Cost of New Complete Paint Job?

No where in that kit does it suggest it's enough material for 6 coats

I never negated the COST savings over traditional paint - but be fair about the cost comparison - if you have the ability to paint your car yourself you can do it for 500$ also and do it nicely. There is a significant amount of labor involved in dipping your car, hell there is a significant amount of labor involved in dipping your WHEELS if you do it properly - I would guess if you pay someone to do it for you, you're into it for thousands plus the material... The labor will be about 50% of the labor involved in a true paint since there should be no sanding involved, but to do it right you still need to remove door handles, lights, mirrors, bumpers...

This is an apples to oranges comparison, 500$ of dip is not much easier to deal with than 500$ worth of paint, other than the "you can't f' it up too badly" factor.

 

Why would you remove the lights/bumper? It just peels off lol...

Do you have any idea how much it takes to actually paint a car the normal way? You have to remove all the doors, remove the glass, then take off the interior panels, pop out the head lights, remove the bumpers all before you even think about starting to prep the panels. The prep work takes a shit load of time because there are multiple stages of sanding that have to be done or you get ugly ass pinholes and all kinds of other shit. Then you need to actually paint it. It will cost you a hell of a lot more than $500 for the paint too. Turning the booth on costs $50 alone.


I work in a body shop fixing paint imperfections from people who have been painting cars since before I was born so it will look like ass too.

Compare that to this.
http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=684511
Someone with no experience painting cars and it looks fantastic.


Clear Coat is usually only 1.5-2mm thick so your overestimating how much you need to do all the layers.

 

I'm trying not to give you the "deal with it" answer here, but most of us had a junker to some degree or another for our first car or 3 and we all wanted them to look good anyway. And most of us realized 5-10 years down the road that it just doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things. The amount of time and money it takes to make a beat up old (non-classic) vehicle look like a brand new one just isn't worth it, especially when you're just starting out and funds are short. Put that money somewhere useful. I just got a new truck after having old beaters my whole life and I must say it's pretty awesome. But I don't regret that I held off this long for one second.

Now, I'm not saying a 2007 Tacoma is a junker, far from it. But it's not and will never be a new car and the sooner you accept that the happier you'll be. Take good care of it, enjoy it for what it is, and it will take you far.

 

Pretty good answer for ya right there...

Like others though, I would suggest plasti-dip. I've been considering it because I'm not a huge fan of black as it shows every imperfection and I have quite a lot of them...

 

I feel you on the black truck with lot's of scratches.

I polish my truck up really nice, enjoy it for a week or two and then go off roading and ruin it all over again haha

 

I know, I know! I do the same. I just actually polished it up and it got hit by the sprinkler today. Love me some water spots

 

Those bickering over numbers for plastidip, I have actually priced it out. The truck kit is enough to do a full size truck. You could get a good 4-5 layers out of those dip your car kits. Once you have the kit with the sprayer, you could simply buy a gallon or two(relatively inexpensive) and do touchups or whatever. There are places around here that will dip your entire truck for $400, which is 5 layers. The dip really isn't that expensive, it's the gun to spray it. It's not the same stuff as the aerosol can; it's thinner, so it costs less.

You don't have to remove bumpers, headlights, or even door handles. Just spray over headlights and just peel it off...I would mask off trim, windows, grill, and wheels.

 

http://monstaliner.com/

DIY kits, guaranteed not to fade for 5 years, won't chip from small rocks like regular paint, and won't peel off like plastidip.