflected/concentrated light would travel in the direction that the burns indicate as the sun dropped lower in the sky. Additionally these tracks could have been made over multiple days with the sun in slightly different positions in the sky as the sun migrates across the sky (from S. to N. this time of year).
A lot of speculation in the above scenario but it seems like it's possible, though pretty unlikely. My assumption is that if concentrated sunlight made these burn marks that the explanation for how it happened may be more complicated than what I wrote above, or maybe even much more simple once some testing/observation is done.
A few more questions:
- was the sunroof's sunshade open?
- seems like sunlight passing through the sunroof and then reflecting off of the rearview is another possible scenario similar to the drivers door mirror above.
- is there any obvious shading of the parking location that would help narrow in on the time of day this occurred?
Trunk Monkey
Moderator
Marks are too uniform for like magnifying glass heat burns, you had to have laid something across that in the past and just haven't noticed it until now.
theres no way someone wouldnt notice that, it would have been actually smoking, and there isnt a staight line for something flat to do that, it conforms to the curves
definitely sun reflections,
you should setup some solar panels!
