Xtracab Whole Body Respray

The clear coat on a lot of my Tacoma is peeling off, mostly the roof and the hood. It's been sitting outside for the last 18 years. How hard would be respraying the whole thing from scratch at home? I've been looking at plans for a paint booth made from PVC piping and plastic sheeting.
I was going to paint it the same color (black), still has a lot of life left in it. My '98 only has around 75,000 miles! I'm pretty sure bringing it to Maaco would make it even worse than it is.

 

Well, I didn't color match mine, but I did paint it- with spray paint. No tent, just tape and newspaper, in the street in front of my house. Taping took most of the time, the rest was fairly simple. Light, even coats. Multiple coats are desirable. I kinda feathered the spraying motions, instead of one continuous spray, like I've seen some people do. Would definitely strip the clear coat off completely first. I didn't take all of it off, only the loose stuff, and that was a mistake. I painted my truck well, but when the old clear coat started popping through (I had the same issue as you) it messed up my good looking paint job. I know I did mine differently, but some of the same things will apply, so if you have any questions, feel free to ask me.

 

Haha oh my gosh this is incredible. I would want to change the color, but I'm not as ambitious to remove the engine to paint the engine bay and having that minuscule amount of original color would bother me forever.

Is it matte? It looks sort of like you Plastidipped it. I'm trying to achieve as close to the glossy factory paint job as possible.

 

If you have the money and want a DECENT paint job, I'd suggest going to Maaco over trying to perform the work yourself. Although Maaco isn't known for their best quality paint work, they get the job done for a reasonable price. Considering your truck is a '98, there isn't much you can lose here if you're matching new with old paint. They may not match it 100%, but it'll be better than taking on the task yourself. That's just my $0.02

 

I'm REALLY debating on going to Macco, but I keep hearing these horror stories about them completely messing up the finish. If bringing it to Macco would produce a better end result than doing it myself, I wouldn't mind doing it.

 

I understand what you mean man. It's the risk you take by going to a lower end body shop. If the paint is already fading, you can't really get much worse unless they dont prep the surface before spraying. Go talk to them and see what all they do in terms of craftsmanship. Ask them what all they do to prep the surface. Least that way the understand that you know a little about paintwork and know what to look for when they're finished.

 

It is matte paint. Matte clearcoat on it too, but it was not yet applied in these pics. I would advise you not to use rattle can clear coat, though. I didn't it to mine, and it's already bubbling and turning white in spots. So now I have to sand down and repaint, because I can't leave it looking like it does. Zero plastidip on the truck, not that I'm opposed to plastidip for certain things.

 

I was thinking of sanding the whole thing myself down the bare metal (there's a couple of dents and scratches) and then bringing it to a paint shop -- would that knock down the price a little?

 

It depends really. Some body shops like doing all the work themselves so they know it's done right. Other shops could care less if it's already sanded down. I'm not sure if Maaco has a warranty period on their work. If they do, sanding it yourself could effect that.

 

Nooooo, don't do that. It would exponentially increase the bill because they would have to sand the bare metal again, seal it, prime it, sand it, prime it, sand it etc just to get back to being able to paint it. 90% of a good paint job and the labor is in the preparation. If you have a black truck with clear coat you could switch to a single stage paint like the newer trucks ( non metallic colors ). Single stage is less expensive, more durable, you can color sand and buff it to a show car finish easily and you can buff out scratches easier as well. Ultimately you get what you pay for and those places like Maaco are risky...