Repainting 1st Gen Tacoma

wrap it.

The neighbor of a friend of mine wrapped his leased Subi. It looks badass (flat gunmetal grey), and it protects the paint for when he turns it back in at the end of the lease.

 

i was just curious, I had to have my front passenger fender dent/scratch repaired from shopping area incident a decade ago. I have a very small piece of decal stripe that goes onto the front (maybe 2") they just taped over it as best they could instead of me buying a new set when only needed a couple inches

sounds like a cost-efficient way for a temp change!
does the wrap overlay the decals or have to cut around?

 

I'm sure you could do whatever you wanted but it would look really bad IMO if you cut around decals, especially if you had a different color.

It's better if you don't have decals to go over, as it would be a smoother finish. But repainting it you'd be taking the decals off anyway.

 

yes! and then the cost to get new ones and put them back on
I know some of the later 1st gens have the nice TRD decals on the back sides near the tail lights but not sure what is on the tailgates, some sort of plastic or metal badges?

 

oh yeah, for the badges you could probably cut those out and it would probably look "ok". Most of the wraps I see for businesses and stuff just wrap right over the badges. But if you repaint, those would come off too, anyway.

Plus, if your paint is in pretty bad condition, you'd probably want to do some prep work on the paint before you wrap it anyway for a smoother finish.

If you're really desperate to keep the TRD bed decals, you can get new ones and put them on over the wrap. There's a guy here iirc who does custom ones, don't remember who tho.

 

Probably just rattle can over it. Can't expect too much detail work for a $200 paint job, lol...

 

Where is Earl Scheib when you need him?

I'll paint any car for just $99.95. I remember seeing these commercials on WGN back in the 1970s.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Auvf7DDw5z0

 

What did this run you?

 

$999 for the basic paint job, but I had them do a couple other things that added to that. I had a large area on the driver’s side rear where the paint had broken and over the course of a few months had chipped/flaked away leaving the base primer. The were two places on the roof where the same thing was starting. If it was a farm truck, in might have enhanced its character, but for my purposes, it looked terrible. I went to a known and respected local body shop, they said since there was no panel damage, they recommended Maaco in a nearby town. I was actually a bit surprised, told them I’d like something better than Maaco, they said this one had a good reputation, they had referred in the past and gotten positive feedback. I checked online for reviews, they were all positive. So, as I didn’t want to spend thousands of dollars, I went to Maaco. Mileage may vary on their work from location to location, but I think they did a good job. In fairness, it’s only 3 months old, have to see what it looks like in a couple or five years. It has a 5 year guarantee, I tend to take good care of paint on my vehicles, I can hopefully extend that.

As I mentioned in my original post, unless specifically addressed in the estimate phase, Maaco will paint over imperfections. And any work over and above the basic paint costs more $. Had I a do-over, I’d had them sand out the few rock chips on the front of the hood. It is one of those things though where if you see them, you’re looking way to close, but I know they’re there. I’m sure a 3, 5, or 10 thousand $ job would have included the correction, wasn’t what I wanted, and I can live with it. It is a 17 year old daily driver, it needs a bit of character.

 

i know exactly what you mean! my black metallic looks better from afar, up close lots of surface scratches & have no clue where they come from, perhaps my finger nail scratched it
...have been told that "Maybe you just need to take better care of it..." and am planning on getting a good quality detail and buff, perhaps everything will disappear and look shiny again!

 

I'm gonna go get a quote possibly today if I can sneak out of work or this weekend.
Check how beat up my hood and roof is

 

Like someone said on the first page..

Wrapping is a lot cheaper. And you could do it yourself. Of course, part of the trade off is acute hypertension when you realize how stressful it really is... ask me how I know...

 

ok so I came back from Economy Paint & Collision
Their rate is
$295 Single stage urethane 1 year warranty
$495 single stage urethane 2 year warranty
$795 2 stage clear coat 3 year warranty
$ 1495 2 stage clear coat 10 year warranty
then you got to add
Labor and paint depending how beat up your paint/ body is. but just tack a 1k to get a gist.

 

My hood and roof is pretty similar to yours - not as deep on the front of the hood though.
You going to go with them?

 

Yeah I think I am gonna go with the clear package if I can get the price a little lower. I'll probably turn her in sometime this week. Now if I can only find my knee pads

 

Hey did you ever take your truck in for the paint?

I am planning on getting my truck repainted this next week and already have found a shop, but then I saw this thread... Any updates?

 

Sorry for the late response. Yeah I ended up taking it there. Dm me if you have any more questions

 

DM sent..

 

Nice! Where did you get it painted? Southern California?

 

My truck was super faded and the clear coat was coming off the top of the cab and hood before I had it repainted. Costed $2,000 @ Maaco. I wax it when needed and it came with a 3 year warranty.